Five Signals That Work Will Look Different In 2026

With some shifts already underway, these five signs are having a positive and quiet reshaping of leadership, productivity, and performance in 2026.

As the saying goes, the only constant is change and the world of work in the IT channel is no different. Not because of one big announcement or AI innovation, or SaaS tool, but because the way people experience work has limited sustainability.

The signals are already here: small changes in generational behaviors, different expectations from employees combined with new pressure son leaders. A quiet tension between old norms and new advances in work deliverables.

By 2026, just a few weeks away, these signals may no longer feel optional. They will begin to define how work actually gets accomplished. Here are five change indicators leaders should be watching now.

Rest Will Be Treated As A Performance Input

This shift is already supported by engagement and fatigue data. Gallup reports that only 31 percent of U.S. employees were engaged in 2024, the lowest level in a decade, with disengagement strongly linked to burnout and exhaustion. When people are depleted, decision quality and performance decline, increasing organizational risk.

Harvard Business Review has also documented that cognitive fatigue reduces accuracy, judgment, and strategic thinking, particularly in high-pressure roles, making rest a performance safeguard rather than a wellness perk.

Leaders Will Be Expected To Design Work, Not Just Assign It

Research shows that poor work design, not lack of effort, is a major productivity drag. MIT Sloan Management Review has found that unnecessary tasks, unclear priorities, and excessive coordination work significantly reduce productivity, even among high-performing teams. Leaders who fail to design work intentionally create friction rather than momentum.

Gartner’s future-of-work research reinforces this, noting that leaders are increasingly evaluated on their ability to structure work in ways that balance capacity, clarity, and outcomes.

Productivity Will Be Measured By Outcomes, Not Activity

Activity-based productivity metrics are losing credibility.

Microsoft’s 2024 Work Trend Index found that employees spend more time in meetings, emails, and collaboration tools than ever before, yet many reports feel less productive and less focused on meaningful work.

Harvard Business Review has also shown that organizations that prioritize outcomes over visible busyness make better decisions and sustain performance longer than those that reward constant availability.

Psychological Safety Will Become A Business Expectation

The link between safety and performance is well established.

Google’s Project Aristotle identified psychological safety as the single most important factor in high-performing teams, outweighing seniority, structure, or individual talent. Teams that feel safe surface issues earlier and adapt faster.

Research led by Harvard professor Amy Edmondson further confirms that psychological safety improves learning, error reporting, and innovation, all critical to speed and accuracy in modern organizations.

Leaders Will Be Evaluated On Sustainability, Not Just Results

Leadership behavior increasingly defines organizational stability.

Gallup consistently finds that managers account for approximately 70 percent of the variance in employee engagement, meaning leadership practices directly influence retention, trust, and long-term performance.

McKinsey research on organizational health shows that companies with leaders who balance results with sustainability outperform peers over time, particularly during periods of rapid change.

Why This Matters

None of these indicators rely on speculation. Each is grounded in well-established research across engagement, productivity, leadership, and organizational performance.

Taken together, the data supports one clear conclusion.

The future of work is not about doing more. It is about designing systems that last into 2026 and beyond.

The Inclusive Leadership Newsletter is a must-read for news, tips, and strategies focused on advancing successful diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in technology and across the IT channel. Subscribe today!

Photo by BoliviaInteligente on Unsplash