Jared-oates

Jared Oates

The best training to help leaders grapple with AI-related change is soft skills training, not tech training. 

The Best Way to Train Leaders for AI-Related Change

Would you say leaders in your organization tend to be more bold or more cautious when they make important decisions? Not sure? Here are a couple case studies for comparison.Case Study 1:A new CEO took the helm at a technology company and quickly eliminated 70 percent of the product line and announced a partnership with the company’s biggest rival.Case Study 2:At a different technology company, a new CEO was promoted from within, and instead of making bold changes, the CEO began methodically tuning the company culture and carefully analyzing trends and opportunities to refine the directional focus.AnalysisOn the surface, these case studies represent opposite leadership styles, one bold and one cautious. Which would you want to train for in your organization? Is it better to train leaders to measure twice or to teach them that fortune favors the bold?While they appear to be in conflict, caution and courage are both virtues. Knowing the outcomes of each case study adds some useful context.Case Study 1 describes the return of Steve Jobs to Apple in 1997. Jobs made the risky decision to focus on a few products like the iMac and formed a partnership with Microsoft to bring Microsoft Office software to Mac machines. Apple experienced extraordinary growth under Jobs’ second tenure.Case Study 2 describes the promotion of Satya Nadella to the top job at Microsoft. The company was struggling when he took over in 2014 and seemed to be on the fast track to irrelevance. Under his leadership, though, Microsoft has traded places with Apple as the world’s most valuable technology company.Effective Leaders Need Both Caution and CourageThe apparent contrast between courage and caution in these examples reveals a paradox, a tension between two necessary principles that on the surface appear to be contradictory. It’s tempting to dumb down the contrast and talk about different “leadership styles”—one bold, and one cautious, either of which can be effective. This explanation ignores the important reality that every effective leader needs both caution and courage. The traits are like two posts on a suspension bridge pulling in opposite directions. The tension between them is what keeps the bridge in place. For all his caution, Nadela placed big bets on AI, cloud services, mixed reality, and quantum computing. Some of those bets have not yet paid off. For all his boldness, Jobs was intensely data-driven in his obsession with the user experience, not just measuring twice, but hundreds of times and from multiple angles.Both Nadela and Jobs had big aspirational goals that, like a compass, pointed them in the direction they wanted to go. Jobs wanted to fundamentally reshape the way people use technology to create, interact, and find meaning. Nadela has a similar vision for Microsoft that is about empowering every individual and organization to achieve more by leveraging technology. Both leaders also knew they needed short-term achievable goals to measure progress toward those aspirational compass points.The Balance of Courage and CautionTo train effective leaders, you need to help them understand the balance between aspirational goals and achievable goals. They need to understand that all lasting progress is the result of an iterative process of goal setting, barrier analysis, behavior changing, and results evaluation. At Niche Academy, we call this the Progress Cycle.Effective leaders are not born. They are ordinary people who have come to understand and value paradoxes like the tension between courage and caution. Chances are that your team already has people ready to learn and implement the patterns that will move their team forward.

Bold vs. Cautious Leadership—Which Is the Best for Growth?

In today’s world, leadership ideas are shifting, challenging long-standing practices. The traditional “command and control” style, where leaders make all the decisions, is being replaced by trust and collaboration. Leaders are now moving away from micromanagement and embracing team autonomy. If you’re responsible for leadership training, it’s important to understand how adopting these new approaches early can have a big impact.Let’s break it down.A Lesson From Science: Big Ideas That Change EverythingTo understand the impact of big ideas in leadership, consider how major scientific breakthroughs transformed the world. For example:Galileo and Newton described how objects move through space and time.Maxwell and Lorentz built on their work, showing that the speed of light is constant regardless of how an observer moves.Einstein then developed his famous theory of relativity, leading to the discovery that a small amount of mass could be turned into enormous energy—this led to nuclear energy.These ideas didn’t come overnight, but their impact has been profound. Nuclear energy, for example, reshaped international politics and power dynamics, with countries that control nuclear energy gaining major advantages.How This Applies to LeadershipJust like those big scientific ideas, leadership is undergoing a transformation. For years, leaders have managed teams through strict top-down control. Leaders gave orders, and teams followed them. But this old way of leading is giving way to something new.The emerging leadership model is based on:Trust and Interdependence: Instead of controlling everything, leaders are learning to trust their teams to make decisions at the right levels.Clear Goals: Teams and leaders agree on measurable goals, and everyone is accountable for achieving them.Collaboration: Leaders work with their teams to make decisions, rather than just giving orders.A “Speak-Up” Culture: Leaders encourage open communication, knowing the best ideas can come from anywhere.Belonging Over Conformity: Leaders focus on building a sense of belonging within the team, instead of forcing everyone to fit a mold.This shift allows teams to make decisions faster, avoid micromanagement, and reduce internal politics. As a result, teams led by transformational leaders are far more productive.Why Leaders Should Adopt These New IdeasJim Collins, in his book Good to Great, describes transformational leaders as “Level 5” leaders. These leaders drive extraordinary results by empowering their teams through trust and accountability. The benefits of adopting these new leadership approaches are clear:Faster Decision Making: Routine decisions happen quickly because they’re made by the people closest to the situation.Less Bureaucracy: Reducing administrative overhead means less time wasted on politics or approval processes.Increased Productivity: Teams thrive when they have autonomy and a clear vision to guide them.Creating a Transformational Leadership Training ProgramTransformational leadership training involves more than just teaching concepts. It requires a strategic approach that encourages new behaviors and practices. There are four pillars to an effective training program:Set Goals
Teach leaders to understand the big-picture qualitative outcomes they’re after—and the metrics they will use to define progress transparently. Leaders must learn how to set team goals collaboratively and ensure individual goals are deeply aligned.Identify Barriers
Barriers can be external factors like market trends and technological disruption—or internal factors like team dynamics and individual habits. Leaders must learn how to create an environment for honest, sometimes difficult, conversations.Change Behavior 
Teach leaders to treat every change as an experiment and encourage teams to change together—creating an environment that nurtures progress patterns. Lasting team momentum requires individual understanding and consent. It can be inspired, but not coerced.Evaluate Results
Show leaders how to guide their teams in continually comparing performance against metrics, updating goals and experiments based on clear evidence.By implementing these pillars, you can help your leaders transition from traditional command-and-control styles to transformational leadership, significantly enhancing your organization’s productivity.