By: Shefali Lohia In hindsight, 2025 may be remembered as the year talent strategy stopped being theoretical. Artificial intelligence moved from experimentation to expectation. Employee confidence wavered, but didn’t collapse. Managers were asked to lead through ambiguity with little precedent. And HR teams were pushed to connect the dots between technology, culture, and performance faster than ever before. At PI, we had a unique vantage point into how organizations navigated that complexity. In 2025, we surveyed hundreds of HR and business leaders, listened to employees grappling with AI’s impact on their roles, and observed how thousands of organizations used PI to define jobs, develop managers, and make talent decisions in real time. What emerged weren’t just trends, they were signals. Signals that reveal how talent strategy is evolving beneath the surface, and what organizations will need to prioritize in 2026 to turn workforce complexity into a competitive advantage. Signal #1: Capability is replacing reassurance as the currency of trust For much of the past few years, employee conversations around technology have centered on fear, fear of displacement, fear of obsolescence, fear of being left behind. But in 2025, the data revealed a meaningful shift. Across our HR Playbook for the AI Era research, nearly 70% of employees said that access to training opportunities would make them feel more secure than job guarantees. Even as 37% expressed concern that AI could negatively disrupt their role, the overwhelming response wasn’t to seek reassurance, it was to seek preparation. Employees aren’t asking organizations to promise stability in an unstable world. They’re asking for the tools to stay relevant. That mindset showed up not just in survey responses, but in behavior. In 2025, organizations using PI increased the number of Jobs created in our platform by almost 10% from 2024. Rather than freezing roles in the face of uncertainty, companies actively redefined them, signaling a recognition that work itself is changing, and role clarity must change with it. What this tells us: Trust is no longer built through assurances alone. It’s built through investment, in skills, learning, and adaptability. The signal for 2026: In the year ahead, learning infrastructure will become a primary trust signal. Organizations that treat upskilling as a strategic capability, not a reactive benefit, will be better positioned to retain talent and sustain performance as roles continue to evolve. Signal #2: Change works best when employees are involved, not just informed If 2025 made one thing clear, it’s that change fatigue isn’t caused by change itself, it’s caused by exclusion. In PI’s AI-focused research, 40% of employees said they want to be involved in AI decision-making, not just informed after decisions are made. At the same time, 70% agreed that psychological safety is essential to successful AI rollouts, reinforcing that how change happens matters as much as what’s changing. Encouragingly, many organizations are moving in the right direction. More than 70% of respondents said their voice is heard “often” or “always” during AI transitions. That level of engagement isn’t accidental, it reflects intentional efforts to open dialogue, invite feedback, and treat employees as participants in change rather than passive recipients of it. What this tells us: The organizations navigating change most effectively aren’t the fastest movers, they’re the clearest communicators and the most inclusive decision-makers. The signal for 2026: Next year, successful change management will be defined less by rollout speed and more by buy-in. Organizations that operationalize employee input, through clearer decision rights, role clarity, and behavioral alignment, will experience smoother transitions and stronger adoption. Signal #3: Communication is becoming a measurable competitive advantage Communication has always mattered. But in 2025, it crossed a threshold from “soft skill” to strategic differentiator. In PI’s HR Field Guide to the Future, 91% of leaders identified clear mission and vision communication as a competitive advantage, while 61% said value alignment directly predicts organizational health. Add to that the finding that more than 90% see candidate experience as essential to employer brand, and a clear picture emerges: communication isn’t just internal alignment — it’s reputation, retention, and performance rolled into one. That emphasis showed up in PI’s platform data as well. Over the course of 2025, there was a noticeable increase in users accessing PI’s Management Skills Guide — a signal that organizations are investing in how managers communicate, motivate, and lead through complexity. This matters because strategy doesn’t scale on its own. Managers do. Every organizational priority — from AI adoption to employee engagement — is delivered (or diluted) through day-to-day manager behavior. What this tells us: Communication quality isn’t abstract. It’s enacted one conversation at a time by managers who are equipped — or unequipped — to lead. The signal for 2026: In the coming year, manager effectiveness will increasingly be treated as infrastructure, not a soft skill. Organizations that invest in developing managers as communicators and coaches will create clarity that scales — even as work grows more complex. Signal #4: Strategic talent alignment is moving from theory to practice For years, organizations have talked about hiring smarter, developing people intentionally, and building high-performing teams by design. In 2025, we began to see that talk turn into action. Consider this tension from PI’s research: 75% of leaders believe technology will help offset talent shortages, yet only 29% invest in AI training, and just 13% conduct formal skills gap analyses. The ambition is there — but execution often lags. At the same time, PI’s platform data tells a more hopeful story. Over the course of 2025, more organizations began creating new job benchmarks (“Job Targets”) based on their own internal top performers, rather than relying on generic role templates. That shift is subtle, but significant. It signals a move away from guessing what success looks like — and toward defining it using real performance data. In other words, a data-driven talent strategy is moving from concept to practice. What this tells us: High-performing teams aren’t accidental. They’re