Aligning Your Team Heading into 2026 When Everyone Is Starting from a Different Place
As the New Year begins, many leaders are eager to talk about priorities, goals, and what’s ahead. But before jumping straight into strategy, it’s worth pausing to acknowledge a quieter, often overlooked reality:
Your team may be walking back into work feeling very different things.
Some people return energized and excited to dive back in, happy to have structure again, relieved to be back in a familiar routine after a whirlwind of holidays or time off with kids. Others may feel the opposite, wishing the break had been longer, struggling to shake the mental fog, or finding it hard to re-engage after stepping away.
None of these reactions are wrong. They’re human.
From an organizational psychology perspective, this emotional and motivational mix isn’t a problem to solve, it’s a condition to design for. The real question for leaders heading into 2026 is:
How do you align and galvanize a team when people are starting from different emotional and cognitive places?
Start with Recognition, Not Resistance
Alignment doesn’t begin with a slide deck or a declaration of strategic priorities or goals, it begins with acknowledgment.
Simply asking, “How are you feeling coming back to the new year?” sends an important signal: people don’t need to perform enthusiasm to belong. When leaders normalize the range of post-holiday emotions, trust and authenticity increases both of which are important for engagement and a sense of belonging. Welcoming people back by showing a genuine interest in how they are doing and feeling sets up leaders to move teams forward together in a way that acknowledges everyone is starting from a different place.
Anchor the Team in Shared Purpose
While individuals may feel differently, teams still need a common “why.”
Shared goals are powerful not because they erase individual differences, but because they provide a focal point. A clear, meaningful direction gives people something stable to orient around even if their personal motivation fluctuates day to day or week to week.
As you kick-off 2026, ask:
What are we working toward together?
Why does this matter to our clients/customers/patients/students/etc., our organization, and each other?
What would success actually look like, not just in metrics, but in impact?
When goals are relatable and purpose-driven, it helps drive intrinsic motivation and can create a sense of excitement and enthusiasm that is often contagious among teams.
Break Big Goals into Mini Wins
Large, year-long goals can feel abstract especially to someone still finding their footing after time off. That’s where mini, achievable goals come in.
Short-term milestones with visible progress and quick rewards (recognition, celebration, autonomy, learning opportunities) help re-activate motivation. They create momentum. And momentum is often what people need before motivation fully returns.
From a behavioral standpoint, progress fuels engagement more reliably than pressure ever could.
Give People Something to Look Forward To
Engagement isn’t just about what people are working on, it’s also about what they’re working toward.
This could be personal and work related:
An upcoming launch or milestone
Professional development opportunities
Meaningful individual or team experiences offsite
A vision of how the work will evolve over the year
Anticipation is a powerful psychological driver. When people have something exciting or meaningful on the horizon, it becomes easier to re-invest energy in the present.
Alignment Is Ongoing, Not a One-Time Reset
Finally, it’s important to remember that alignment isn’t achieved in January and then checked off. It’s a continuous process that requires multiple check-ins and consistent communication.
Leaders who regularly revisit goals, recalibrate priorities, and check in on how their teams are doing (not just what they’re producing) are far better positioned to sustain engagement over time.
At Thinkwell, we see again and again that the most effective teams aren’t the ones where everyone feels the same, they’re the ones that are aligned enough to move forward together, even when they don’t.
As a leader, providing recognition, purpose, and reward while fostering anticipation, and maintaining consistency can go a long way in bringing teams together and creating environments in which people can thrive. But it all starts with simply checking in and understanding where people are starting from.
As you step into the New Year, consider this: before asking your team to rally around the work, take a moment to meet them where they are. Alignment starts there.