Global Outlook 2026

Defining the Leadership Moment

As 2025 draws to a close, People Leadership has become central to the way enterprises create and sustain value. Across our work with CPOs, CEOs and senior leaders around the world, we see the Chief People Officer role evolve around growth, capability and culture, linking People Strategy directly to how the business creates value.

This transformation has accelerated over the past twelve months. How leaders manage this next phase will define leadership maturity in the year ahead. The outlook for 2026 shows no sign of slowing, and the agenda is now defined by a fundamental reconnection of talent to value, a new integration of the operational model, and the critical restoration of trust as the foundation for change.

The Strategic Imperative: Talent as a Direct Driver of Value

The foremost question for leadership teams is no longer about headcount, but where talent creates the greatest enterprise impact. This requires a fundamental shift in perspective and partnership.

Organisations are actively rebuilding their workforces around value creation. CPOs we speak with globally are mapping critical skills to core growth drivers and redeploying people towards emerging capabilities. This "Talent to Value" mindset is becoming the organising principle of People Strategy for 2026, creating clarity on where people make the greatest difference.

This shift has catalysed a new form of partnership between the CPO and CEO. Today's CPO acts as the essential translator between ambition and execution, connecting purpose to practice. Consequently, People Strategy is now assessed through tangible commercial outcomes: innovation, transformation readiness and growth enablement.

The strategic lens extends to securing long-term capability. Investment in early-career programmes is being revitalised, with a focus on cultivating curiosity, AI fluency and diverse thinking. In our conversations with CPOs, these initiatives are increasingly linked to leadership frameworks to ensure continuity between today's values and tomorrow's strategic advantage.

The Operational Shift: Integration, Enablement and Purposeful Focus

To deliver on these strategic ambitions, the internal mechanics of the People function must be seamlessly integrated, technologically empowered and disciplined in their focus.

Boundaries between HR specialisms continue to fade. People Experience, HR Operations, Talent, Reward, Organisation Development and Analytics are aligning tightly around shared outcomes. CPOs who orchestrate capability across these disciplines create clarity and pace through collaboration, not siloed structures.

AI has moved from concept to a genuine source of business value in talent and organisation design. The critical differentiator is responsible deployment. CPOs globally are embedding ethical judgement and governance into AI systems to ensure technology enhances human insight, not replaces it. The key question is shifting from speed to value: "Is it adding real value yet?"

Concurrently, senior leaders describe a post-pandemic "pressure-cooker" effect; continual change compounded by fatigue. This has renewed focus on managers as the front line of trust and engagement. Forward-looking organisations are equipping leaders with the skills to balance well-being with accountability, making clarity, capacity and care essential capabilities.

In response, a clear mandate has emerged from C-suite discussions globally: do less, but do it better. In an era of constant transformation, focus is the new discipline. CPOs we engage with are helping organisations pause and concentrate on the few initiatives that truly move the needle, making simplification a hallmark of confidence and operational maturity.

The Foundational Currency: Cultivating Trust and Adaptive Resilience

Underpinning all strategy and operations is the fundamental requirement for trust. This is cultivated through genuine listening, principled action and a culture that enables people to thrive.

Employee and Industrial Relations have re-emerged as core to enterprise resilience. In periods of uncertainty and complexity, leaders now emphasise listening as much as leading. CPOs who bring both clarity and care to these environments are restoring trust as the essential foundation for any sustainable change.

Across all regions, we see culture shifting from a passive measure of "fit" to an active lever for performance. Many CPOs talk about "positive disruption", refreshing how work is done while honouring organisational heritage. The critical question is not only about engagement levels, but whether the culture actively enables people to perform, adapt and thrive in equal measure.

Looking Forward to 2026

From our global community of CPOs, the path forward crystallises around three convictions: that talent must be anchored unequivocally to value creation; that ethical AI and integrated operations are non-negotiable; and that trust, clarity and simplicity are the ultimate hallmarks of leadership confidence.

CPOs we work with who master this integration, aligning strategic ambition, operational excellence and cultural integrity, will build the organisational resilience and leadership readiness required for the years ahead.

At ChapmanCG, we are proud to partner with this global community of Chief People Officers and CEOs, listening, learning and connecting the insights that continue to define the future of People Leadership.