As we close 2025 and look ahead to the promises of 2026, here is a playbook to win. In our places of work, there is a truth we must first understand: the Human Resources department is not primarily established to help you; it is established to help the company and advance its mission. That is not criticism; it is simply how organizations are designed. HR will always interpret policies in favor of the firm before the individual. If no one has told you this before, read it here, as you prepare for a productive and profitable 2026.
This also means we must discard the illusion that the workplace is a family reunion square where everyone gathers daily and goes home happy. Companies are not built as family unions. They are platforms where people assemble to pursue a mission, to fix identified frictions in the market by mobilizing ideas, capital, and execution, to create products and services.
In that translation from mission to market, everyone must deliver. You must get your job done. Even in the most supportive organizations, if the mission no longer sees a path into the future with you, it will act accordingly, regardless of how anyone feels. The core objective is not to make individuals happy; it is to accomplish the strategic mission. In the tri-pillars of people, processes, and tools, if you are perceived as weak in the people pillar, you will be asked to move on.
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What does this teach us about work, careers, and job titles? A lot. And it leads to one of the greatest forms of career liberation: do not allow your job title or workplace to define your identity. Titles and organizations are ephemeral. If you anchor your self-worth solely on them, the day they change or disappear, you will be miserable. You must matter to people because of who you are, not just where you work or what you are called.
So, pursue a positive professional personality. Personality does not expire in the minds of people, even when titles and workplaces do. In truth, the only permanent professional “title” any of us carries is our personality.
Indeed, when the moment comes, will a colleague recommend you for an opportunity? Will a classmate invest in a venture you are starting? In those moments, no one remembers titles. They remember how you treated people, how you showed up, and how you made them feel. And that is my challenge to you for 2026: getting people to recommend you in your absence because the best time to audition for a GREAT job is when none is advertised!
Build relationships anchored on respect, trust, and positive energy. That is a fountain from which you can draw living waters of abundance after job titles, companies, and workplace brands have faded.
People like to work, and do business, with people who bring positive vibes. If you become that person, your professional options will widen. May 2026 work for all of us. Have a truly great one ahead.
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Have credibility, it’s who you are that matters. What is said when you are not present speaks louder, if good things are said, then you are good to people. Don’t project what you are not, very important.