Jessica Schubert

AI is not the obstacle to better leadership.

Poor leadership around AI is. That is the focus of this week’s LeadershipLens.

Because right now, a lot of organisations are still approaching AI as a tool rollout, a productivity hack or a policy issue.

And yes, tools matter. Policies matter. Guardrails matter. But they are not enough. The bigger question is leadership.

How do leaders help their teams use AI thoughtfully, safely and practically?
How do they create clarity around what is okay, what is not okay and where human judgement still needs to sit?
How do they stop people from either avoiding AI completely or using it quietly without shared expectations?

And maybe most importantly:

How do leaders use AI to create more space for the work only humans can do well?

The conversations.
The judgement.
The trust.
The coaching.
The context.
The courage.

In the newsletter, I explore why AI will not make leadership less important. It will make leadership more visible.

I also share a simple model: Fear → Fluency → Focus → Freedom

Because the leaders who will do well in the age of AI are not the ones pretending to have all the answers.

They are the ones staying curious, creating clarity and helping their people move forward with confidence.

You can read this week’s LeadershipLens here: https://intactteams.com/leadershiplens-ai-is-not-the-obstacle-to-better-leadership/

Some leaders are not “direct”. They are emotionally lazy.

They say they are being clear.

But what they are really doing is reacting quickly, pushing harder, skipping the listening part, and expecting everyone else to deal with the impact.

That is not strong leadership. That is poor self-awareness dressed up as decisiveness.

And this is where emotional intelligence gets misunderstood.

EI is not about being soft.
It is not about avoiding hard conversations.
It is not about making everyone feel comfortable all the time.

It is about knowing yourself well enough not to constantly leak your stress, urgency, or frustration onto the people around you. It is about reading the room before you bulldoze through it.

It is about adapting your communication so people can actually hear you. And it is about building enough trust that people will follow you, challenge you, tell you the truth, and take ownership.

A leader can be technically brilliant and still be exhausting to work for. A leader can have the right strategy and still lose the room. A leader can have good intentions and still create the wrong impact.

That is why emotional intelligence is not a “nice to have”.

It is how leaders get hard things done through people.

And if we keep treating it like a soft skill, we will keep promoting smart people who leave damage behind them.

This week’s LeadershipLens is on exactly this: why EI is a serious leadership skill, not a leadership decoration.
https://intactteams.com/leadershiplens-ei-is-how-leaders-get-hard-things-done/

Emotional intelligence is not soft.

It is how leaders get hard things done through people.

For too long, EI has been put into the “nice to have” bucket.

Helpful for communication.
Useful for difficult conversations.
Good for leaders who want to be more self-aware.

But not always treated as a serious leadership skill.

I think that is outdated.

Because leadership does not usually break down because the plan is wrong.

It breaks down because people do not feel heard.
Because leaders react too quickly.
Because feedback is avoided.
Because tension goes underground.
Because trust gets damaged in small moments.

A leader can have the right strategy, the right expertise, and the right intention — and still create the wrong impact.

That is why this week’s LeadershipLens is about emotional intelligence as a real leadership capability.

I explore why EI matters, how it helps leaders move from reaction to intentional impact, and why the best leaders are not just technically strong; they are emotionally intelligent enough to bring people with them.

This is especially important as leaders become more senior.

At some point, leadership is no longer about proving how capable you are.

It is about helping other people become more capable around you.

Read this week’s LeadershipLens: EI is how leaders get hard things done. https://intactteams.com/leadershiplens-ei-is-how-leaders-get-hard-things-done/

Your leaders are probably coaching at the wrong time.

There. I said it.

Not because coaching is bad. Coaching is powerful. It builds ownership, confidence, and better thinking. But only when the person is ready for it.

If someone has no idea how to do the task, asking them, “What do you think you should do?” is not empowering.

It is frustrating.
If someone is already highly capable, coaching every little step is not supportive.
It is annoying.

And if someone needs a clear decision, standard, or boundary, coaching questions can feel like leadership avoidance dressed up as empowerment.

This week’s LeadershipLens is about knowing when to coach and when not to.

Because great leaders don’t just coach.

They know when to:

· Coach
· Mentor
· Teach
· Motivate
· Direct
· Get out of the way

The uncomfortable truth? Some leaders over-coach because they don’t want to be direct. Others under-coach because giving answers feels faster.

Neither builds strong teams.

The real leadership skill is knowing what the moment calls for.

Read the newsletter here: https://intactteams.com/leadershiplens-when-to-coach-and-when-not-to/

Coaching is not always the answer.

And that might sound strange coming from someone who teaches coaching skills to leaders.

But it’s true.

One of the biggest mistakes leaders make is thinking they should coach every person, through every issue, in every situation.

They shouldn’t.

Sometimes people need coaching.
Sometimes they need mentoring.
Sometimes they need training.
Sometimes they need clear direction.

And sometimes they need you to get out of the way.

This week’s LeadershipLens is about knowing when to coach and when not to.

I talk about:

· Why “always coach” is bad leadership advice
· How over-coaching can frustrate people and slow things down
· Why skill and will matter when choosing your leadership approach
· When to coach, train, motivate, or direct
· How leaders can stop using coaching as a one-size-fits-all solution

Coaching is powerful.

But only when it is used at the right time, with the right person, in the right situation.

The real leadership skill is not being a coach all the time.

