25 Best Essays on Leading People in 2026
25 essential leadership essays from Josh Bersin, Forbes, MIT Sloan, Gallup, and Deloitte on AI leadership, manager burnout, generational shifts, and psychological safety.
These 25 essays offer research-backed guidance for managers navigating AI transformation, burnout, and evolving workforce expectations—from Josh Bersin and MIT Sloan to Gallup and Deloitte.
AI & the Future of Leadership
By 2026, over 100 million workers will collaborate with AI colleagues (Gartner). Leaders must conduct hybrid human-AI teams while maintaining human skills machines cannot replicate.
1. The End of HR As We Know It? AI Is Starting To Change Everything — Josh Bersin, April 2025 — As AI agents arrive, HR faces a reinvention—not transformation. Bersin argues leaders must build AI systems themselves rather than waiting for vendors.
2. The Rise of the Supermanager — Josh Bersin, October 2025 — Only 27% of managers feel enthusiastic about their work. Supermanagers experiment, iterate, and drive change without waiting for committee decisions.
3. 10 HR Trends As Generative AI Expands In The 2025 Workplace — Forbes, January 2025 — Jeanne Meister on FOBO (Fear of Being Obsolete), hybrid work evolution, and how organizations move from AI experimentation to essential business planning.
4. 7 Things Every Leader Must Do to Prepare for 2026 — Fast Company, December 2025 — Practical guidance for C-suites approaching AI with a long-term growth lens rather than short-term cost savings.
5. Hybrid Human-AI Teams: Perspective on Evolving Leadership — SSRN, 2025 — Academic essay repositioning leaders as conductors of collaboration between humans and intelligent systems.
Manager Wellbeing & Burnout
Manager burnout hit crisis levels in 2025—Gallup reported manager engagement dropped from 30% to 27%, with 71% of middle managers reporting burnout.
6. Potential Leadership Crisis Looms as Burnout Increases — HR Dive, 2025 — DDI’s Global Leadership Forecast found 4 in 10 stressed leaders considering leaving their roles entirely.
7. Burnout Is Back: How Organisations Can Reset for 2026 — HRD Connect, December 2025 — Argues organizations must treat burnout as a systemic design challenge, not an individual failing.
8. Why Different Generations Experience Burnout Differently — GYST Wellbeing, 2025 — Gen Z and millennials hit peak burnout at 25—17 years earlier than previous generations. Each generation’s relationship with work shapes how they experience strain.
9. Executive Burnout Statistics 2025 — Superhuman, 2025 — Comprehensive data showing why managers carry disproportionate strain and what interventions work.
Generational Leadership
Gen Z makes up 27% of the global workforce and only 6% say their primary goal is reaching a leadership position—a trend called “conscious unbossing.”
10. Global Gen Z and Millennial Survey 2025 — Deloitte, 2025 — Comprehensive data on what young workers want: meaningful work, development, and managers who provide guidance rather than oversight.
11. How to Prepare for the Gen Z Leadership Shift — SHRM, 2025 — Reimagining leadership structures with flatter hierarchies and distributed leadership approaches.
Employee Engagement
Engagement dropped to 21% globally in 2025—the sharpest decline since COVID. Managers account for 70% of the variance in team engagement.
12. Anemic Employee Engagement Points to Leadership Challenges — Gallup, 2025 — Jim Harter, Gallup’s chief workplace scientist, explains why manager breakdown threatens business performance and GDP growth.
13. The Solution to the Employee Engagement Crisis — Inc Magazine, 2025 — Marcel Schwantes distills the research into one word that drives sustainable engagement.
Feedback & Development
Effective feedback remains one of leadership’s highest-leverage activities. These essays provide frameworks for feedback that builds purpose rather than defensiveness.
14. Why Feedback Can Make Work More Meaningful — HBR, January 2025 — Rachel Pacheco argues feedback isn’t just about performance—it provides the sense of purpose employees crave.
15. Building a Company Culture That Encourages Feedback — HBR, October 2025 — When people across an organization regularly ask for input, it signals that learning matters more than perfection.
Psychological Safety
Psychological safety is the #1 predictor of team effectiveness. These essays explore how leaders create environments where people speak up without fear.
16. Why Psychological Safety Is the Hidden Engine Behind Innovation — Harvard Business Impact, August 2025 — Teams with high psychological safety consistently outperform peers in innovation, engagement, and retention.
17. Amy Edmondson: High Psychological Safety Means a High Learning Quotient — UNLEASH, December 2025 — The Novartis Professor shares three measures leaders can implement: stage setting, proactive inviting, and productive responding.
