Radical Intelligence for Leaders in Motion
Why leaders must become more human in the era of artificial intelligence
The World Is Sprinting
Every few months, I hear a leader quietly confess a version of the same thing: “I used to feel equipped. Now I feel like I’m running after a world that doesn’t stop to let me catch up”.
There is no shame in that. The world has changed dramatically, and most people are still waiting for the OS update to download. The reality is, for decades, leadership assumed that:
Change was manageable
Problems had answers
Experience equalled foresight
Stability was the prize
But the world we live in now is fluid, not fixed. It’s interconnected, not linear. Emotionally complex, not neatly rational. Technology accelerated, not politely predictable. This mismatch between the speed of change and the stillness of old management models is where modern leaders lose their footing.
So the question becomes: What kind of leadership fits a world that won’t stop moving? And that’s where Radical Intelligence for Leaders in Motion™ begins.
A Leadership Philosophy Born from Motion
Radical Intelligence™ is my view for the very human capability we’re going to need much more of to sense, interpret, adapt, and respond with clarity and courage while the ground and the matrix around us are shifting.
For me, leadership today is less about being right and more about being responsive. Too often, managers freeze because they’re so worried about being wrong. But what if leadership wasn’t about being right at all? What if the real task was to be curious, fluid, present and available to what’s emerging?
The idea of radical intelligence draws on the psychology of fluid intelligence, our innate human ability to adapt, recognise new patterns and solve problems without depending on past knowledge. In practice, this is more of a cognitive skill. It’s the emotional maturity to stay human in systems that increasingly aren’t. It’s the creative courage to reimagine rather than repeat the same old ways. It’s the strategic intuition to sense what’s emerging before it becomes obvious.
And this is the deeper intelligence leaders need right now. Not heroic intelligence. Not intellectual intelligence. But adaptive, relational, human intelligence. We don’t need stronger leaders.
We need more human leaders who move with the world, who create psychological safety, who treat adaptation as strength and who help people feel human in the middle of radical change.
How Radical Intelligence Shows Up in Real Leadership Moments
It’s easy to talk about new leadership ideas. It’s harder to recognise them in practice. Here’s what radical intelligence looks like in the wild:
When things change fast, stay present and not defensive.
When AI shifts how people work, you don’t cling to old expertise. Ask how I can develop new skills or understanding of what’s next.
When your team is overwhelmed, you’re the calm in the noise. Don’t be the panic mechanic that turns the entire system upside down.
Where there’s no obvious answer, you test, you learn, you iterate... and lead in motion.
When culture feels fragile, you lean into human experiences, not compliance, not metrics.
In sum, leadership is no longer a title. It’s a practice. A way of sensing. A way of moving. A way of making people feel safe in uncertainty. Leadership is not theoretical. It’s behaviour for real conditions. That messy, beautiful complexity of working with humans in a world that won’t sit still.
