Unlock 2026 Success: 3 Reflection Questions for NGO Leaders

What if answering just three powerful questions today could completely change how you lead and how much impact you make in 2026?

If you’re heading into the new year feeling busy, stretched thin, or unsure how to grow your impact without burning out, this episode speaks directly to you, helping you shift from reacting to demands to intentionally designing a leadership year that creates results, clarity, and a stronger team.

In this episode, you’ll gain:

• Clear insight into which tasks are draining your time and how delegating them can unlock growth for both you and your team.
• A simple way to identify the leadership activities that create the greatest impact—so your time finally aligns with what matters most.
• A practical framework to turn reflection into action and design a focused, sustainable leadership strategy for 2026.

Hit play now to start shaping a calmer, more impactful 2026 by answering the three questions that help great leaders work smarter, not longer.

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FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:

Unlock 2026 Success: 3 Reflection Questions for NGO Leaders

[00:00:00] Have you ever noticed that your brain always tries to answer whatever questions you give it? So the question is, what types of questions are you asking yourself? If you ask yourself questions such as, why am I always behind? Your brain will give you reasons versus if you ask yourself a question like, how can I create more impact in 2026, your brain will give you solutions. This is why it's so important to be aware of the types of questions that we're asking ourselves, and also how important it is that we ask valuable questions when we're planning for 2026, or for any time for that matter. So today I'm sharing three powerful questions that will help you unlock a more successful, focused, and sustainable 2026, so you can [00:01:00] achieve in less time, reduce stress, and become the leader you truly want to be.

So, these three questions will help you free up your time, create a clear plan for leadership growth and have a bigger impact with less effort. Sound good? Alright, so let's get started, shall we? So these questions are ones that you can answer within 10 to 15 minutes, and I promise that the clarity that you'll gain will shape your entire year. Hello my friends, my name is Torrey Peace and welcome back to the Modern Humanitarian and Development Leader podcast. I am your host and I am a leadership coach to humanitarian and development leaders around the world. Okay, so today is all about setting up yourself for [00:02:00] success in 2026. I don't know about you, but I do like to think about and reflect on how much more I can achieve, how much more impact I can create, how much more I can grow as a leader in the following year. And not just about success as a leader, but sustainable success. Success that doesn't burn you out but instead it gives you more space, more clarity, and a stronger team.

And that starts with this first question. So the first question to ask yourself is, 'What took up the majority of your time in 2025 that you now want to delegate in 2026?' So this is one of the first questions that I often give my students for my course, 'Becoming the Modern Humanitarian and Development Leader'.

And without fail, I hear the same things over and over - I [00:03:00] spend too much time in meetings. I'm the one working and writing on donor reports. I'm constantly telling my team what to do and I'm handling logistics or field travel that someone else could manage. And the important thing isn't the activity, but it's what it reveals.

So you're still doing things that your team could learn to own if they were empowered. So for 2026, I wanna ask you to ask yourself, who could take this on? What would they need to know to take this on? What steps would I need to take and make that possible? And when will I start? Delegation is not a shortcut.

It's an investment. So although you have to set up time and effort in the beginning, the return in the long run is enormous. [00:04:00] Just think of some of the things that you could free up your time with; more growth for your team as well. So here's a small example for my own life, for six years, I've been editing and editing my podcast myself.

The audio, the descriptions, the thumbnails, everything. But eventually I realized that this is not the best use of my time, that I can actually delegate these things and free up quite a bit of time, while also empowering my virtual assistant to be able to take on more. And so I train my virtual assistant to do it, and now she does it beautifully and even better than I do in some ways.

And it has freed up so much time for me that I'm able to focus on things that lead to an even greater impact. Things that I can do for you all. So your team is [00:05:00] waiting for these same opportunities. I want you to think about what would you love to be able to delegate? Not only to empower your team, but to be able to free up your time and to be able to focus on things that you can really create impact with.

Question number two, 'If you only had two hours a day to create the most impact, what would you focus on?' So this type of question I love because it creates a lot of clarity. When we have a limited time to work with, it's like when we procrastinate, the less time that we have to use, the more productive we sometimes become.

It's because we suddenly have to really prioritize what's the most important and get it done. So this question also focuses on clarity around what is the most important thing that you can spend your time on that will really [00:06:00] create an impact. So it reveals your top leadership priorities, what truly moves the needle and what you wish you had more time for.