Conflict & Difficult Conversations
Managers spend 20-40% of their time on conflict, yet conflict resolution is rarely treated as a core leadership competency.
18. The Conflict-Intelligent Leader — HBR, July 2025 — As incivility rises, leaders need conflict intelligence combining empathy, self-regulation, and situational awareness.
19. Unlocking Productive Conflict on Your Executive Team — HBR, December 2025 — How to transform disagreement and discord into positive outcomes at the leadership level.
First-Time & New Managers
60% of first-time managers receive no training, and 20% are rated as doing a poor job by direct reports. These essays address the hardest career transition.
20. How First-Time Managers Can Make the Successful Jump — Kellogg Insight, March 2025 — Harry Kraemer identifies three problems that undermine new managers: reluctance to delegate, micromanaging, and failing to develop others.
21. 10 Essential Leadership Tips for 2025 — MIT Sloan, 2025 — Communication and culture top the list for successful leadership—an organization cannot have strong culture without strong communication.
Leadership Character & Authenticity
Authentic leadership remains foundational, but being your “true self” can backfire when fueled by ego rather than values. Leaders who balance authenticity with humility build stronger teams.
22. Leaders, Bring Your Best Self into the New Year — HBR, January 2026 — Ron Carucci and Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic argue that turning groups into high-performing teams requires significant expertise, intelligence, and self-awareness.
23. Are You an Authentic Leader or an Authentic Jerk? — MIT Sloan, November 2025 — Evidence shows a lived commitment to personal values is the hallmark of authentic leadership that successfully brings teams together.
Emotional Intelligence & Organizational Change
EQ is now as critical as technical ability. The World Economic Forum lists empathy and self-awareness among the top 10 skills needed by 2030.
24. Top 5 EQ Lessons of 2025 — TalentSmartEQ, November 2025 — Social awareness was the lowest-scoring EQ skill, with 30% of people reporting difficulty picking up non-verbal cues in hybrid settings.
25. 2025 Global Human Capital Trends — Deloitte, 2025 — “Turning tensions into triumphs”—navigating augmentation vs. automation, agility vs. stability, and empowerment vs. control.
Quick Reference by Theme
| Theme | Key Essays | Core Insight |
|---|---|---|
| AI Leadership | #1-#5 | Leaders must become conductors of human-AI collaboration |
| Burnout | #6-#9 | 71% of middle managers report burnout—it’s systemic, not individual |
| Generational | #10, #11 | Only 6% of Gen Z want traditional leadership roles |
| Engagement | #12, #13 | Managers account for 70% of team engagement variance |
| Feedback | #14, #15 | Feedback builds purpose when delivered with preparation and timing |
| Psychological Safety | #16, #17 | The #1 predictor of team effectiveness |
| Conflict | #18, #19 | Conflict intelligence is an underdeveloped leadership competency |
| New Managers | #20, #21 | 60% receive no training; delegation and development are key gaps |
| Authenticity | #22, #23 | Values-driven leadership outperforms ego-driven authenticity |
| EQ & Change | #24, #25 | Social awareness is the lowest-scoring EQ skill in hybrid work |
How to Use This Collection
Start with your most pressing challenge. For AI transformation, essays #1-5 lay the groundwork. For burnout, essays #6-9 provide the diagnosis. For organizations running performance reviews, the feedback essays (#14-15) pair well with continuous feedback tools that prompt recognition in the moment. Leadership development is the #1 HR priority in 2026 because everything else—engagement, retention, performance—flows from it.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the best leadership essays to read in 2026?
The best leadership essays in 2026 come from Josh Bersin, Forbes, MIT Sloan Management Review, Gallup, and Deloitte. Key themes include AI-human collaboration, manager burnout prevention, generational leadership shifts, and psychological safety. This curated list covers 25 essential reads organized by topic.
What leadership topics are trending in 2026?
Trending leadership topics in 2026 include managing hybrid human-AI teams, combating manager burnout (71% of middle managers report burnout), building psychological safety, navigating generational differences with Gen Z workers, and developing emotional intelligence as AI handles routine tasks.
How can I become a better leader in 2026?
To become a better leader in 2026, focus on developing conflict intelligence, mastering feedback delivery, building psychological safety on your team, and learning to manage alongside AI tools. The essays in this list provide research-backed frameworks from Harvard, MIT, McKinsey, and other leading institutions.
Why is leadership development important in 2026?
Leadership development is the #1 HR priority in 2026 because 40% of stressed leaders are considering leaving their roles, manager engagement dropped to 27% (a historic low), and organizations with strong leadership pipelines see 25% better business outcomes. Investing in manager capabilities directly impacts retention and performance.