Three Well-Being Trends I’m Paying Close Attention to as We Head into 2026

Lately, I’ve found myself reflecting on well-being in very ordinary moments.

While talking with my partner.

While cutting meat for the cats and listening to the latest “2026 trends” podcasts.

And during my winter walks along the river — where thoughts from work, life, and leadership tend to quietly merge.

These are often the moments where awareness surfaces — not when we’re trying to improve something, but when we finally slow down enough to notice what’s already there.

One reflection keeps returning, especially as I spend time with leaders and teams in corporate IT:

Well-being doesn’t really live in programs.It lives in how work — and life — is designed, day to day.

In high-pressure IT environments — global delivery models, client commitments, incidents that don’t respect time zones — this distinction matters more than ever.

Here are three shifts I’m paying close attention to as we head into 2026.

1. From Adding Frameworks to Designing Work (and Life) More Intentionally

For years, I — like many others — was drawn to new frameworks, new methods, new practices.Another meditation. Another tool. Another productivity system. Another health protocol. Another well-being perk.

Useful, yes. But recently, my focus has shifted.

In my coaching work — including with senior leaders in corporate IT — I’m spending less time asking “what else can we add?” and more time inviting people to pause and observe:

How is your day actually designed?

How is your work actually designed?

I was coaching a business millionaire recently. We could have easily spent the session discussing expansion into Dubai, new ventures, new scale. Instead, we slowed the conversation down and focused on something far more foundational:

How can we design your day so it supports clarity, energy, and sustainable performance — not just growth on paper?

This is often where coaching becomes less about answers and more about awareness.

The same question shows up in organizations.

When cognitive load is high, meetings stack endlessly, and urgency becomes the default, no amount of well-being programming can compensate. In 2026, I see a clearer shift toward work design as the primary lever — reducing unnecessary friction, clarifying priorities, and intentionally designing space for focus, reflection, and recovery.

Not softer work.

Smarter — and more conscious — work.

2. Personalization — With Awareness, Not Just Technology

Together with my partner, I run a center for functional medicine in Wrocław. We care deeply about data. We want lab results, patterns, history — as much signal as possible.

But data alone never creates change.

What matters just as much is how we work with that data — with awareness, care, and compassion. It requires our presence as practitioners, and it requires gently raising the patient’s awareness alongside our own.

I see this clearly in my coaching work as well.

With one client, we’re using the well-being data they’re already gathering — sleep, energy levels, stress patterns — and integrating it more consciously with their work-life balance goals. Not to optimize them further, but to help them notice patterns, make informed choices, and redesign their work rhythms accordingly.

Without awareness, data stays external.With awareness, it becomes something people can actually work with.

The same applies in workplaces.

AI, analytics, and dashboards can help us notice patterns earlier — overload, fatigue, disengagement. That’s powerful. But personalization only works when it’s guided by human judgment, ethical intention, and mindful use — not surveillance or optimization pressure.

Used consciously, data helps us redesign systems before burnout becomes normal.Used unconsciously, it simply asks people to adapt even more to already strained environments.

3. Well-Being as a Leadership Practice

This one is personal.

I find it difficult to follow someone who doesn’t practice what they preach.

A physical therapist who never moves.

A dietitian who doesn’t take care of their own health.

A mindfulness teacher who is only mindful during courses.

A technology leader who talks about resilience and sustainability, but runs their teams in permanent incident mode.

Something doesn’t align.

In the same way, when I look at leaders I want to follow in corporate IT, I don’t just look at how well they run delivery, margins, or transformation programs.

I look at how they run themselves.

With another client, our work has focused specifically on this — how they practice what they preach, especially in moments where they experience perceived failure. Not whether they say the right things when things go well, but how they respond internally and externally when things don’t.

Do they slow down or push harder?

Do they reflect or react?

Do they extend the same care and understanding to themselves that they encourage in others?

These moments, more than any leadership statement, shape culture.

In 2026, well-being in IT is becoming less of an HR topic and more of a leadership capability — embodied daily, especially under pressure.

A Closing Reflection

As we head into 2026, I’m less interested in bold well-being statements and new perks or benefits.

I’m more interested in small, intentional design choices.

Not just in organizations — but in our own lives.

How are you designing your day?

Your work rhythms?

Your team meetings?

Your relationships?

Often, well-being starts there — quietly — through awareness and choice — long before it appears in a strategy deck.

Sources I’m Paying Attention To (for those who like to go deeper)

• World Health Organization & International Labour Organization — Guidelines on Mental Health at Work

• National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) — Total Worker Health®

• Gartner — work friction, cognitive load, and sustainable performance in IT

• Gallup — manager impact on engagement and well-being

• MIT Sloan Management Review — responsible use of people analytics and AI

• World Economic Forum — well-being as organizational infrastructure

• 2026 Workplace Well-Being Trends You Need To Know (YouTube)

• Wellbeing at Work 2026 Trends (YouTube)

A Quiet Invitation

If any of these reflections resonate — in how you design your work, your leadership, or your day — you don’t have to navigate that alone.

My coaching work is a space to slow things down, notice what’s actually happening, and redesign work and life in a way that supports clarity, well-being, and sustainable performance — especially in complex, high-pressure environments.

Sometimes the most meaningful changes start with a single, honest conversation.