designed — behavior by behavior, role by role. The signal for 2026: Leading organizations will increasingly design roles from the inside out, using evidence from top performers to guide hiring, development, and succession. The result will be more consistent performance and alignment. What these signals reveal about talent strategy in 2026 Across all four signals, one theme stands out: The future of work isn’t about reacting faster. It’s about aligning better. In 2026, organizations that gain an edge will be the ones that: Treat learning as a trust-building strategy Involve employees early and meaningfully in change Equip managers to deliver clarity at scale Define success using behavioral evidence, not assumptions These aren’t abstract predictions. They’re grounded in how organizations actually behaved in 2025. Why PI sees these signals early Trend-chasing focuses on what is loud. Our analysis is designed to reveal what is lasting. The key to this foresight is PI’s unique data vantage point. By sitting at the intersection of behavioral science, defined role clarity, effective management development, and thousands of real-world usage patterns, we observe shifts in talent strategy as they are being formed—not after they have become headlines. The signals from 2025 offer more than predictions; they provide a blueprint for a more aligned and competitive 2026. For organizations willing to act on this behavioral evidence, the year ahead presents a clear opportunity to move past uncertainty and turn workforce complexity into a powerful competitive advantage. 

By: Bill Crawford Everyone has heard the statistics: 75% of Americans describe their lives as “very stressful,” and with the pace of change, it’s expected to get worse. As a psychologist and speaker, I try to do more than just give people “stress management” techniques or coping methods. Instead, I first show them why so much of the advice on how to deal with stress and these other issues won’t totally solve the problem. I then give them new information and a step-by-step system for accessing their clarity, confidence, and creativity, even in the most difficult situations. How Your Brain Interprets Data — And Stress The origin of this new information is rooted in the new developments in brain science. For example, most people know that our brains are divided into 3 parts: the brain stem, the limbic system, and the neocortex. The brain stem (the lower part of the brain) is where our fight-or-flight responses are located and also regulates our heart rate, muscle tension, blood pressure, etc. The middle brain is called the limbic system. This is where our emotions are triggered, for the most part. However, what most people don’t know is that this part of the brain also acts as a gatekeeper or, in today’s terminology, it acts as a scanner, a processor, and a router. It scans incoming data, processes or interprets it, and then routes it either down to the brain stem or up to the neocortex, the upper 80% of our brain where we have access to our interpersonal skills, such as judgment, creativity, compassion, and communication, among others. This means that as we move through the day, data from our 5 senses comes in and is first examined (scanned) by the limbic system. If the limbic system determines that the information is not problematic or threatening or dangerous, it sends it up to our neocortex. In this case, our brain stem works in the background — regulating our breathing, blood pressure, heart rate, etc. — and all is well. However, if the limbic system senses any problem, anything, or anyone it doesn’t like or has identified as a stressor or threat to either our physical well-being or psychological peace of mind, it sends the information immediately to the brain stem, bypassing the neocortex. Unfortunately, when we try to address the perceived problem from this lower, reactive brain, we are often less than successful, which, of course, leaves us feeling even more stressed, frustrated, and ineffective. The limbic system interprets this additional frustration as further negative data and dutifully sends it back down to the brain stem, creating a self-perpetuating cycle. Reaching ‘The Top of the Mind’ The key to creating and sustaining success in life, therefore, is to reprogram or retrain the limbic system to see stress for what it is, not as something being done to us. (i.e., “Deadlines/difficult people really stress me out!”) Instead, we need to recognize that stress is actually a chemical change in our body and signals that data is being sent to the lower 20% of our brain. Next, we must be able to shift to the upper 80% (what I call “The Top of the Mind”) to access the interpersonal and problem-solving skills needed to bring our best to life. In my books, presentations, and coaching sessions, I give participants a model for making this shift, a second model for staying in this “Top of the Mind” perspective regardless of the situation, and a third for engaging others (who are themselves stuck in the brain stem) in such a way that they shift from their “resistant brain” to the more “receptive brain,” which allows them to hear our suggestions as valuable information. All of these models are described in depth in my book, “Life from the Top of the Mind,” and I teach them in my seminars and training sessions. However, there is one tool that you can use to get at least a sense of what this “Top of the Mind” perspective is like. The effectiveness of this tool lies in the power of questions. You see, when we are talking about engaging very specific parts of the brain, questions are like “Google on steroids” in the sense that they become the “search engine of the brain.” Unfortunately, when we are stressed and/or frustrated, we tend to ask what I call “BS” or “brain stem questions,” which are questions about the perceived stressor. Examples include: “What’s wrong with these people?” “What were you thinking?” “Why does this always happen to me?” “How many times have I told you . . .?” Regardless of the specifics, questions like these engage the lower 20% of the brain and, as such, are a big part of the problem. The 4 Criteria: Questions for the Neocortex Therefore, to address this problem, I have created an alternative set of questions that can be asked and answered only by the upper 80% of the brain (the neocortex), which I call “The 4 Criteria.” The value of these interrogatories is that they allow us not only to evaluate any reactive response but also to identify a “Top of the Mind” alternative. These 4 Criteria, or neocortex questions, are: 1. Has this thought, emotion, or action been chosen deliberately, or on purpose? Most people would say that they don’t choose to be stressed or frustrated on purpose; it just seems to happen to them. 2. How is it working for me? In other words, to what degree do I feel that my stress, frustration, resentment, etc., is helping me become more effective and/or encouraging to others to hear what we have to say? Again, most people would not identify these reactions as highly effective or desirable. 