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Jess Elmquist, chief people officer at Dutch Bros Coffee, recently summed up the moment: “In the 30 years I’ve been leading talent, this is the most disruption and change I’ve ever seen.”
For leaders navigating 2026, this isn’t a temporary condition to wait out. It’s the new operating environment.
The contrast we’re seeing in the field is striking. One day a senior executive at a Fortune 50 manufacturer tells us, “We’re in absolute crisis mode right now.” The same day, we sit in on a town hall with another business unit president celebrating a record year while pushing her team to adapt even faster. The question every leader has to answer: Which team are you leading?
Each year at Lone Rock Leadership, we publish “The Leadership Reality Report,” drawing on our work with more than 180 organizations and 28,000 leaders. This year’s report identifies three realities defining the environment and four priorities separating leaders who thrive from those whose value is plummeting.
3 Realities
Volatility is the new normal.
Nearly half of CEOs say their company won’t be economically viable in 10 years on its current path. Today’s volatility isn’t cyclical, it’s structural, driven by technological acceleration, geopolitical fragmentation and economic policy uncertainty. Leaders who pause major decisions until “things settle down” are choosing to cede ground to competitors who move despite uncertainty.
Versatility is non-negotiable.
According to the World Economic Forum, the skills required for jobs have shifted 25% since 2015 and are expected to change 65% by 2030 due to AI alone. The expertise that earned someone their current role won’t be enough to succeed in it. Learning must become a continuous discipline, not a phase of a career.
Ambiguity provides less visibility.
Per EY’s 2025 CEO Survey, 57% of CEOs expect today’s geopolitical and economic uncertainty to last well beyond a year. Traditional planning assumed leaders could analyze the environment, identify the optimal path, and execute. That model breaks down when conditions shift faster than planning cycles can accommodate.
4 Priorities
Our data reveals four capabilities separating leaders who navigate this environment from those falling behind.
Adaptive Velocity – Companies that reinvent well achieve a 71% performance premium. Adaptive Velocity isn’t about adapting to change; it’s about driving it. Flexibility paired with urgency. As Lowe’s CEO Marvin Ellison puts it, “The pace of change has never been faster, and it’s only going to accelerate from here.” In a volatile world, latency is fatal.
Relationship Fluency – In a world consumed by AI, leaders who thrive will be fluent in something no machine can replicate: relationships. Sixty-one percent of employees working under empathetic leaders report being more innovative, and 76% report greater engagement. Relationship fluency isn’t a soft skill. It’s a performance multiplier.
Networked Influence – Job postings requiring cross-functional orchestration have increased 44% year-on-year. The premium is on leaders who can see across boundaries and orchestrate value across networks of teams, functions and partners. Organizations with aligned leadership teams are nearly twice as likely to outperform peers financially.
Focused Execution – Meetings have tripled since 2020, and 40% of AI-generated work requires significant rework. Focused execution is the discipline of saying no to good ideas so great ideas get the resources they need. As P&G CEO Jon Moeller models it: “Everything else is just noise.”
1 Imperative
The era of generalized soft skill training is over. The four competencies above are best developed through training that embodies them: agile, urgent, connected and tied directly to business outcomes. HR and L&D leaders who cling to legacy approaches are justified in their anxiety. Those who adapt and mobilize feel something different – energized.
The realities aren’t going away, and the priorities aren’t optional. The leaders who win in 2026 will be the ones who stop waiting for clarity and start building the capabilities that produce it. Meet the moment, or be left behind.
Get the Full Report
Visit lonerock.io to download “The 2026 Leadership Reality Report” and discover how your team can build the four competencies that will define winning organizations.
