Happy Friday 👋 !

Let's talk about something you're probably already feeling.

The certainty about uncertainty

Ask any CxO what's keeping them up at night, and you'll hear the same things: economic volatility, AI disruption, geopolitical chaos. According to The Conference Board's C-Suite Outlook 2026, these are the forces shaping every major decision right now.

And how are they responding? By doubling down on productivity, growth, and AI-enabled efficiency gains.

Here's why that combination matters: The outside world feels increasingly uncontrollable, so leaders are focusing on what they can control—what's happening inside their organizations.

Which means the pressure to perform isn't easing. It's intensifying. You're feeling it. Your team's feeling it.

So here's the question worth asking yourself: If performance is only holding because people are over-stretching, do our systems really work?

What the data is telling us

AQai data from 2025 shows work stress at its highest point since the pandemic. Meanwhile, the very things people need to handle change—resilience, mental flexibility, emotional health, hope—are all declining.

People are still delivering. But with less and less margin for error.

Teams are adapting, experimenting, improving. But that progress? It's increasingly fueled by sheer effort rather than sustainable energy.

And that brings us to structure.

When structure disappears, the strain doesn't

Korn Ferry's Workforce 2025 research found something striking:

• 44% of organizations have cut management layers
• 40% of employees say they lack direction at work

Flatter organizations can absolutely work—when there's clarity, solid decision-making processes, and strong support systems.

But when you remove layers without redesigning how leadership shows up? The work doesn't disappear. It just falls to the people we're already counting on most—mid-level and frontline employees.

Even the leaders are maxed out

Here's a statistic that should make us all pause: 72% of senior executives in the US say they're stretched beyond their capabilities (Korn Ferry).

When leaders are operating at—or beyond—their limits, they unintentionally pass that pressure down. Not because they don't care. But because capacity constraints cascade through systems like water finding cracks.

The bottom line: We're asking more of people precisely when the system is giving them less back.

So what does adaptable leadership actually look like right now? Let's break it into three buckets: Stop, Start, and Protect.

🔴 STOP — The Habits Quietly Undermining Adaptability

Stop treating resilience as an individual problem

When stress is baked into the system, telling people to "manage better" won't fix it. If organizational demands keep climbing while support declines, self-management strategies alone won't close the gap. This is a leadership and design issue, not a personal failing.

Stop stacking change without removing load

New priorities demand explicit trade-offs. When everything is important, people don't prioritize—they cope. And coping isn't the same as proactive adaptability.

Stop mistaking execution for capacity

Here's the tricky part: outputs can stay high long after adaptability starts eroding. By the time performance actually drops, your system is already running on fumes.

🟢 START — The Leadership Moves That Rebuild Capacity

Start managing energy, not just productivity

Efficiency gains without recovery just increase cognitive and emotional load. You need to actively plan for time to absorb change, connect the dots, and recharge—not just endless acceleration.

Start making unlearning a leadership discipline

Many of our assumptions about speed, certainty, and control no longer match reality. Unlearning—deliberately letting go of habits and processes that don't serve you anymore—creates the space adaptability needs to function.

Start leading with clarity instead of certainty

People don't need perfect answers. They need clear intent, honest communication, and confidence that their effort is moving toward something meaningful. That's how you protect hope under uncertainty.

Start experiencing change personally

Leaders who actively use AI tools, experiment with new ways of working, and try things themselves lead with more empathy and way more credibility. You can't sponsor transformation from the sidelines.

🟡 PROTECT — The Adaptability Assets You Can't Afford to Lose

Protect hope

Hope is what keeps people investing effort when outcomes aren't guaranteed. When hope fades, adaptability collapses fast.

Protect the middle of the organization

When you remove layers, you have to redesign support—not just assume it'll work itself out. Managers and senior individual contributors are where adaptability is most at risk and most recoverable.

Protect thinking space

Reflection, sense-making, and learning aren't luxuries. They're how organizations avoid becoming efficient and brittle.

Your Move

A key leadership challenge of 2026 isn't whether we can drive execution.

It's whether we can design organizations that carry the weight of continuous change without breaking.

Adaptability isn't about pushing harder. It's about building systems that support people while they do hard things.

Here's what I'd suggest: Take 20 minutes this week and look at your own team through this lens. Create your own Stop/Start/Protect list:

• What's one thing you need to stop doing that's draining capacity without adding real value?
• What's one thing you need to start doing to rebuild energy or clarity?
• What's one thing you absolutely need to protect because losing it would break your team's ability to adapt?

Write it down. Then pick one thing from that list and put it into action this week.

Real change doesn't require perfect strategy. It requires one leader willing to make one better choice.

You've got this.

Ann
​www.adaptsuccess.com​

🧠 Gear Up for Change is your weekly dose of insight on navigating and leveraging change — grounded in AQai’s science of adaptability. If you find it valuable, forward it to a colleague who’s also leading through change and they can subscribe here.

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Want to Gear Up for Change Faster? Here are Next Steps:

1️⃣ Measure Your AQ Take a 25-minute assessment to discover your Adaptability Quotient (AQ). Learn how to thrive in times of change and create a strategy for your growth. Gear up for the rest of 2026 using our companion AQme Workbook. (Tip: check with your manager -- you can probably expense this!) Hit reply and say "Tell me more!".

Issue #62, 23 January 2026