As we head into the holidays and experience the 2025 holiday season, I thought it would be interesting to summarize how, over the past year, our team at Know Your Talents has been writing about the very issues that shape how people work, lead, and succeed today. As CEO, I’ve had the privilege of watching these themes develop across our blog, not as isolated ideas, but as a clear blueprint for the future of people strategy.
Everything we’ve published comes back to one belief: organizations win through people, and people thrive when they understand themselves, feel aligned with their culture, and have leaders who know how to bring out their strengths. Behavior drives performance. Culture drives behavior. Leadership connects it all.
This blog is a summary of what we’ve taught, learned, and emphasized over the past eleven months—and what I believe every organization must understand as it moves into 2026.
1. People Data Must Come First
One of the most prominent themes we shared this year is that people data is the new foundation of talent strategy. In our March 10th article, The Ultimate Guide to People Data and PDP Assessments in Modern Corporate Environments, we outlined how behavioral data helps organizations finally move away from “guessing” and start making decisions based on objective insights.
I’ve personally seen this play out hundreds of times:
- Managers struggling to understand why their team isn’t communicating well
- Teams stuck in the wrong roles or misaligned expectations
- Employees whose natural talents were never recognized until a PDP report revealed them
These aren’t minor issues; they directly affect performance, engagement, and turnover.
When we say, “people data drives better business decisions,” we mean it. And when you understand someone’s behavior and what motivates them, you can place them in the proper role, develop them effectively, and build a culture where they thrive.
This is no longer optional. Organizations that want to compete must treat people data as a strategic asset.
2. Culture Isn’t a Buzzword—It’s a Business System
Culture has been a significant focus of our blogs because it is the invisible force that determines whether companies remain stagnant or grow.
Early in the year, we published Corporate Culture Examples: Fostering Corporate Culture in 2025, where we examined what top companies do differently. In February, we expanded on that with What is a Company Culture Consultant?, defining the fundamental role of a culture expert—not as someone who runs workshops, but as a partner who measures behavior, identifies gaps, and helps leadership operationalize the culture they claim to value.
From my seat as CEO, I can tell you:
Culture must be intentional.
Culture must be measurable.
Culture must be lived.
Left unattended, culture becomes accidental—and accidental cultures rarely support growth.
Every article we wrote on this topic drove home the same message: Culture doesn’t change by talking about it. Culture changes when leaders understand behavior, make decisions aligned with their values, and hold the organization accountable to living those values every day.
3. Leadership Development Needs to Focus on the Middle of the Organization
Another clear pattern: Leaders in the middle are the ones who hold everything together.
This year, we published:
- The Leadership Skills Middle Managers Are Responsible for Navigating Leadership from the Middle
- Coaching Leadership Styles: Which One Are You?
- Leadership Development and Its Importance in The Modern Business Landscape
These articles address the truth many companies overlook:
To achieve strong frontline performance and strategic alignment, you must invest in your middle managers.
They are the translators between vision and execution. They mentor employees, carry the weight of change, and shape the day-to-day experience of most of your workforce.
Too many organizations assume middle managers should “just know how to lead.”
But leadership isn’t instinct. Leadership is behavior. Leadership is a skill. Leadership is learned.
This is why we’ve placed so much emphasis on coaching styles, behavioral leadership development, and equipping managers with tools that help them better understand themselves and their teams.
Organizations investing here are seeing reduced turnover, better engagement, and more consistent execution across departments.
4. Workforce Management Is No Longer Just an Operational Function
In late March, we published Workforce Management: The Cornerstone of Operational Excellence, expanding the definition of workforce management from “scheduling” and “seat filling” to a comprehensive strategic discipline.
Today, workforce management includes:
- Capacity planning
- Demand forecasting
- Skills alignment
- Performance measurement
- Compliance
- Employee engagement
What I want companies to understand—and what we emphasize in the blog—is that you cannot optimize your workforce without understanding your people.
Workforce planning without behavioral science is merely a matter of number crunching.
Workforce planning with behavioral science is a talent optimization approach.
Talent optimization is the process by which companies transition from being reactive to being strategic.
5. Training Consultants and Execution-Focused Consulting Are Becoming More Critical
In May, we released two blog posts that reflect a shift happening across the consulting world:
- Your Guide to Training Consultants: How Know Your Talents Empowers Organizations Through Expert Training Solutions
- Top Consulting Firms: Excellence in Corporate Management with Know Your Talents
- Management Consulting vs. Strategy Consulting: What sets them apart?
Throughout all of these, the theme was consistent:
Most organizations don’t struggle because they lack strategy; they struggle because they lack execution.
This is where training consultants and behavior-based management consulting become essential.
Companies don’t need more binders full of plans that never get implemented. They need:
- Real behavioral insights
- Leadership alignment
- Cultural clarity
- Tailored training
- Guidance through change
- Someone who can stay with them through execution
This is the gap Know Your Talents fills. Our consulting is human-focused, behavior-based, and execution-driven. And our blog this year made that clear.
6. AI, Culture, and Change Management Are Now One Conversation
Our October article, Culture, AI, and Change: A Recipe for Challenges, and Why Those Who Solve Them Will Win, reflected something I’ve personally seen accelerate this year: AI is changing business faster than most leaders can keep up with.
But the surprising truth, one the blog highlights, is that AI is not the main challenge—
People are. Culture is. Change is.
AI can automate tasks, analyze data, and improve efficiency . . . But AI cannot lead people.
AI cannot connect behavior to strategy. AI cannot build engagement, trust, or alignment.
And it certainly cannot fix culture.
When I say, “AI is now a culture problem,” I mean that leaders must build an environment where people can adapt, stay resilient, embrace new tools, and work in new ways.
Every organization will face AI-driven disruption. But only the organizations that invest in culture, behavior, and AI training for their staff and leadership will thrive through it.
Our blog has consistently reinforced this reality over the last year and will continue to do so in 2026.
7. Growth in Hard Times Comes From People-Centric Thinking
At the end of 2024, we published three essential pieces:
- Identifying Company Growth Opportunities in Adversity
- Employee Training Online Unlocks the Power for Company Growth
- Behavioral Assessment Testing: The Power of Behavioral Assessment Tests for Workplace Success
These articles reminded leaders that growth doesn’t come from defensive decision-making; it comes from investing intelligently in your people.
The companies that grow in challenging times are those that:
- Understand their people
- Use data to make decisions
- Develop skills proactively
- Stay flexible
- Focus on behavior, culture, and alignment
This is the leadership mindset we’ve been advocating for all year.
The Story These Blogs Tell—and the Direction We’re Leading
Looking back, the last eleven months of KYT blog content tell a unified story:
- People strategy must begin with behavioral data.
- Culture must be intentional, measurable, and leader-led.
- Middle managers must be trained, supported, and developed.
- Workforce management must align people and operational strategy.
- Consulting must go beyond strategy—it must drive execution.
- AI disruption is really human disruption, and culture will determine who succeeds.
- In difficult times, people-centric organizations win.
As CEO, I believe there has never been a more critical time for companies to take a holistic, behavior-first approach to people, performance, and culture. The challenges that will arise over the next decade, AI, talent shortages, hybrid work, and intensified competition, won’t be solved through technology alone.
They will be solved by leaders who understand their people, develop their teams, and build cultures capable of adapting to change.
That is what our blog has been teaching.
That is what Know Your Talents stands for.
And that is the direction we’re committed to leading.
More Posts
Culture, AI, and Change: A Recipe for Challenges, and Why Those Who Solve Them Will Win
Management Consulting vs. Strategy Consulting: What sets them apart?
