Last week at our nXus People Christmas drinks at the Commonwealth Club, Canberra Leaders asked our 70 guests from industry, government and NFPs a simple question: what’s really going on inside your organisations?
The results were fascinating.
💡 1. Collaboration matters — everyone knows it.
A massive 97% said effective collaboration is either highly important or essential to organisational success. No surprises there as everyone wants teams that hum.
But only 37% say collaboration is actually very effective today. A classic gap between aspiration and reality.
🚧 2. The barriers? Time, trust and role clarity.
Top challenges included:
- Lack of time — 43%
- Inconsistent follow-through — 51%
- Dysfunctional team dynamics or low trust — 34%
- Lack of Leadership Capability — 23%
Canberra Leaders know what matters, but the system isn’t always set up for success.
🧭 3. Confidence wobbles come from the environment, not the Canberra leaders.
Only 6% think leadership is the issue. The big factors impacting confidence?
- Culture & systems — 37%
- Team willingness/readiness — 43%
- Time & competing priorities — 43%
We believe that leaders have a massive influence over all these challenges, so is there a bit of chicken-and-egg here?
🔥 4. The big people challenges of 2026 are already visible.
Across all sectors, three themes dominated:
- Burnout & psychosocial hazards — 31%
- Talent scarcity in critical roles — 37%
- Developing & maintaining leadership capability — 31%
Add in organisational churn, rising expectations from staff, and limited AI capability, and it’s clear that to navigate these issues, most organisations have drivers to lean in to developing great leadership in 2026,
🎁 5. Billie’s Christmas Team Behaviour Poll (the most important data point).
Guests felt that right now their organisations identified as:
- Elves – gets it done but exhausted (31%)
- Reindeer – generally pulling together (40%)
- Santa – big promises, frantic finish (17%)
- The Grinch – please no Secret Santa (11%)
A highly scientific assessment confirming what we suspected: people are working hard, collaboration is uneven, and many teams are running on fumes by December. Remember…… Unless you have a calendar year/financial year relationship, nothing much changes in the couple of weeks over Christmas, so do you really need to get everything done now?
So what does this all say?
At Christmas drinks Canberra Leaders are deeply aware of the challenges in collaboration, culture, and capability.
They know burnout is real. They want to lift team performance, and they know they need help doing it sustainably.
For us at nXus People, that’s exactly where we love to work.
Here’s to more honest conversations, more resilient teams, and fewer exhausted elves in 2026.🎄
