Leadership
Is AI making your organisation’s echo chamber louder?
AI promises smarter decisions, but can it also reinforce the assumptions organisations need to challenge? Jennifer L. Bryan explores why diverse perspectives, psychological safety and better questions matter when adopting AI, and how leaders can prevent powerful technology from turning familiar biases into increasingly convincing answers that nobody dares question. Artificial intelligence is changing how organisations gather information, analyse problems and make decisions. Yet as businesses rush to adopt increasingly powerful AI tools, there is a less obvious organisational risk…
Culture is not an afterthought, it’s a commercial imperative
Culture is not a people profession side issue. It shapes retention, productivity, innovation and commercial performance every day. Sandi Wassmer asserts that leaders must treat culture as a strategic priority, role-model the right behaviours and create psychologically safe workplaces where people can contribute fully, learn openly and perform sustainably together. When leaders treat culture as an afterthought, rather than a core business imperative, they don’t just put the well-being of their people at risk, they put commercial performance on the…
Please send adults: Is immature leadership holding organisations back?
Pressure can make even accomplished leaders default to certainty, speed and control, shutting down the perspectives they most need. Karlee Fain reasons that mature leadership depends on awareness, curiosity and the capacity to tolerate discomfort, creating the conditions for wiser decisions, stronger trust and more sustainable organisational performance over time. We were already running behind when a fork went flying across the tour bus and shattered a television. Which, in case you’re wondering, is not typically how leadership decisions are…
The L&D playbook for building psychological safety into teams
Teams do not become safe to fail through slogans or good intentions alone. Dr Melisa Buie explains why leaders must model openness first, before teams can build stronger norms around challenge, experimentation and reflection. Melisa offers a practical two-stage approach L&D professionals can use to strengthen psychological safety at work. A senior engineer stays quiet in a design review, even though she spots a flaw, because the last person who flagged a problem was labelled “not a team player.” A…
The authenticity revolution: Why showing the real you is now a superpower at work
Authentic leadership starts when people stop performing and begin leading as themselves. Claire Brumby argues that L&D must rethink how it develops leaders, creating safer spaces for real questions, unconventional thinking and human insight, while challenging the polished behaviours and careful positioning that can suppress trust, creativity and organisational impact. Think about the leaders who have made the biggest impact on you throughout your career. I’d be willing to bet they weren’t the ones who said and did what was…
From crappy tasks to the C-suite: fixing the female leadership pipeline
Women often outperform men on key leadership measures, particularly collaboration, relationships and crisis management, yet barriers still block their route to senior roles. David Buchanan and Steve Macaulay examine the evidence and set out what HR and L&D can do to strengthen the leadership pipeline and stop wasting valuable talent. Recent studies have found that women make better leaders than men. This is a compelling reason, beyond equality and diversity, for appointing women to senior management positions. In this article,…
When your boss is an AI bot
David Buchanan and Steve Macaulay explore how AI could reshape leadership, from augmenting decision-making to taking over selected management tasks. They examine the benefits, risks and human implications of bot bosses, and argue that L&D must prepare employees to challenge, collaborate with and, when necessary, override artificial leaders at work. Could artificially intelligent (AI) bots take over leadership roles? What are the implications for human resource management, and for learning and development? AI can display cognitive abilities that allow it…
The invisible workload of leading organisational change
Build change capability across every leadership by combining mindset shifts, practical training and coaching. Melanie Franklin explains why people development professionals must make change management explicit, scalable and aspirational, helping managers respond confidently to uncertainty, support their teams and turn constant disruption into a source of organisational strength and progress. With every business under constant pressure to adapt to technological, environmental, and social shifts, change has become a permanent part of working life. Yet while 61% of organisations recognise change…
John Adair’s three circles still shape better leadership
A timeless framework for modern challenges, Action-Centred Leadership still offers leaders a clear way to balance results, relationships and individual needs under intense modern pressure. Steve Macaulay shows how John Adair’s enduring three-circle model remains a practical diagnostic and leadership tool for today’s complex organisational realities, no matter your seniority. Action-Centred Leadership is a common starting point in the leadership L&D toolkit. Its creator, John Adair, passed away last year, yet he leaves behind a lasting legacy of a powerful…
Beyond the management ladder: Why Gen Z is redefining career success
Rethink training, leadership and career progression to retain Gen Z talent. Tara Ceranic Salinas explains why younger workers value time, flexibility, mastery and meaningful impact over traditional management titles, and how organisations can create learning cultures that build skills, recognise strengths and support sustainable growth at work for everyone involved. Every generation has their own ideas about what work should look like. Climbing the corporate ladder and reaching the pinnacles of management used to be the aim, but Gen Z…
Want smart, useful L&D insight in your inbox (without the fluff)?
Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for Editor-only commentary, and exclusive insight that isn’t published anywhere else online.
If you want a quick roundup of what matters, fresh ideas you can use, and the best new reads from Training Journal, this is where it lands
It’s free, only takes a minute, and you can unsubscribe any time.
