Okay then. What’s your move?

Obsessing over solving leadership issues is alway asking me to think about things differently. Coz, as you know the easy problems have all been solved already. So over the break I've been reading more than writing, until now.... brace yourself.

And in respect of your time - here's your TL;DR summary:

Most leaders don’t really have a time problem - time is the villain we've been raging against since forever. So because AI is handing hours back, and it’s exposing what leaders are actually willing to prioritise.

This isn’t about tools, pilots, or courses, it’s about judgement, courage, and focus. The next year will clearly separate leaders who use AI with intent from those who just move faster in the wrong direction.

Curious?...

Most leaders feel they are short on time… but often they’re short on decisions. In reality they have enough time. And, now that AI is starting to hand time back, there's a point of reckoning.

Which is where things get deeply uncomfortable… I don’t feel very fun writing any of this!

But, it’s also the part I’m most interested in watching over the next year. Not whether organisations adopt AI, but how they adopt AI, and whether leaders are willing to decide what the time it creates is actually for.

So let’s run the thought experiment properly. And, if all you do after reading this is chose one of these, then you’ll be further ahead than most.

If you and each of your team were suddenly given back a full day each week, what would you do:

• Would the backlog finally clear?

• Would the hard problems get proper thinking time?

• Would lifting capability finally get prioritised?

• Would you prioritise one strategic objective that isn’t getting enough of your attention?

• Or would everyone stay busy doing the same things, just faster? Not my favourite but I totally understand the appeal here.

A recent report (here) from the London School of Economics found professionals using AI are saving an average of 7.5 hours a week. Hell yes! That’s roughly a working day.

It specified that those with AI-specific training save closer to 11 hours.

And those without training save about five.

The part of the report that should stop us all in our tracks is… Only 32% of people in the study had received any AI training in the past year.

That’s not just a skills problem. That’s leadership capacity sitting idle. Or wasted.

The leadership challenge isn’t about rolling out another pilot or sending your people on a Co-Pilot course.

It’s deciding what AI is for in your organisation, how it fits into the workforce, and where leadership attention and resources genuinely belong.

I’ve been watching this closely, and it’s messier than the hype suggests. It’s going to separate reactive leaders from intentional AI-daptive ones very quickly.

Every conversation I’m having about AI eventually lands here:

It’s not about the tools, most of the time they’re a bit of a distraction.

The issues are:

• Judgement, how do you make sure you’re growing critical thinking and baking responsible use into your workforce?

• Human impact, how will you measure this as a baseline, near, middle and future?

• Prioritisation, what’s most important? And what’s it hiding behind?

• Leadership courage. How do we grow this, and give our teams enough air cover that they can blaze new trails?

All of which are crucial factors in being successful in 2026.

Given how much you have on already, I’m glad I can help take those issues off your plate. But I’m curious – what’s your next move?