It is knowing which hat to wear, and when.

Read the newsletter here: https://intactteams.com/leadershiplens-when-to-coach-and-when-not-to/

Your leaders aren’t overwhelmed because their people are needy.

Their people are needy because their leaders keep rescuing them.

That might sound harsh, but it happens all the time. A team member walks in with a problem. The leader gives the answer. Another issue comes up. The leader fixes it. A decision needs to be made. The leader steps in again.

And then everyone wonders why the team lacks ownership, confidence and initiative.

This week’s newsletter is about The Coaching Leader, and why coaching is no longer optional for leaders.

Not because every leader needs to become an accredited coach.

But because leaders need to stop creating dependency under the disguise of being helpful.

I cover:
Why command-and-control leadership is holding teams back
How coaching builds ownership and capability
Why asking better questions is a leadership skill
What happens when leaders stop rescuing
How to start building internal coaching capability

The uncomfortable truth?

Some leaders don’t have a team performance problem.
They have a coaching skill gap.

Read the newsletter here: https://intactteams.com/leadership-lens-coaching-is-no-longer-optional-for-leaders/

Coaching is no longer optional for leaders.

And no, that doesn’t mean every leader needs to become an accredited coach.

But it does mean leaders need to stop defaulting to advice, answers and problem-solving every time someone walks through the door. Because when leaders constantly fix, rescue and direct, they don’t build capability.

They build dependency.

This week’s newsletter is about The Coaching Leader, the leader who knows how to ask better questions, listen properly and help people think for themselves.

I talk about:
▪︎ Why coaching is becoming a core leadership skill
▪︎ The shift from command-and-control to coaching-led leadership
▪︎ How leaders can stop rescuing and start building ownership
▪︎ The simple coaching habits leaders can practise immediately
▪︎ Why this matters for engagement, retention and team performance

The best leaders are not the ones with all the answers.

They are the ones who grow people who can find better answers for themselves.

Read the newsletter here: https://intactteams.com/leadership-lens-coaching-is-no-longer-optional-for-leaders/

Most organisations use coaching to clean up leadership messes.

By the time coaching gets approved, someone is already struggling. A promotion is wobbling. A stakeholder relationship is off. A behaviour problem is showing. A good leader is starting to lose confidence.

That is not leadership development. That is late intervention.

And it is one of the biggest mistakes organisations make.

Because coaching should not be reserved for the most senior execs.
And it should not be treated like a quiet performance management tool.

The best use of coaching is earlier.
When someone is already capable.
Already delivering.
Already trusted.
And ready for more.

That is where the real ROI sits.

Not in trying to rescue poor performance. In stretching strong performers before they plateau.

In this week’s Leadership Lens, I unpack why I think we need to stop thinking about “executive coaching” as a top-tier perk or remedial fix and start treating it as what it really is:

A strategic tool for growing leadership capacity across the organisation.

If your organisation only uses coaching when something has gone wrong, you are already too late.

Read the newsletter here: https://intactteams.com/leadership-lens-the-cost-of-not-coaching-your-leaders/

Most organisations are handling coaching completely backwards.

They save it for the most senior people. Or they bring it in when someone is already struggling. That misses the real value.

Because coaching is not just a fix for underperformance. And it should not be a perk reserved for the top of the house.

Used well, coaching is a strategic way to grow leaders who are already capable, already delivering, and ready for more.

That is where the upside sits.

Too many organisations wait until there is a performance issue, a confidence wobble, a difficult stakeholder dynamic, or a leadership gap that has already started to hurt the business. By then, they are playing defence.

In this week's Leadership Lens, I unpack why I think we should start thinking less about executive coaching and more about organisational coaching.

I cover:
1. The two big misconceptions organisations still have about coaching
2. Why the best ROI often comes from high-skill, high-will leaders
3. The cost of not coaching your best people
4. Where coaching fits alongside mentoring and training
5. The four ways coaching creates value across an organisation: growth, performance, retention, and culture

If you lead HR, L&D, or leadership development, this is worth a read.

Open the newsletter and have a read: https://intactteams.com/leadership-lens-the-cost-of-not-coaching-your-leaders/

Most leaders are still getting hybrid work completely wrong.

Not because hybrid work “doesn’t work”.� Not because people are lazy at home.� Not because teams need to be dragged back into the office.

But because too many leaders are still trying to lead through visibility.

If they can see people, they feel in control. �If people are nearby, they assume collaboration is happening. �If someone is in the office more often, they unconsciously trust them more.

That is not modern leadership.�That is old-school proximity bias dressed up as management.

And it is causing all sorts of damage.

People miss decisions because they were not in the room that day.� Remote team members get less informal access.� Meetings become bloated, unclear, and unequal.� Accountability gets fuzzy. �Trust drops.

Hybrid work is not the problem.
Weak leadership in hybrid work is.

The same goes for dispersed teams. If your people are spread across states, countries, or regions, the answer is not more meetings and more check-ins. It is a better leadership rhythm. Better clarity. Better communication. Better standards.

In this week’s LeadershipLens newsletter, I unpack why the old playbook is failing and what leaders need to do instead.

At the centre of it is one simple idea:
Trust + Clarity + Accountability

That is what makes modern teams work now.

https://intactteams.com/leadershiplens-hybrid-work-is-not-the-problem-leadership-is/