Final in a Series: The Road Ahead, RAILWAY AGE FEBRUARY 2026 ISSUE: The numbers don’t lie: According to the American Psychological Association’s 2025 Work in America survey, 54% said that job insecurity was having a significant impact on their stress levels at work, and 44% agreed that there are changes happening at their job with little to no warning. Forty percent expect the job market to worsen in 2026. Meanwhile, manufacturing activity has contracted for ten consecutive months, tariff uncertainty continues to reshape supply chains, and freight volumes remain volatile.
For our industry specifically, the challenges cut deeper. Railway Age Financial Editor David Nahass wrote: “Generally, the industrial economy is bearing the brunt of a kind of weakness that has led to a great amount of uncertainty about 2026 and its prospects.”
In a recent survey of rail contractors, workforce availability emerged as a top concern heading into 2026. A labor shortage can negatively impact project timelines, profitability and safety performance.
These are our realities and precisely why the leadership principles we’ve explored throughout this series matter more now than ever.
The Choice Before Every Rail Leader
The past three articles examined what distinguishes leaders who transform uncertainty into competitive advantage.
In Part 1, we started with the four-stage cycle:
• Heighten Awareness
• Increase Clarity
• Build Alignment
• Drive Momentum
In Part 2, we explored the leadership styles that emerge under stress:
• The Hammer, the command-and-control boss who gets short-term results while destroying long-term trust. When there’s a crisis, they make the call. When operations are falling behind, they crack the whip. Decisions are made and executed without question. The common phrase is, “I’m not here to be liked.” Things get done. In the short term, this style can turn around failing operations, meet aggressive deadlines and push through resistance. But people suffer. Burnout becomes common.
• The People Pleaser, who mistakes kindness for permissiveness. True kindness means caring enough about people to have the hard conversations that keep them safe and help them grow. Permissiveness isn’t compassion. It is cowardice dressed up as concern. Here’s the hard truth: When you avoid necessary conflict, you enable unnecessary risk.
Recognizing we must lead ourselves before leading others, Part 3 reviewed the importance of the Trinity of Excellence: self-awareness, self-control and self-respect.
We now have a choice. We can use realities and predictions to justify fear, paralysis, and retreat, or we can recognize them for what they are: The greatest opportunity for differentiation a career may ever present.
Why Uncertainty Creates Opportunity
When workers feel burned out, the leaders who genuinely invest in their people’s wellbeing become a magnet for the best performers fleeing toxic environments. When workforce availability is the industry’s greatest concern, the organization that treats railroaders with dignity solves a problem technology alone cannot fix.
Class I leaders themselves acknowledge 2026 will bring “limited volume growth” and continued macroeconomic headwinds. CN’s Tracy Robinson put it directly: “We’re not accepting the macro reality as our fate. We’re just going to have to work harder to achieve our goals.”
That’s not optimism. It’s fierce resolve and the posture of leadership.
Putting It All Together
Heighten Awareness of what’s really happening in your operation. The macro trends cited are industry-wide, but your track crews, signal maintainer, and yard workers see realities the boardroom misses. Ask them what they’re seeing about the challenges ahead.
Increase Clarity by establishing decision anchors that work even during times of uncertainty. When your people encounter unexpected conditions, can they make quick decisions without waiting for you? If not, deliver clarity to build trust and drive performance.
Build Alignment around a higher purpose. Safety remains a key mission for our industry. Besides safety, what other purpose-driven pursuit can galvanize your team so they can flourish, even during times of uncertainty?
Drive Momentum by celebrating early wins while recognizing they reveal the next challenges. Success in one area gives you credibility and organizational confidence to tackle what comes next.
And through each stage, lead yourself first. Know your triggers. Control your responses. Respect your capacity. A burned-out leader cannot solve a burnout crisis. A fearful leader cannot inspire confidence. A reactive leader cannot build strategic momentum.
The Final Word
Since hope is not a strategy, 2026 will reveal which rail leaders are prepared and proactive and which are not.
The organizations that will thrive—attracting talent, maintaining safety standards, achieving results without destroying their people—will be led by those who master themselves first.
We cannot control the macro environment, eliminate tariff uncertainty or instantly create skilled workers. But we can control how we respond. We can control whether we lead from fear or purpose, whether we build trust or destroy it.
To see if your leadership is a competitive advantage during times of uncertainty, check out https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/TheRailWay_Lead.
Pauline Lipkewich has been railroading since 2011, including leading the global group sales team at Rocky Mountaineer and growing revenues more than five times in less than four years. She has also worked alongside Class I operators at CN, Kansas City Southern and Norfolk Southern, specifically targeting safety performance and operational effectiveness improvements. She runs KingdomBuilding Leadership, Inc., a boutique firm committed to helping individuals and organizations go further, faster by leveraging behaviors and culture as a key competitive advantage. Pauline’s love of leadership, heavy industry and unlocking the potential in people is the genesis in bringing The Rail Way™ to life. Her ability to build trust and performance with the individuals and organizations she works with has been demonstrated through the awards and recognition her teams and clients have received. Pauline has a Bachelor of Commerce and a Master of Arts (Leadership), both from the University of Guelph. If you have an idea for a future column for The Rail Way™, contact Pauline directly at pauline.lipkewich@kingdombuildingleadership.com or +1.780.991.9993. The Rail Way™, a division of KingdomBuilding Leadership, Inc., strives to be the preeminent voice on leadership, people, behaviors and culture for the transportation industry while transforming how the rail sector develops generational railroaders and creates value for all stakeholders. KingdomBuilding Leadership, Inc. specializes in organizational transformation by focusing on high performance leadership behaviors, people and culture. Leveraging three pillars of performance, clients witness rapid, profound and sustainable results—often taking them from industry laggard to industry leader—when implementing proven methods and strategies and utilizing tools.