3. Is this thought, emotion, or action making the statement I want to make about who I am? This question goes way beyond just avoiding the problem and speaks to the fact that everything we do makes a statement about who we are and who we are becoming. Just as most people would say that they are not becoming stressed, annoyed, and/or frustrated on purpose, most would also say that these would not be the words they would choose to define who they are (“I am someone who is reactive, frustrated, stressed, annoyed, etc.”) When we say that the challenges we face “make us” feel or do one thing or another — deadlines make me nervous, difficult people make me angry — what we are really saying is that the negative situations and people in our lives have the power to define us! Given that we do not want to be defined by the negative aspects of life, I believe we must take personal responsibility for this process and define ourselves on purpose. As mentioned, the first step in this process is to determine which part of the brain we are coming from and to evaluate whether our current thoughts, emotions, and/or actions are ones we want to feed or change. The 3 questions of “The 4 Criteria” can go a long way toward making this determination because, as discussed, they are “neocortex questions,” and engage the upper 80% of our brain in the process of evaluation. However, the fourth question is one that many people report being even more powerful than the first 3 combined. It says: 4. Would I teach this thought, emotion, or action to my child, my children or to someone I love? When I get to this point in my seminars and ask this question, a knowing silence always falls over the participants. The reason is that no one would intentionally teach their children (or anyone they care about) to be stressed, frustrated, depressed, or confused. Thus, this question completes the initial evaluation of our thoughts and emotions in a very powerful way. Having asked and answered these questions, we are now in the position to use the 4 Criteria to come up with a solution, meaning that we can now ask: “Okay, if I was choosing my thoughts, emotions, and actions on purpose … in a way that I believe would be most effective … in a way that makes the statement I want to make about who I am … and in a way I would teach/recommend to someone I love … what would that look like? How would I be thinking, feeling, and acting differently if this were the case?” Once we have this new vision of what we want to practice — versus just what we want to avoid — we are then able to use the rest of the “Life from the Top of the Mind” system to not only access our clarity, confidence, and creativity, but also to bring these qualities to all aspects of our lives. This article was first published on Dr. Crawford’s blog. Want to learn more? Then check out Dr. Bill’s discussion, The Science of Calm, Confident Leadership. The discussion includes a Q&A session with Vistage Chair Bonita Inza. 

Have you ever considered that knowing too much about your company’s product or service could be a disadvantage? Sometimes, not being a technical expert can help you avoid a common trap many founders fall into. Carrie Kelsch, who founded A Plus Garage Doors in 2005, had no experience in garage door repair. Instead of seeing that as a disadvantage, she turned it into an edge by focusing on growth, leadership, and building a high-performing team rather than getting stuck in the technical side of the business. “I didn’t, and I still don’t, know how to fix a garage door,” she says. Instead, Carrie leaned on her team to handle operations so she could dedicate her energy to marketing and growth. This approach reflects the advice in Michael Gerber’s The E-Myth Revisited: to work on your business, not in it. Not Getting Taken Advantage Of You might worry that if you don’t understand the technical side of your business, employees or vendors could take advantage of you by claiming tasks take longer or cost more than they actually do. To address this, consider tying key employees’ compensation to your company’s long-term success. One powerful strategy is implementing phantom equity. This gives employees a stake in the financial upside of your business without transferring actual ownership. It ensures their decisions are aligned with your goals and motivates them to contribute to the growth of your company. Carrie used a similar approach, rewarding loyal team members with phantom shares. This gave her team a sense of ownership and accountability, which helped her retain top talent. With her team handling the delivery of their service and aligned to the company’s success, Carrie was free to focus on growth. A Transformative Exit In 2024 Carrie sold a majority stake of A Plus Garage Doors to Guild Garage Group, a private equity-backed roll-up in the home services space. Guild valued her business at approximately $70 million, recognizing the strong financial foundation and brand she had built. This deal allowed Carrie to take significant capital off the table while keeping a stake in the company’s future growth. It’s proof that you don’t have to master every technical detail to build a business worth millions. Carrie’s journey shows that you don’t need to be a technical expert to succeed. By focusing on growth, empowering your team, and aligning incentives with performance, you can build a valuable asset that attracts buyers or investors. Working on your business—not in it—frees you to focus on the big picture, turning what might seem like a disadvantage into a competitive edge. Your business is more than the product or service it offers. It’s a system, a brand, and, ultimately, an asset. Sometimes the less you know about how the sausage is made, the better. 

