Me, Us, the Organization: Leadership in the AI Era Starts with the Leaders themselves

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about what the AI era really means for leadership, as I encounter the challenges leaders face in both private and public sector organizations every day in my work with customers.

Leaders are expected to quickly provide answers to big questions: What does AI mean for our business? Where should we be using it? How do we ensure competitiveness, skills and responsible use?

Yet one question is often overlooked: What does AI mean for me as a leader?

I think about leadership in the AI era on three levels: me, us and the organization. And the order matters.

A leader’s job largely consists of processing information, thinking and interacting with others. Meetings, reports, decisions, preparation, communication and constant prioritization.

AI can help us do many of these things faster and more efficiently. But to me, the more interesting question is: What can I do better with AI, or in an entirely new way?

Can I challenge my own decision before making it? Look at an issue from the perspectives of the customer, employees and the business? Prepare for a difficult conversation? Create more time for actual thinking?

This is where AI stops being just another tool. It starts to change the way I work.

The next step is to turn the attention to the leadership team.

How could AI help us build a better understanding of the situation, prepare, challenge different alternatives and make better decisions?

At the same time, the leadership team sets an example for the entire organization. Setting an example doesn’t mean that leaders need to master AI perfectly. That isn’t even possible.

It’s far more credible to say: I tried this, and it worked. I tried this, and it wasn’t useful. I don’t know how to do this yet, but I want to learn.

In the AI era, the leadership team also needs to be a learning community.

Only then do we come to the question that is often asked first: How do we get the entire organization to make use of AI?

AI adoption is not just a technology project. It is a transformation of ways of working and organizational culture.

Leadership need to set the direction: Where do we want AI to create real value? At the same time, organizations need clear guidelines, skills, safe ways to experiment and, above all, time to learn.

Simply giving people access to technology does not change the way they work. And training alone is not enough if people don’t have the opportunity to apply what they have learned in their everyday work.

Perhaps the most important thing in all of this is: Leaders are people too, and they learn best by doing.

It’s difficult to truly understand the possibilities and limitations of AI simply by listening to other people’s presentations. You need to experiment yourself. Get a bad answer every now and then. Rephrase the question. Be surprised by how well something works, only to realize the next moment that AI completely misunderstood something else.

These experiences create a kind of understanding that is difficult to gain from a PowerPoint presentation.

And that is exactly why a good order for leading AI transformation is:

Me. Us. The organization.

First, I change the way I work. Then, as a leadership team, we learn how to make use of AI. Only after that can we credibly expect the rest of the organization to change as well.

A leader doesn’t need to be an AI expert. But in the AI era, a leader needs to be willing to be a learner.

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