Alignment Opportunity: Professionals’ Top Priority for ’26 is Working Smarter
Key Highlights
- One in three professionals—including executives and managers—are prioritizing improving how they work over traditional career advancement by 2026.
- Leaders can support goal achievement by setting clear targets and fostering resilience.
- Addressing obstacles such as shifting priorities and a lack of clarity is crucial for helping teams stay aligned and motivated.
The rat race? That’s soooo yesterday.
New research from Endeavor Business Intelligence shows that one in three professionals across a wide range of industries say their top professional priority for 2026 is improving how they work. Another 28%, meanwhile, say they’re most focused this year on achieving a better work-life balance.
By contrast, just 9% of the nearly 800 respondents to the survey told EBI — the research division of ExecutiveEDGE’s parent company, EndeavorB2B — that they are most focused this year on advancing their career.
“Professionals are less focused on traditional markers like titles or added responsibilities and more invested in optimizing their day-to-day experience,” analysts at EBI wrote in their report. “Growth hasn’t disappeared — 20% cite developing their role or skills — but it’s increasingly viewed through the lens of smarter workflows and long-term balance rather than rapid advancement alone.”
Noteworthy about the EBI report (which you can download here) is that the growth-focused attitude isn’t (just) coming from the rank and file: 45% of respondents were either business owners or founders, members of the C-suite or leadership, or a vice president in their organizations. The idea that 2026 is a year to focus on doing better work appears to have spread across organizational charts. (The same can be said for industries: Only the healthcare, energy and automotive sectors accounted for at least 10% of respondents.)
Which prompts what might be the most important question for leaders in this context: How can they best organize their teams — leaders, middle managers and those on the front lines — to push ahead on those strategic goals but also be able to book personal progress? There appear to be plenty of opportunities to merge both sets of aims: Asked about their businesses’ top priorities for 2026, the top response was revenue growth at 32%, but 25% of people said cost control/efficiency, while another 15% pointed to innovation/new offerings. Those latter two priorities have plenty of potential to be integrated with individuals’ goals.
Some companies are meeting the moment reflected and giving their people chances to improve their day-to-day experience. Not at all surprisingly, artificial intelligence tools are playing a notable role in those efforts. A recent case in point: Devon Energy Corp. CEO Clay Gaspar said his teams are thinking about AI use in three waves, with the first one focused on existing current processes rather than overhauling them.
“We had engineers that spend 75% of their time trying to find data [and] 25% to analyze the data,” Gaspar said at a Goldman Sachs conference. “We’ve flip-flopped that. Now they’re 25% finding the data, 75% analyzing the data.”
Such tactics — and a sharper focus on higher-value work more broadly — can elevate individuals’ confidence that they’ll meet their personal growth goals. Those who responded to EBI feel good about following through: Nearly half said they’re very confident they’ll hit their targets, and only 5% are doubtful or not confident.
Asked what most often prevents professional goals from sticking, 31% of respondents to the EBI survey said shifting priorities. Another 12% said a lack of clarity or direction.
“Some people are starting their day scrambling for what they need to do,” Hatchett said. “Which is also why that anxiety sets in when we wake up, or when we’re driving to work, because we have fear that we don’t know what we’ll get done that day.”
Respondents to EBI’s survey recognize that tension and the need for great communication about what’s ahead: Asked what most often prevents professional goals from sticking, 31% said shifting priorities while another 12% said a lack of clarity or direction.
Couple those thoughts with the 23% that said time constraints are the biggest obstacle to hitting their goals and it’s clear that the C-suite has a tremendous opportunity to help their teams become better. Set clear strategic goals, build a supportive environment and give people some wiggle room to align themselves while also working their way toward their own aims.
About the Author
Geert De Lombaerde
Contributor
A native of Belgium, Geert De Lombaerde joined EndeavorB2B in September 2021 to cover public companies, markets, and economic trends primarily for IndustryWeek, FleetOwner, Oil & Gas Journal, T&D World, and Healthcare Innovation. His work focuses on strategy, leadership, capital spending, and mergers and acquisitions, and he also works with Endeavor Business Intelligence on surveys and data projects.
Geert has been in business journalism since the mid-1990s. With a degree in journalism from the University of Missouri, he began his reporting career at the Business Courier in Cincinnati, initially covering retail and the courts before shifting to banking, insurance, and investing. He later was managing editor and editor of the Nashville Business Journal before being named editor of the Nashville Post in 2008. He led a team that helped grow the Post's online traffic by an average of more than 15% annually before joining Endeavor.
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