As a leader, you’re probably used to being the visionary.
It’s your job, your instinct, the thing you’re really good at.
But the same instinct that makes you a visionary leader can be the very thing that sabotages AI adoption at your organization.
Think of it like this:
There’s an old story we love to tell about leadership.
Someone walks past a building site and sees three bricklayers. They ask each one what they’re doing.
The first says, “I’m laying bricks.”
The second says, “I’m building a wall.”
The third looks up and says, “I’m building a cathedral.”
The moral of the story is usually: be the third person. Meaning, see the vision, not just the brick in your hand.
This is a nice story. But it assumes people hold back because they don’t see the vision. In my experience, that’s not actually what’s happening.
After helping many leadership teams take their first steps with AI, I’ve noticed how this plays out in real life. There are usually five mindsets in the room, and they show up in team members and leaders alike.
There’s the visionary, the person who’s already excited about AI. They’re using AI at home and at work, and they’re ready to get started.
Then there’s the cost-focused leader, who isn’t convinced of the value yet. When they hear about vision, all they see are dollar signs.
There’s the resistant leader, who doesn’t understand why the way they’ve always worked isn’t good enough anymore.
Then there’s the overwhelmed leader. They’re already stretched thin, and as they hear about the vision, all they imagine is how they’re supposed to fit this into everything else they and their team are already doing.
Lastly, there are leaders who say nothing, but are silently wondering what AI means for their job and their career.
Sharing a vision with people with these mindsets won’t help any of them move forward, because these aren’t vision problems to begin with.
Here’s what I coach visionary leaders to do instead, and it costs you nothing.
When you’re trying to get your organization started with AI, don’t sell the vision right away. Hold a meeting, go around the table, and ask each leader what their concerns are. Then stop talking. Give them space to answer.
Let them share their concerns about the cost, their doubts, their fears about capacity, their fears about what this means for their job. Don’t try to fix any of these concerns in the moment. Just give people space to say it out loud.
A meeting like this will do more than any vision or strategy deck, because you can’t move forward with AI adoption when people are pretending to agree with you.
Your job isn’t to get everyone to see the cathedral right away. It’s to understand where everyone’s actually starting from, so you can get on the same page together.
Do this, and you won’t just lead AI adoption. You’ll lead AI adoption in a way that actually sticks.
At Aigility Hub, I keep coming back to the same idea: adopting AI is a people problem long before it’s a technology one. And usually the people are already in the room – you just have to make it safe for them to be honest.
