Good Morning Reader it's Maria,

Last week I was meant to go live on a webinar about leadership (remember the one I mentioned in my last newsletter). I'd prepped for weeks, promoted it on socials a lot. tested my audio and video the morning of and tested everything again with the attendees fifteen minutes before we went live.

Then the host introduced me, I opened my mouth, and my sound just... died!

I changed mics, tried a second headset, a third. Nothing worked.

In the end, I had to leave my own webinar (luckily there was another guest). I felt frustrated and embarrassed, especially towards the host who had done a fantastic job preparing it all.

I'd done everything right, and it still fell apart.

Which is, funnily enough, exactly the conversation I was meant to be having: what happens when you take on a leadership role, do it exactly as it was described, and then everything changes.

If podcasts are more your speed, I've got you covered; there's a discussion about this topic available now here.

THE BIG IDEA

Today there's huge pressure on leaders to become unicorns.

Ten years ago, a good leader had to set direction, communicate clearly, develop people and get results.

All this is still true, but look at what's piled on since then: Constant change, hybrid teams scattered across time zones, four generations who all communicate differently, well-being, culture...and now, on top of all that, AI.

Don't get me wrong. It's great that leaders are now expected to pay attention to well-being, diversity and culture; it should have been the case all along. My point is that the expectations and the environment have changed, but the support, incentive structure, path to promotion, and development haven't really.

So are we giving these leaders a fair shot at doing their job well?

And if you've been reading me for some time, Reader, you know that one of my biggest pet peeves is the lack of training for managers and leaders before they take on those roles. That's been an issue for a long time, but now, with everything moving faster, it's been amplified. A recent study showed that only 44% of managers worldwide have ever had any real training for the job they're doing.

That's pretty bad. And it's unfair to the managers and to the people they're leading.

So when, as one person, you're expected to:

Inspire and develop your people in a world where some of them use AI better than you.

Communicate a vision clearly to a team more spread across generations, cultures and neurodivergent minds than it's ever been

Hold your nerve in a crisis, knowing any misstep can go public within the hour

Get results through your team, but protect their workload and burnout, while nobody's protecting yours.

Be a voice people trust and follow, while working out who's actually doing the work and who's outsourcing it to AI.

all at the same time... frankly, we shouldn't be shocked when it falls apart.

I saw this play out with one of my reports. He'd been the department head's second-in-command for years and was very happy in that role. When she left, he was the obvious next Head of Department.

But when HR and senior leadership looked at him, all they saw was a guy close to retirement who had been around for over 30 years. They felt like they needed "younger" talent to re-energise the department, and tried to convince me to push him out and bring in someone new (a classic case of ageism).

I disagreed; I just couldn't get past what we'd lose.

Thirty years of institutional knowledge, a brilliant expert and mentor who brought the whole team together; he was loved and respected by his colleagues and clients. Passing him over would have been a slap in the face for something he'd more than earned, and I believed it would be a loss for both the department and the company.

But there was some reality to it. He was not technically savvy, he did struggle with new technology and things moving very fast, and there was a need to modernise that department. Even he recognised it.

So I decided to split the role and create a co-head.

He got the title and stayed the anchor for the team and the culture, and we promoted a talented young woman with huge potential to own the parts he wasn't strong in. He kept doing what he did brilliantly. She grew into what he couldn't. Nobody got pushed out, nobody got a diminished promotion, and the team ended up stronger for having two great leaders instead of one struggling to be everything.

I think that's the shift.

We need to think outside the box, stop looking at the traditional leadership roles model, and think about what could be. Because, let's be realistic, there are not that many unicorns out there who can check all the boxes.

This could mean redesigning what the role actually is and/or redesigning the environment around these leaders to help them succeed in these new roles

The environment's changing faster than we are. Trying to squeeze people into the same old box just because that's how it's always been done is not going to work anymore.

Don't know where to start?

​Book a free consultation and let's chat!

THE ACTION STEP

Sit down and take a moment to review yourself as a leader against the five things I just walked through: inspiring and developing people, communicating a clear vision to a more mixed team than ever, holding your nerve under pressure, delivering results while protecting your team's workload, and being a voice people trust in the age of AI.

1. Where do you stand on each one? Not where you'd like to be, but where you are now.
2. Which one are you struggling with the most?
3. Is that something you can develop on your own, something you could get help with, or simply not you, in which case something else needs to change instead: the role itself, or the environment around you?

If you're overseeing other leaders, run the same exercise on them too.

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AI MADE SIMPLE

I wrote two pieces recently on the EU AI Act, because "does this even apply to me" is one of the most common questions I get right now.

One is for consultants and small business owners: what the Act actually means if you're using AI day to day, and what you do and don't need to worry about. What the EU AI Act means for your business.

The other is for organisations, aimed at business leaders and HR teams: what it changes at a company level and where the real compliance points sit. What the EU AI Act means for your company​

That's all for today Reader

Have a great weekend!👋🏼

Take Care

Maria

PS: If you want to explore what working together looks like, book a free call

PPS: If you enjoy these emails and want to do something nice, you can buy me a coffee 😉

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