By Trent Lee — The CEO’s Sage Strategy isn’t the problem. Execution is. Let’s be honest—most leadership teams aren’t short on ideas. They’ve had the offsites, the decks, the strategic planning sessions. But too often, that strategy lives in a binder or a slide—not in the behavior of the business. That’s the gap. And it’s what Line-of-Sight℠ was built to fix. What We Found: Strategy at the Top, Static Below In a recent engagement with an industrial company, we ran an organizational health scan using the Line-of-Sight framework. On the surface, things looked strong—vision was in place, the executive team was aligned, and the fundamentals were solid. But when we dug deeper, the story changed. Strategic Understanding scored just 68%. Some teams “got it.” Others... not so much. The clarity wasn’t consistent. Leadership Communication came in at 72%. Leaders were committed—but employees lacked confidence in how the strategy connected to their roles. Translation? Strategy was clear at the top, but fuzzy on the frontlines. And when clarity fades, execution drags. What We Did: Make It Real, Make It Routine We helped the leadership team do something simple—but powerful: Translate the strategy into daily language, routines, and decisions. Here’s how we helped them make the shift: 1. Told the story behind the strategy. Leaders didn’t just repeat the “what.” They dug into the why—sharing customer stories, market shifts, and the real-world rationale. 2. Connected strategy to roles and teams. Every group could now answer: “What does this mean for us?” 3. Linked KPIs to customer impact. Metrics moved from activity tracking to value creation. No more vanity dashboards—just signals that mattered. 4. Identified and removed friction. Bottlenecks were mapped out and cleaned up so teams could act on strategy without red tape. What Changed: From Understanding to Ownership With better communication and alignment, execution shifted quickly: Teams prioritized the right work. Individuals made decisions with more confidence. Engagement climbed—and so did retention. Leadership trust went up because people could see the strategy in action, not just hear about it. In fact, turnover dropped by 35% as employees reconnected with the purpose behind their roles. Final Thought: Strategy Only Works When It’s Shared It’s one thing to have a strategy. It’s another thing entirely to live it, reinforce it, and operationalize it. Too many organizations treat strategy like a one-time event. But real execution demands rhythm. Repetition. Reinforcement. Because at the end of the day, execution isn’t just about doing—it’s about understanding. And understanding starts at the top—but it has to reach the front line to actually drive results. — Trent Lee is a business coach and strategic execution expert who helps CEOs align leadership, structure, and strategy into systems that scale. Want to learn how aligned your organization really is? Start with a Line-of-Sight assessment. Connect at www.compassleadershipadvisors.com or LinkedIn . 

