Leadership skills 2026 look nothing like what most executives, CEOs and business owners were trained to develop. In Episode 145 of The Profit Minds Podcast, Dr. Steven Kirch sits down with Chris March – former COO, certified executive coach and advisor to 6, 7, 8 and 9-figure founders.
Chris spent 17 years in senior operational roles across Australia, Canada and the UK before making the pivot to executive coaching. And his message to every leader in 2026 is clear and urgent. The playbook you have relied on until now is no longer going to be relevant moving forward. The world is moving too fast. And the leaders who understand this are already pulling ahead.
In this episode, Dr. Kirch and Chris March break down the most critical leadership skills 2026 demands from every CEO, executive and business owner:
Chris March grew up in Australia dreaming of playing professional basketball. After those dreams did not pan out, he worked in real estate, moved to London with no plan, traveled throughout Europe, fell in love with the travel industry and moved to Vancouver in 2009. He spent 17 years with Flight Center, working his way up from the travel industry into senior operational roles.
When COVID decimated the travel industry and his organization of 10,000 employees faced an uncertain future, Chris was forced to lay off 90% of his staff – a moment that became his defining leadership experience. That crisis sent him on a journey toward executive coaching. He completed Jay Shetty’s coaching certification and a dedicated executive coaching program, launched his practice in 2022 and has since coached hundreds of leaders globally.
Most leaders in 2026 are operating with a playbook that was designed for a world that no longer exists. The pace of change, the volume of information and the arrival of AI have made the traditional command-and-control leadership model not just ineffective – but dangerous.
As Chris explains, the single biggest leadership challenge he sees in scaling founders is that they are chasing shiny objects. They want three, four or five strategic priorities at once. They move fast and cover wide ground. And they wonder why nothing moves the needle. His solution is simple and counterintuitive. Slow down to speed up. Pick the one constraint in your business this quarter. Focus on that one thing. Eliminate everything else as noise.
One of the most valuable and overlooked insights in this episode is Chris’s warning about the AI echo chamber. Large language models are trained to validate your feelings and give positive responses. This means that if you use AI as your first thinking partner rather than your own mind – you are building a dangerous habit of outsourcing your intelligence.
As Chris explains – and as confirmed by his own experience – the ideas need to come from you first. AI supports the thinking. It is a thought partner to help accelerate and give different perspectives. But defaulting to AI before engaging your own brain builds no resilience, no intelligence and creates poor habits over time. His fix is simple. When prompting AI, always add – give me a response as a CEO. This ensures the output challenges you rather than soothes you.
The most important leadership skills 2026 demands are deeply human. Empathy. Listening. Psychological safety. Vulnerability. These are not soft skills. In an age of AI and machine intelligence, these are the premium competitive differentiators that no algorithm can
As Chris says – people are wired for connection. They come to work to connect with other people and to be helped to move forward. A leader’s role is to acknowledge, understand and remove obstacles.
Get FREE access to Chris’s 5-Day Leadership Email Course – designed to help you accelerate your leadership in the age of AI.
👉 Grab Your Free Course: howtoaccelerateyourleadership.com
Also sign up for Chris’s free newsletter packed with leadership insights.
👉 Newsletter: chrismarchcoaching.com
Dr. Steven Kirch is the creator of the Profit Minds™ Growth System, which helps entrepreneurs and professionals accelerate profits through productivity, scalable systems, and AI-powered business strategies.
Subscribe to The Profit Minds Podcast
Never miss an episode! Subscribe to The Profit Minds Podcast now for conversations with top business leaders, financial experts, and innovators who help you grow and scale smarter and who expose critical truths wealth destroyers.
Available on all major podcast platforms.
