The 2026 New Year’s Resolution for HR Leaders

HR Veteran Sarah King provides a comprehensive roadmap to help people leaders succeed in the coming year.

We began our January interview with Sarah King, founder of King Consulting LLC, with a question: ‘What New Year’s resolution should every HR executive have in 2026?’

Her answer was thoughtful, dynamic, and eye-opening. For any business leader, King’s resolution will no doubt hold the key to unlocking performance success in the coming year and far beyond.

She answered, “It’s funny, when you think of the word resolution, there are three definitions that come to mind.”

 Below are the three definitions that she is referring to:

The traditional New Year’s definition: a goal that we set out to accomplish.

The act of having resolve, or the firmness of determination to accomplish your tasks.

The process of finding an answer or solution to the issue at hand. (ie. conflict resolution)

Her resolution lies at the nexus of all three of these ideas: 

“It really does come back to conflict. If you don’t resolve the conflict at hand, your team will not be on the same page about what needs to be done to achieve your goals. It’s all about resolving those little things before they turn into really big things.”

“So, the resolution for 2026 is resolution.”

– Sarah King

At the heart of every HR role is mediation, negotiation, and collaboration. People leaders must strive to master the communication skills required for effective conflict resolution. And to King, most importantly, this pursuit must be done with the determination, the resolve, to achieve performance success. 

In order to prioritize progress in the skill of conflict resolution, King urges us to focus on two main areas of growth. Firstly, one must put in the time to understand the business that they operate in, and second, they must lean into the tough conversations. 

Understanding the Business

“You cannot motivate, coach, or help people do anything work related if you don’t understand the business that you operate in. Especially at the senior level, it is HR’s responsibility to understand the business on an executive level.

When HR just operates from a task perspective or focuses on one person at a time, they can lose sight of the fact that we can actually drive business, we can actually drive the growth of the company if we take care of the people the right way.”, says King. 

It is often an afterthought that HR is crucial in driving business success. Employee performance and carefully managed team dynamics are paramount to the business operating at its highest potential. So, it is all the more important that a people leader understands exactly how they can tailor their services to impact company success.

King gives us a great example of this from her time at a construction company where she was Senior HR Manager. She was faced with the option of renewing the company’s healthcare provider or switching to another service that offered lower premiums. On surface level, it should have been a simple decision to switch providers, but King was well versed in the specifics of the company’s day-to-day business. 

“Lower premiums are great, but when the employees work on a wind farm in a rural area and they have to get their prescription mailed to them, can the healthcare operator provide that service? If we don’t have that service, there could be a day when the CEO comes to me saying, ‘how the heck did you pick a benefits plan that screwed our best crane operator out of his diabetes medication while he was out of state?’”

Only by knowing the system in which employees operate can HR leaders provide adequate care. In this scenario, King was able to avoid a potential conflict down the road because she had taken the time to understand the nuances of her company and the lives of those who work for it. 

King adds, 

“If you want respect, if you want a seat at the table, if you want the other managers to listen to you, you have to understand the business. You cannot be oblivious to the challenges out on the floor because that’s part of the [employee] experience.”

Leaning into the Tough Conversations

This brings us to the other half of King’s resolution: practicing conflict-based communication skills. It is imperative that HR leaders are comfortable in uncomfortable or potentially volatile conversations. 

King provides us with three key strategies to help leaders manage communication:

Clear is kind.

This quote was popularized by Brené Brown in her book Dare to Lead, but it rings especially true in the workplace. A substantial amount of issues in the workplace arise from uncertainty and distrust, and a manager can limit those feelings by being abundantly clear in the expectations that are set for an employee. As King says, “setting clear expectations can avoid most conflicts.”

Talk to people, not about them.

Conflict resolution can only be effective when there is direct dialogue amongst all parties. The hardest part of any difficult conversation is starting it, but it is the only path forward for amiable and effective resolutions.

Trust your direct reports to make mistakes and recover.

King says “Micromanagement is a sign of distrust. It is announcing, essentially, that I don’t trust you to do this task yourself. While you may not actually realize this as a micromanager, you’re demonstrating it because you’re not willing to let them fall down and get back up. True resilience comes from failure and recovery. If I’m not coaching my report on how to think for themselves and allowing them to fail, I’m not giving them a chance to learn and improve.”

These three principles allow and encourage focused dialogue in high-intensity situations, all while preventing unnecessary conflict escalations. Proper communication is key to HR success.

Be the Resolution 

As AI ingrains itself more deeply in every industry and those industries are forced to adjust, it is even more imperative that HR leaders remain resolute in their roles. By taking the time to understand the details of their business, and by applying good faith communication skills in high-leverage situations, people leaders can remain a beacon of strength in an age of change.

Learn more about Sarah King Consulting LLC and how Sarah helps HR leaders resolve complex people challenges with confidence: https://king-consultingllc.com/

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