By Trent Lee — The CEO’s Sage™ One of the most transformative moments in an owner’s leadership journey is when they finally take a breath, step back, and look toward the horizon. Not the next quarter. Not the next fire. But the endgame. When a business owner gains clarity about their endgame, something powerful happens: The company stops being a job and becomes an asset. And assets can be shaped, grown, protected, and—when the time is right—transitioned wisely. The Value Builder System® describes four deceptively simple questions that unlock this clarity. I call them the CEO’s Compass because they orient every strategic decision that follows. Question 1: What’s Your Endgame? Is the business a multigenerational legacy? A platform for acquisition? A vehicle to fund retirement and freedom? Most CEOs haven’t answered this out loud. That’s not a criticism—it’s a reflection of how consuming the operational reality of business ownership can be. But when the endgame becomes visible, priorities snap into focus. Question 2: By When? Time horizon shapes strategy. Five years requires acceleration. Fifteen years enables compounding. Two years demands prioritization and discipline like never before. NAVIX’s guidance encourages owners to think in terms of age ranges and ideal windows—not vague statements like “in the next ten years,” which busy CEOs tend to roll forward indefinitely. Once timing is clear, the path becomes clearer too. Question 3: How Much? Every owner carries an idea—spoken or not—of what they need their business to be worth. Value Builder refers to this as the dream number. NAVIX calls it the Exit Magic Number™ —the amount an owner needs from their business to achieve true financial freedom. Clarity here isn’t about greed—it’s about target-setting, resource allocation, and reducing ambiguity. Question 4: How Close? This is where strategy becomes math. Understanding the current value of the business—and the gap between today and the dream number—creates urgency, opportunity, and a measurable roadmap. It also reframes investment in advisors, systems, and improvements as ROI-driven decisions, not expenses. And according to Value Builder research, owners nearing transition significantly increase their investment in outside advisors—by as much as 59% —once they see the value gap clearly. By planning earlier, urgency can be controlled and outcomes can be higher. The Clarity Effect When owners look toward their endgame, three things happen: 1. They make better decisions today. 2. They feel more control and less stress. 3. The business becomes more valuable—long before the exit. Exit planning is not about stepping away. It’s about stepping up—into strategic leadership. Trent Lee helps CEOs lead with intention—aligning people, strategy, and value so their companies grow stronger today and become transferable tomorrow. Ready to assess your exit readiness and value drivers? Start the conversation at www.compassleadershipadvisors.com or connect on LinkedIn. 

By: Robert Imbrie Employee retention has never been more critical than it is in 2026. Organizations that successfully retain their top talent enjoy significantly lower training and recruitment costs, foster stronger company cultures, and maintain higher productivity levels across their teams. When employees stay longer, they develop deeper institutional knowledge, build stronger relationships with colleagues and clients, and contribute more meaningfully to long-term strategic goals. However, even the most well-intentioned companies struggle with turnover when good employees decide to leave for reasons ranging from limited career development opportunities to misalignment with company culture or inadequate compensation. Understanding these underlying factors is essential for any organization serious about building a stable, engaged workforce. The challenges of high turnover rates extend far beyond the obvious financial costs. Companies face disrupted team dynamics, loss of valuable knowledge and relationships, decreased morale among remaining employees, and the constant pressure of recruiting and training new hires. In today’s competitive job market, these disruptions can significantly impact an organization’s ability to innovate, serve customers effectively, and maintain competitive advantages. What employees expect from their employer in 2026 Remote work options During the pandemic, many workers got a taste of remote work options—and liked it. Many workers who prefer the office like the flexibility of a remote work option, even if it’s just a day or two a week. Spending time with family or on hobbies instead of commuting leads to greater life satisfaction, which in turn leads to higher job satisfaction. Not every company can or should go fully remote. However, to remain competitive in today’s job market, having remote options is beneficial. Flexible work schedules A recent report confirmed that 83% of surveyed employees value flexibility in their current or future jobs . Workers want to be judged on the quality of their work—not what hours they choose to work. Flexible schedules are especially attractive to employees with families. When you don’t have to make the tough choice between work or taking care of a sick child, the result is higher employee satisfaction. Better work-life balance In the past, employers have often expected employees to work long hours to advance their careers, even though this is usually counterproductive. These policies have never been particularly effective in promoting employee engagement. But increasingly, employees want to unwind after they’ve put in hard work. To reduce the risk of employees leaving, you must establish and enforce clear boundaries between work and personal life. A job that matters According to a recent study by Deloitte , 89% of Gen Z and 92% of millennials consider a sense of purpose to be necessary for their job satisfaction and wellbeing. Put another way, providing people with meaningful work can help with retention just as much as increasing their salaries. That doesn’t mean that every job needs to save the world. However, if you want to retain your current employees, it helps if they feel that their jobs contribute to a larger goal or mission. Before we start: assess your retention issues It’s essential to understand the scope of your retention problem before attempting to address it. For example, if your retention rate is above average for your industry, change may not be a high priority. On the other hand, if your retention rate is significantly below average, you may want to take action more aggressively. Likewise, it’s crucial to understand the source of your retention issues: Do you have retention issues everywhere, or only in certain places? What is employee retention? Employee retention is a measurement of your ability to keep employees from leaving. Mathematically, it’s represented by your employee retention rate. Employee retention changes based on location, industry, and the economic environment. While you never have complete control over your employee retention rate, you can often improve it with a strong retention strategy, which is a plan to keep employees from leaving your organization. How to calculate your employee retention rate? To find out your employee retention rate for a given period of time: 1. Find out how many employees you had at the beginning of a given period. These are your starting employees. 2. Find out how many of those employees still worked at the end of the period. These are your ending employees. 3. Divide your ending employees by your starting employees. 4. Multiply by 100. 5. This is your employee retention rate. 17 employee retention strategies to keep your best employees Once you know the scope of your retention problem, you can start taking action. We’ve included some of the most common and impactful retention strategies below. 