Effective leadership in 2026 will require one great element: courage. That's where my CLARITY model starts and where most of us stall. As I say in my Keynotes, we need the ' Courage to Challeng e' our aims, methods, processes, goals, our people, our stakeholders and, most importantly, ourselves. Because leaders who don't have the courage to challenge themselves and invite challenge from others will continue in a downward spiral of their own limiting assumptions and beliefs. Y

We often say culture starts at the top. But it’s middle managers who carry it, bend it and, more often than we admit, bear the weight when it breaks. These leaders are the bridge between strategy and daily reality. They translate vision into action, hold the emotional tone of an organisation, and influence the climate where performance either thrives—or slowly deteriorates.