There’s a widening gap between leaders who trust their strategy and managers tasked with delivering it, new Page Executive research shows.
Pay isn’t the problem. That’s the uncomfortable takeaway from new research showing almost two-thirds of Australian executives and senior leaders are actively planning to look for their next role within the next three months, even though most of them are perfectly happy with what they’re being paid.
The figures come from Page Executive’s 2026 Executive Compensation & Trends Report, which found 75% of Australian executives and senior leaders were satisfied with their compensation. Yet 89% remain open to a new role, and 42% are already actively looking. Another quarter expect to leave their current organisation within a year.
Molly Green, Head of Page Executive Australia, said the numbers point to a leadership market that looks calm on the surface but isn’t underneath. “We’re in an environment of global, geopolitical and economic uncertainty. In Australia there are productivity challenges, changes in the federal budget and AI which is changing how organisations and people fundamentally work,” she said. “In uncertain times, people like to keep their options open, even CEOs.”
Green pointed to a shift in what executives actually want from a role. “Business leaders are also becoming increasingly value-driven. The data tells us they aren’t willing to compromise their wellbeing and work flexibility for a paycheck,” she said. “A lot of people in the C-Suite are in the sandwich generation and are raising a family and also dealing with older parents. They are looking for that balance that allows them to juggle both.”
That extends to where they work, not just how much they earn. “Despite the widespread commentary about returning to the office, the data tells us that Director and C-Suite employees value the flexibility they’ve become accustomed to and many are not willing to sacrifice it in changing jobs,” Green said.
The report also uncovered a gap between the people setting strategy and the people responsible for actually delivering it. While 76% of senior leaders are confident their organisation can adapt to shifting market conditions, only 67% of senior managers, the layer directly responsible for execution, feel the same way.
“This was a surprising result. It really points to a strategic execution gap emerging at a time where businesses need to be agile in the face of volatile economic conditions and geopolitical shocks, from oil supply disruptions to AI and the rising cost of doing business,” Green said. “Leadership alignment is critical here. Execution risk often sits between layers of leadership rather than in the strategy itself, and that could mean expensive change initiatives stall, and it’s not because the strategy is wrong, but because the people expected to deliver it were never fully on board.”
AI showed up as its own kind of split. Around 83% of Australian business leaders use AI in their day-to-day work and say it’s had a positive impact on them personally, but only 66% believe it’s improving productivity across their organisation. Perhaps more telling, 75% of senior leaders don’t expect AI to affect their own role at all.
“The findings show that Australian business leaders are already embracing AI and seeing tangible benefits in their own work. The challenge now is translating those individual gains into organisation-wide productivity improvements,” Green said. “As AI adoption matures, businesses that invest in the right skills, processes and culture will be best placed to unlock its full potential.”
The report also flagged a mismatch between what companies are spending on perks and what executives actually want. Company cars remain one of the most common incentives on offer, yet they didn’t make the top five benefits executives said they actually desired. Flexible and hybrid work arrangements ranked as the most valued benefit instead, and two in three executives said they’d turn down a promotion if it meant compromising their wellbeing.
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