1. Hire for culture fit Employee retention starts with the right hires. When employees are a strong cultural fit for your company, they tend to stay longer, work more productively, and report higher job satisfaction. To find a great cultural fit, it helps to start with cultural interviews . Consider using hiring software , which can help quantify your culture and assist in selecting candidates who match your values and business needs. 2. Pay attention to your onboarding process An effective onboarding process helps new employees ramp up faster and stay longer. If you don’t currently have a system for onboarding—or if it’s not getting the results you need—you’ll want to consider building or revamping your onboarding process . 3. Compete with compensation. Poor compensation is one of the most common ways companies lose great employees. Ensure that you’re paying high performers the money they deserve. Otherwise, you may lose more money than you save in retraining and onboarding costs. 4. Consider ESOPs and profit-sharing programs. Profit-sharing programs incentivize employees to have a long-term perspective. Often, these programs require employees to wait several years to receive the full benefits, which encourages them to stay longer. 5. Acknowledge and reward engagement and efforts. Results are essential, but so is attitude. When engaged employees actively participate in and improve the organization, ensure that you support and reward them—even if it’s not one of their official deliverables. The more employees feel they have a voice in the organization, the longer they’re likely to stay. 6. Watch employee well-being carefully. Stressed, distressed, and low-energy employees are often a precursor to resignations. When morale issues arise, address them as soon as possible. 7. Encourage open communication and feedback. Nothing saps motivation like a problem you can’t fix. If you want your employees to have a long, happy tenure, they need to know they have a voice in your organization. When an employee can fix a problem, they will. When they can’t, they’ll leave. 8. Provide training and development options. When employees can’t grow in your organization, they might be happy for a little while—but eventually, they’ll leave. Training and development help employees advance their careers within your organization, leading to motivated, knowledgeable employees with longer tenures. 9. Be transparent and honest in top-down communication. Dishonesty is one of the fastest ways to alienate your employees. When significant changes are happening, strive to maintain transparency and forthrightness with your employees through clear and open top-down communication . They’ll be more likely to face the new challenges with you—instead of running for the door. 10. Encourage teamwork and team synergies. Different teams within your organization typically have distinct cultures. One might be more rowdy and risk-taking, while another might be careful and deliberate. The best thing you can do as an organization is to guide these microcultures so that they match your business goals. Consider using talent strategy software to analyze and manage team dynamics. 11. Introduce meaningful perks and rewards. Sometimes a small reward goes a long way. If your employees have to put in extra work to get a project out the door, consider using gift cards or other perks to make them feel recognized. These rewards don’t cost much, but they make a huge difference the next time your team needs to go above and beyond. 12. Embrace remote work and build a hybrid workplace. In the past, companies could get away with forcing everyone to work in person. Now that remote and hybrid options are more common, that strategy has become a retention liability. By building a hybrid workplace —in other words, a workplace with both in-person and remote options—you can meet everyone’s needs. Employees who prefer remote work can work remotely. Employees who prefer in-person work can continue to do so. And employees who simply want the flexibility to work from home a couple of days a week can also do that. 13. Make work-life balance matter. Often, companies will claim to support work-life balance, yet they reward employees who stay nights and weekends. A poor work-life balance can eventually drain morale, productivity, and employee retention. To keep your employees happy and functional, you need to enforce boundaries and reward people who can say ‘no.’ 14. Allow reduced workdays and workweeks. An occasional half-day can be as refreshing as a vacation—and it can be great motivation for a job well done. If your employees are consistently hitting their metrics, consider allowing them to take off early. This rewards productivity over time spent at the desk—with the added bonus of keeping employees refreshed, happy, and loyal. 15. Let employees blow off some steam with company and team events. When people have friends at work, they tend to be happier, more motivated, and more likely to stay at their job. Team retreats and events help your employees bond, which sets them up for retention and success. 16. Identify lack of engagement early (and fix it). None of these strategies is effective if you’re not sure what’s wrong. That’s why recognizing when and where there’s a problem is so important. Engagement software and engagement surveys can help you identify issues as they arise and act quickly to address them. 17. Learn from employees leaving. When employees leave, it’s usually for a reason. The best way to understand why? Ask them. Use exit interviews to understand what’s causing your employees to leave. Then create targeted strategies to address those issues. Utilize PI to support your retention goals The Predictive Index offers powerful behavioral and cognitive assessments that provide deep insights into what drives your employees and how well they fit within your organization. The PI Behavioral Assessment™ measures natural behavioral drives and motivating needs, revealing how individuals prefer to work and what energizes them in the workplace. Meanwhile, the PI Cognitive Assessment™ evaluates learning agility and problem-solving capacity, helping you understand how employees process information and adapt to new challenges. These tools are invaluable for identifying employee motivators and ensuring proper fit between individuals and their roles. By understanding whether an employee is energized by collaboration or independent work, thrives in structured environments or prefers flexibility, and is motivated by recognition or autonomy, you can tailor retention strategies that speak directly to their core needs. For instance, a Collaborator profile benefits from supportive and creative environments, as well as opportunities for teamwork, while an Individualist needs independence and the freedom to develop new ideas without micromanagement. PI’s talent optimization software goes beyond individual assessments to analyze team dynamics and organizational culture, helping you create work environments where different behavioral profiles can thrive. The platform’s engagement software can identify disengagement early, allowing you to address retention risks before they lead to turnover. Additionally, PI’s hiring tools help you select candidates who are not only qualified but also behaviorally aligned with your team and company culture, setting the foundation for long-term retention from day one. To explore how these tools can transform your retention strategy, review PI’s talent strategy , review case studies of companies that have successfully reduced turnover using behavioral insights, and consider PI’s comprehensive guide to building effective onboarding processes that leverage behavioral understanding for better employee integration and satisfaction. 

