At Q4intelligence, we choose a theme every year to drive our thinking and actions.
Last year, our theme was “community.” We obsessed over what it means to be an active participant in the communities we’re part of, our clients, peers, industry, and the people we learn from every day.
Community requires people to show up regularly, not just when it’s convenient. The most impactful communities only happen when we’re actively contributing, listening, supporting, and helping move the collective forward.
We’re building on that foundation this year with our 2026 theme, “Connection.”
As we think about the relationship between these two themes, we see community as our critically important environment, and meaningful connections as what makes the communities work.
Communities provide the opportunity. When people in that community are engaged, invested, and connected, the community's impact can be realized.
Over years of working with employee benefits agencies and producers, our most significant moments of learning and growth have happened through meaningful one-on-one connections and conversations. They are those serendipitous interactions you immediately recognize as having delivered something profoundly important and meaningful.
This type of connection requires intention, curiosity, and slowing down to understand one another. Connections happen when we take time. Take time to know what someone is trying to build, what they’re struggling with, and where they’re trying to go. It doesn’t stop once an initial connection has been made; we must be just as intentional in maintaining these precious connections.
We see connection as the difference between knowing of someone and knowing them; between being in the same room with them versus moving fluidly in the same direction.
A sure sign of this type of connection is when you’ve had an extended absence from someone, and after you get back together, you pick up right where you left off.
In a world obsessed with size and scale, it’s easy to forget the power of individual relationships.
One strong connection can:
These moments of connection carry profound impact.
We hear examples of the impact of such moments every day during coaching calls with clients. They share conversations they had that, while not intended to solve anything, ended up changing the direction of a decision or their entire business.
We watch it play out in the broader industry as well.
The best opportunities we’ve witnessed, whether they’re partnerships, growth ideas, or leadership breakthroughs, rarely start with a strategy deck. Usually, they start with a relaxed conversation. Someone asks a thoughtful question and finds someone listening more intentionally than would normally be expected.
This year, we’re committing to having more of those conversations, intentionally and consistently, with our most important connections, old and new.
While we will largely focus on personal connections this year, we also need to improve operational connections.
One of the most common challenges we see in businesses is operational disconnect. Too many agencies operate in silos.
Marketing doesn’t effectively connect to sales.
Sales doesn’t fully connect to the service team.
The service team isn’t fully connected to their client experience.
This happens for any number of reasons, but it’s the result of daily execution being disconnected from overall strategy and decision-making being disconnected from data.
These are the “business dots” that must be connected. Individually, the pieces may be relatively strong, but collectively, they’re misaligned and fall far short of achieving organizational potential. These disconnects don’t happen by accident; they’re the result of poor leadership habits.
Our focus on operational connection means helping leaders:
Connecting those dots means businesses can move faster with intent and coordinated purpose.
Personal and operational connections don’t just happen accidentally either. Developing meaningful relationships is a skill that leaders must develop. Start with something simple, like reducing the frequency of status updates and replacing them with more intentional conversations.
Connections are made and strengthened by how you:
When these connections break down, progress slows, trust erodes, and even strong teams lose alignment.
Leaders who prioritize connection create organizations and communities where people feel seen, understood, and aligned. Performance becomes more sustainable, not because people are being pushed harder, but because they’re pulling together.
At Q4intelligence, our goal has never been to simply react to where the industry is. We work to help shape where it’s going.
This year, that means:
Community brought us together. Connection is how we will move forward, together and individually.
As we embrace the year, our challenge to ourselves and to the leaders we work with is simple but not easy:
We’re excited to explore those questions alongside our community this year, one conversation, one insight, and one meaningful connection at a time.
When connections are strong, personally and operationally, everything works better.
Content originally published by Q4intelligence
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