So when I was a country manager, I probably would've answered this question by saying my top two things were, number one, spending time coaching my team. And number two, networking with partners and donors. Those were the things that if I spent more time on, I knew I would get more impact from. And if I only did those two things daily, even just for an hour each day, the whole office ran better.

There were fewer fires, there were stronger relationships, more ownership for my team and better team performance. So ask yourself, if I only had two hours a day, what would I choose? The idea here is not that you're [00:07:00] only gonna be working two hours a day, but the idea is to start to identify what are the things that you wanna prioritize the most that will make the most impact?

And then how can you start to shift more of your time in that direction? So most leaders know the answer. But because the tasks that you often want to prioritize aren't urgent, you don't prioritize them. So this question helps you see the gap between what creates the most impact and how you're currently spending your time.

And that gap is where your 2026 transformation begins. Okay. Question number three. The final question that you can spend 10 to 15 minutes on and really make a bigger impact for the entire year of 2026 is, 'What needs to change so you can spend more time on the activities that matter the [00:08:00] most?' So we've already identified what are the activities that matter the most in question two.

This is where clarity turns now into action. In question two, you figure out what you would like to focus on. In question three, you think about how you can make that happen. So in my leadership program, once again, my course, 'Becoming the Modern Humanitarian Development Leader', we explore this through something that I call a 'Leadership Impact Goal'.

I help leaders see how they spend their time currently, how it is shaping their future, and the kind of team that they build and the type of leader that they are becoming. Because here's the truth, if you spend your time telling your team what to do, you're gonna create a dependent team. But if you spend your time coaching and empowering your team, you create a more confident, [00:09:00] independent team. One that allows you to free up more of your time so you can focus on the things that you would like to prioritize for those two hours.

So small shifts and how you use your time can reshape your entire leadership legacy. So I want you to ask yourself: What systems would need to change? What tasks need to be delegated? What skills do I need to develop? For example, maybe coaching, networking, feedback skills. What support do I need? What will I stop doing and what will I keep doing?

This is where you design your 2026 leadership strategy, the actions you need to take in order to really reprioritize your time so that you can create a bigger impact by focusing on the things you know will [00:10:00] make the most. Before we wrap up, I just wanna recap these three questions so you can take action today.

Okay, so number one, what took up the majority of your time in 2025 that you now could delegate in 2026? Identify it, decide who can take it on and make a plan to start delegating today. Number two, if you've had only two hours a day to focus on something that would create the most impact, what would you focus on?

That reveals what you should be prioritizing over the next year. And then finally number three, what needs to change so you can spend more time on those high impact activities that you've identified in part in question number two. So this is where you design your 2026 leadership plan. What do I need to [00:11:00] learn?

What do I need to delegate? What do I need to do in order to really refocus my time to make the biggest impact? This is where your challenge begins, and here is also where your opportunity begins. Pick one of these questions and answer it today, but don't wait because leaders don't change by accident.

They change by intention. I see it all the time with the leaders that take my course. When they become more intentional about where they're going and how they use their time, they automatically start to make a bigger impact. And you can too. And if you want 2026 to be the year where you work fewer hours, reduce stress, empower your team, and feel more confident in your leadership, these three questions are the perfect place to start.

So if you found this [00:12:00] episode helpful, please share it with another NGO leader who might benefit. Send it to your team or even post your biggest takeaway on LinkedIn and tag me. Your reflection might inspire someone else to lead differently in 2026. And if you're feeling isolated as an NGO leader, because I know sometimes it can be lonely at the top, and we've talked about this in previous podcast episodes, how important community is when we're trying, especially to really lead and create change that is not currently seen around us.

So next week, I'm going to go deeper into the secret to sustained success in 2026 - finding your people and better yet, how you can find the right community that can transform your leadership journey, even if it's not within your [00:13:00] current organization. Okay, you don't want to miss this. Alright, until then, keep evolving.

Bye for now.

Are you the type of leader that tells others what to do, or do you let them figure it out for themselves? Understanding your leadership style is a first step to deciding what's working for you and what's not. To find out your leadership style, take my free quiz, What is your leadership style? You'll immediately find out your default style, how it may be impacting your team, and a few practical ways to become an even better leader.

Just click on the link in the show notes, www.aidforaidworkers.com/quiz. Fill out your quiz and click submit. So what are you waiting for? Go to www.aidforaidworkers.com/quiz and discover your [00:14:00] leadership style now. Your team will thank you for it.