By: Joe Galvin ChatGPT made its public debut in November 2022. Before then, Artificial Intelligence was largely a corporate buzzword or big tech slang. Just over three years later, AI is no longer jargon — it’s ubiquitous. Everyone uses it everywhere, for everything . Looking down the road at 2030, AI is on track to dominate every aspect of business , from internal operations to external execution. Its potential to holistically transform how work gets done is endless. While there is no question that AI will have a significant impact on the future of work, precisely what it will look like in 4 years remains to be determined. Many futurists opine on what’s to come, ranging from grim visions of robots replacing humans to more optimistic images of AI improving the employee experience and providing greater work/life balance. As always, the reality probably lies somewhere between the two, in a world where jobs look different, but people are still the linchpin to organizational success . Either way, AI will impact every line on the P&L— revenues, costs, operations, people, and investments. It will affect every business leader’s ability to provide their product and/or service competitively; it will also impact their customers and competitors. According to Vistage research , nearly 3 in 4 (72%) CEOs running small and midsize businesses develop a strategic plan internally. But these legacy frameworks often fail to accommodate new and emerging technologies. And leaders who don’t have a deliberate approach to integrating AI risk will be left behind and unprepared for the market and economic realities of an AI-powered 2030. Adding AI to a strategic plan can be daunting. Its uncharted and quickly evolving nature means there is no playbook or clearly defined destination. Add the dynamics of an AI-anxious workforce tasked with leveraging tools they fear will eventually put them out of a job — in effect, making people feel as though they are digging their own graves — and it’s no surprise that many business leaders are wary about adding AI to their tried-and-true planning processes. However, AI is happening now. CEOs must begin embracing AI rapidly and intentionally to remain competitive – both today and down the road. Business leaders can begin embedding AI into their strategic plan by focusing on the following key areas: 1. Market Analysis How is AI reshaping the marketplace, including competitors, pricing and capabilities? 2. Competitive Advantage How does it change your unique value proposition that customers will recognize and reward in an environment where customer requirements will change rapidly? 3. Financial Planning How does it impact your ROI and investment models? 4. Operational Execution How does it impact your productivity as an organization? How can you leverage employees’ individual productivity gains, and how can you automate existing workflows to capitalize on the power of AI? 5. Skills and Tools What are the skills that your workforce will need to develop, and what are the tools they’ll need to thrive in the future? 6. Governance How can you ensure you have the right security protocols, data protection and ethical considerations in place? By diving deep into these six areas, CEOs can begin honing their long-term vision and tactical approach to integrating AI into their business. By developing a strong point of view and a blueprint for implementing AI, CEOs can position themselves for long-term gains. Overcoming the hesitation to integrate AI is challenging, and taking AI from experimentation to mastery is no small — nor speedy — task. But make no mistake: AI is here, and it is already actively transforming business. Those who take a proactive approach to weaving AI into their strategic plan will be primed for success, whether it’s in 2026, 2030 or beyond. This story first appeared in Inc. 

