Tracing the leadership path of 2026

At the start of this year the HSJ published an article about the NHS leadership turnover in 2025. One in four provider trusts saw a change in CEO during 2025. Let that sink in for a moment. A quarter of NHS organisations lost their most senior leader in a single year. There’s a reader comment in the article that stopped me in my tracks: “In an NHS that is struggling with quality and capacity everywhere, the perceived need for a leader to fall on their sword increases.” It’s the word ‘perceived’ that haunts me. The perception that leaders can’t fail. The perception that leaders can’t be vulnerable. The perception that leadership is a lonely place. The perception that a change in leadership is the change that is needed. Could it be true that the leadership path we are tracing is one that sets an unattainable standard of personal sacrifice?

On the 28 Jan, I will be joining Andy Knox and Sheila Stenson to unpack the kind of leadership that moves us from surviving to thriving. Is this the kind of leadership culture we want? Is this the kind of leadership mindset that breeds success? Is this really change that works? You would be welcome to join the conversation too. 

I’ve worked with leaders across the NHS for many years now. I’ve sat with brilliant, capable, deeply committed people who are carrying impossible loads. And increasingly, I’m watching them leave – not because they lack skill or dedication, but because the conditions they’re being asked to lead within are fundamentally broken. They are being asked to prioritise partnership, yet their time is crowded with standards, checks and targets. They are being asked to innovate, yet tolerance for risk is at rock bottom. They are being asked to deliver a ‘left shift’, yet the pressures facing acutes are at an all time high. The cognitive dissonance between the desired outcome and the present reality is startling. The leadership path that has been traced is yet again one of unattainable, personal sacrifice. No wonder the rate of leadership change is at an all time high.

What if in 2026 we could trace a new path. At Kaleidoscope, our TRACE model for high-performing leadership identifies five conditions that leaders need to create to enable others to thrive: Task, Route, Alignment, Capability, and Energy. What would happen if in 2026 there were enough leaders who stepped up and traced a new path, one which prioritised connection, collaboration and kindness. What would happen if in 2026, enough leaders rejected the concept of infallible leadership and embraced learning from failure, leading alongside others, and staying the course together. That is not to say the challenges we face will get smaller, but maybe a new path would enable our response to get bigger.

As leaders we hold more power than we think. We shape the culture more than we know. And our role modelling is more pervasive than we could imagine. In 2026 we could choose to reset the task, route, alignment, capability and energy of our systems, through a deliberate and consistent change in mindset. I can’t shake the idea that maybe we could trace a better and more human path.

Focusing on the task of learning and progress before ‘holding to account’.

Seeking a route that can be iterated and responsive rather than set in stone.

Prioritising alignment and vulnerability between organisations, teams and leaders instead of leading from a place of loneliness and isolation. 

Celebrating opportunities to learn from others, in turn building personal and collective capability. 

Choosing to draw energy from the process of leaning into the challenges together, rather than the mythical ‘point of completion’ that we can sometimes chase after. 

Let’s be honest, it is not an easy thing we are doing here. The challenges are not getting any smaller. We need great leaders to step up, lean in and drive the changes our health and care system needs. But our unwritten, outdated perception of what that leadership looks like must radically change in 2026. The cost of leadership churn is too great on individuals, organisations and ultimately patients. Leadership churn does not transform our health system, it destabilises it. I wholeheartedly believe that whilst we hold the belief that it is the job of a leader to ‘fall on their sword’ we will only ever trace the same path we have been walking for years.

What would happen if this year we could trace a new path for our teams and organisations. Keeping our standards high, maybe even raising the bar a little more, but leading in a way that keeps the task relational and the path clear. What if our ultimate victory was sticking together, learning and growing, and consistent kindness. Maybe if we achieve this, we might also tick off some of our targets and deliverables along the way. Would this more human kind of leadership move us away from the ‘fall on your sword’ leadership