Heat Treat Today publishes twelve print magazines a year and included in each is a letter from the editor. This letter is from the February 2026 Annual Air & Atmosphere Heat Treating print edition. In today’s letter, Bethany Leone, managing editor at Heat Treat Today, shares her insights on the restlessness stirred by recent shifts in the heat treat industry — and why sitting with uncertainty, rather than rushing to diagnose it, may be the most intentional form of leadership we can practice right now.
Recently, we have observed the shift in industry brain trust. In fact, if you follow the Heat Treat Daily, there have been a lot of significant acquisitions, announcements of growth, and refocusing of efforts. Yet no singular statement emerges to define what this moment is for the heat treat industry. This constant movement and reorienting is exciting, but what does it mean?
To recap some highlights, a brazing icon retired — Dan Kay, our tribute to him later in this publication (p. 49). Innovator and furnace expert Mark Hemsath joined forces with WINGENS CONSULTANTS as an executive expert. Major industry suppliers continued to consolidate under more international leadership, and we wait to see how priorities at these organizations will be recalibrated.
While all of these changes are decisive moves, there is hardly a definitive direction to describe where the heat treat industry is going. With the world at our fingertips, digital projections and instantaneous AI analysis feed the desire to know what to expect, what to avoid, what to get excited about. Data is the bread and butter of informed decisions, though tempered with discernment. A lack of satisfying answers, however, exposes how easily we can overuse data to create a safety net from uncertainty or seek a quick diagnosis for a discomfort whose true nature may be far more complex.
And so, we find ourselves without clear answers about what these industry shifts ultimately mean. Perhaps some are already making projections, but for me, I’m sitting in a restless state about what we should expect for the rest of the year. Still, restlessness isn’t something to “seek and destroy,” as my immediate inclination often is. Sitting with it can make space for true stewardship.
Stewardship
Stewardship takes the present form. The emphasis is simple: What is in my control now to change, cultivate, care for? Lots of garden terms with this word! This idea of stewardship shows up for me in small ways. The closest I am to gardening is the peace lily who stares at me while my one-year-old takes another swat at her leaves, brown and crinkled from the drafty air. Here’s the thing — stewardship, at least in this season, is not the one-plant garden. It’s knowing to cultivate joy in the one-year-old… and waiting to see if the peace lily survives.
Another key aspect of stewardship is listening. Stewardship happens after the pause that listens to the unsettled state. This attitude allows uncertainty, complexity, and even contradictory messaging. As leaders of wherever life finds us, listening to the noise and waiting through the discomfort of not having an answer is what precedes intentional action.
Waiting for the Meaning
If you have been observing the changes in industry with bated breath, continue the waiting. No need to diagnose. Dedicate yourself this year not to the novel goals of January, but the essential approach of not balking at the restlessness that you may find yourself in. It is enough to tend to what is immediately entrusted to you.
Managing Editor
Heat Treat Today
Contact: Bethany Leone at bethany@heattreattoday.com