By Trent Lee — The CEO’s Sage December isn’t just about closing the books. It’s about how you close. No one’s going to remember your Q2 earnings call or the clever slide deck from the July offsite. Your team won’t recall the mid-year OKR reshuffle. And your customers won’t think back on your second-quarter roadmap. But they will remember how you ended the year. And so will you. Why the Finish Line Matters  Here’s what I tell my clients: Strategy gets all the attention—but it’s execution that gets remembered. And December? That’s the proving ground. It’s where your culture, your leadership, and your strategy show up—or they don’t. Let’s break it down: For Teams: A strong finish builds momentum. A sloppy one? It lingers into Q1 like a bad hangover. For Customers: Your final impression becomes the first opportunity of the new year. For Leaders: December reveals whether your team is truly aligned—or just tired. Finishing strong isn’t about working longer hours. It’s about being clear, focused, and disciplined —when it matters most. The Mistakes I See Every Year Too many CEOs treat December like a coast-in month. Here’s what that usually looks like: Winding down too early Dumping last-minute projects that scatter the team’s focus Confusing year-end reporting with meaningful execution And then January arrives... and it feels like you’re already behind. The Fix: A Finish Line Review I guide my clients through a simple year-end tool I call the Finish Line Review —a short but powerful checkpoint built around three questions: 1. What customer outcomes must we deliver before year-end? 2. What bottlenecks can we eliminate right now to clear the runway for Q1? 3. What lessons from this year’s execution should reshape how we lead next year? This isn’t about cramming more work into December. It’s about sharpening the lens so the work that is happening drives real traction. A Few Questions for You Before you wrap up the year, ask yourself: Are we executing with clarity—or just checking boxes? What will my team say about the way we finished? Are we teaching execution, or still hoping it just “happens”? Final Thought “70% of CEO failures aren’t about bad strategy. They’re about weak execution.” — Fortune Magazine Strategy may set the direction. But execution writes the ending. And December is where that story either fizzles out—or finishes strong. Let’s not carry the same execution gaps into 2026. Let’s close this year with clarity and conviction. — Trent Lee helps CEOs align their strategy and structure so execution becomes inevitable—not exhausting. Want help turning your year-end into a springboard for next year? Let’s talk: www.compassleadershipadvisors.com | LinkedIn

These days, building and curating a personal brand online is often portrayed as a key to success. Entrepreneurs are told to put themselves at the forefront, to be the face of their business, and to leverage social media to grow both their influence and their company. However, the team at Value Builder sees things differently. Data gathered from over 80,000 business owners paints a compelling picture: businesses that rely heavily on their owners’ personal brands are worth less and harder to sell. The Hub & Spoke Model: A Major Valuation Issue The core insight that Value Builder offers business owners is the concept of the "Hub & Spoke" model. In this model, the business is highly dependent on its founder—the “hub”—to drive sales, make decisions, and maintain relationships. The “spokes” are the employees, customers, and partners who rely on the owner to keep things running smoothly. While this might seem like a natural structure for many small businesses, it creates a major challenge when it comes time to sell. In businesses where the founder is at the center of everything, buyers see a higher risk. If the owner leaves, the whole business can collapse, and that risk is priced into any offer. The Data Behind the Valuation Gap At Value Builder, the team has analyzed data from over 80,000 companies through a detailed questionnaire. Business owners share financial performance, day-to-day operations, and their level of involvement in the business. The result? The average offer for a business where the owner is highly involved—the "Hub & Spoke" model—is just 2.9 times the company's pre-tax profit. For comparison, businesses that are less reliant on the owner—those with strong management teams, well-documented processes, and a brand independent of the founder—fetch an average of 3.9 times pre-tax profit. The gap is significant: 1 full turn of profit is lost simply because the business is dependent on the founder. The Impact of Personal Branding on Business Value Now, let’s consider the role of personal branding in this equation. Entrepreneurs who invest heavily in building their personal brand create businesses that are even more closely tied to them as individuals. Think about high-profile entrepreneurs who are the face of their company on social media, and in public appearances. The danger is that when the personal brand becomes synonymous with the business, the value of the company is tied to the owner’s continued presence. Buyers recognize this risk. If the business cannot function without the founder at the center, the sale price is lower. In many cases, an acquirer will demand a longer earn-out period or an equity rollover to ensure the owner sticks around post-sale. Instead of a clean exit, the owner is tied to the business for years, effectively trading one set of demands for another. The Emotional Cost of a Personal Brand Building a personal brand also has significant emotional costs. To succeed, owners must live in an online world where everything appears polished, glamorous, and often unrealistic. Feeds are full of perfect lives, luxury cars, and seemingly effortless success. For many entrepreneurs, this can create a sense of inadequacy and disconnection from what truly matters—running a business, creating value, and enjoying personal freedom. The constant need to maintain an online persona can be exhausting. Founders find themselves spending more time feeding the content machine than focusing on growing their business or planning their endgame. Over time, this lifestyle detracts from their ability to build a business that can run without them. A Smarter Path: Building a Business That Thrives Without You The most successful founders know that the key to a valuable business is not their personal brand, but the systems, people, and processes that exist independent of them. They focus on building a business that can run without them at the helm, with strong leadership, clear processes, and a brand that doesn’t rely on the owner.