The 2026 FMI Future Leaders eXperience is an online leadership development program tailored for the food industry that helps participants recognize and enhance their leadership styles through interactive sessions and reflection.
By: Kara Adams, Director, Education (e-learning), FMI
You can usually sense it. Some people naturally step forward when things get complicated. They connect dots others miss and influence without forcing it. Leadership shows up in their behavior long before it ever appears in a title. The real question is not who those people are; it’s how to help them grow before the next challenge arrives.
The 2026 FMI Future Leaders eXperience was built for exactly that moment.
This online course is a guided leadership journey designed specifically for the food industry. Participants engage in live, interactive sessions that challenge how they think about communication, collaboration and decision-making alongside peers from across the food industry.
What makes the experience powerful is the space it creates. Participants are allowed to step back from the day-to-day just enough to focus on the big picture, reflect and experiment with new ways of leading. Between sessions, they bring those insights back into the workplace, often noticing changes immediately in how conversations go, how teams respond and how confident they feel navigating uncertainty. This experience is not about turning people into a specific “type” of leader. It’s about helping them understand their own leadership style and how to use it more intentionally.
By the end of the program, participants walk away with an FMI Food Retail Leader Certificate, but more importantly, they leave with clarity. Clarity about how they lead. Clarity about how they influence others. Clarity about what kind of leader they want to become.
As you look ahead to 2026, think about the people who are already showing leadership potential and are ready for their next stretch. The 2026 FMI Future Leaders eXperience is now open for registration through April 10th. Invest in your workforce now, and see the impact long after the program ends.
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