Issue 71: Strategic. Agile. Effortless. Pick two.

ISSUE 71

28 JANUARY 2026 | READ ONLINE

Hi Reader,

This morning, I was enjoying my hot chocolate with chia seeds (in a huge mason jar - yes - it was really good), listening to a Gartner webinar about The Top 9 Future of Work Trends for 2026 and Beyond.

I had one thought: Ah. So we’re not imagining it. We’re just living inside it.

Because leaders are being asked to do something that sounds reasonable in a slide deck, yet feels insane in real life:

Be strategic.

Be agile.

And please, for the love of professionalism, make it look easy.

That last part? The 'look easy' part?

That’s the part that no one talks about.

So today’s newsletter is simple.

I want to name the paradox and then give you a purpose-based way through it.

The Disappearing-Ink Strategy Problem

As you know, I spend a lot of my day coaching executives and leaders. And almost everyone seems to be saying some version of this:

I sit down to think long-term.

And the moment I do, the ground beneath me moves.

New priorities. New tools. New risks. New expectations.

A new 'urgent' that magically outranks yesterday’s urgent.

So 'strategy' starts feeling like writing with disappearing ink.

And then I get told to be agile (fine)

while also being calm (lol)

while also being inspiring (sure)

while also delivering more with less (obviously).

How about you? Is this sounding familiar?

Gartner’s published list for 2026 is basically a masterclass in tension: promise vs. reality, performance vs. culture, speed vs. trust.

Their nine trends include things like:

RIFs (Reductions in Force) before reality (cuts based on AI optimism, not proven returns).
Culture dissonance amid performance pressure.
AI’s hidden costs: employees’ mental fitness and AI slop becoming productivity drains.
The candidate fraud arms race, corporate espionage, and even employees being paid for training their digital doppelgangers.

You don’t need to work in HR to feel this. The point is that what we are seeing is impacting all of us, including leaders.

So now, Purpose Pathfinders (after all, that's the name of this newsletter), what can you do?

I've been contemplating this, and have a couple of ideas.

Ask yourself these three questions when everything is moving really fast, and you're not sure what to do:

What are we building that we refuse to trade away?
What are we willing to disappoint people on (so we can deliver on the real thing)?
What does 'good' look like in this season?

Because I believe that strategy gives direction, and agility gives movement.

Purpose decides what you won’t chase.

You just need to reframe it.

See you next week,