28 August 2026 · René de Baaij
Introductory essay for Cycle 1, "What is leadership in times of AI?"
Almost every leader knows this moment. The meeting is over, the decision has been made, and only on the way home does the real question surface. It is not "was this the right decision?" but "why did I choose this, and not something else?" That second question is the most uncomfortable one, because it is about who leads the organisation rather than about the organisation itself.
Leadership is usually described in terms of tasks: setting direction, making decisions, developing people, delivering results. That description is accurate, but incomplete. Before a leader does anything, he or she already is something: a sum of drives, experiences, fears and convictions that quietly take part in every decision at the meeting table. Not knowing this undercurrent does not make you less steered by it, only less aware of it. Self-knowledge is therefore the first condition of the craft of leading. You cannot give direction to others without knowing which way you already lean.
This first cycle starts on the inside. Before we turn to leadership models, styles and theories in webinar 1.2, we first ask: who are you, apart from your job title? Introspection is a practical instrument here, because it changes what you do in the moment itself. A leader who recognises his reflex to take control can let that reflex pass for a moment before acting on it. A leader who knows his tendency to avoid conflict can ask whether his silence right now is wisdom or fear. A leader who recognises his need for recognition can ask whether he is leading or proving himself. Self-knowledge creates that half-second of space between stimulus and response. In that space, as has often been observed, lies our freedom.
AI holds up a strangely sharp mirror here. An algorithm that advises faster, more consistently and seemingly more objectively than you do confronts you with questions that used to go unspoken. Do you trust the system more than your own judgement, and what does that say about how much trust you grant your own judgement? Do you reach for control as soon as a machine takes part in a decision, and what does that reflex reveal about where your authority really comes from? Above all, AI exposes what your leadership was already resting on, or failing to rest on. Whoever does not know himself will struggle to decide when to trust a system and when to push back, with all the consequences for those who rely on him.
This cycle treats leadership as a relationship with yourself that you keep examining, put under pressure by the question of what AI changes in it, more than as a set of skills you learn once. Whoever follows the four sessions starts with themselves (webinar 1.1). They broaden that insight with perspectives from leadership theory (webinar 1.2). They test it in practice, in the exploration of strengths and roles in seminar 1.3 ("In je kracht staan"). Finally, they return to the question where it all began, in the mirror of roles, strength and potential: what this inquiry has ultimately given them (webinar 1.4, reflective).
This cycle is an invitation, and it offers no ready-made answers. Before you walk into your next meeting, pause a little longer on who is actually walking in.
Five questions to begin with
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When did you last make a decision of which you are not entirely sure, looking back, whether it came from conviction or from habit?
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Which quality of yours as a leader would you never admit out loud, and what does that very reluctance say about how you see yourself?
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Do you rely on advice from an AI system more readily than on your own doubt? What does that tell you about the place you give your own judgement?
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If tomorrow you no longer had any title or position, what would remain of your leadership?
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Who around you could tell you most honestly who you really are as a leader, and when did you last ask that person for that honesty?