Change is the key challenge to any leader because there’s no great way to predict its course. New things arise, and no clear direction exists. All we can do is to prepare ourselves and our mindsets to embrace new challenges with a realistic yet positive attitude. Artificial intelligence (AI) is a key case in point. As a paradigm-shifting technology, it is changing the way workplaces operate, and those who don’t adapt well – or don’t adapt at all because they’re threatened – will be left behind. Leadership is required to guide the change, and many of those leadership traits require attitudinal work. Executive leadership coach Anna Barnhill guides us through a shift in attitude so that we can embrace our organizations’ needs to adapt and excel with AI.
Most of this book – virtually all but the last couple of chapters – does not deal with AI. Rather, it focuses on the attitudes of leaders when confronted with the challenge of AI. Anyone who has kept up with leadership literature will quickly recall the self-help themes present throughout most of the book. Those themes are spot-on for dealing with a dynamic, changing world and apply to much more than AI. They’re just not new and unique to this book.
The final section of the book then deals with how to lead an organization through the change that AI demands. Honestly, I expected the opposite when dealing with the balance of content. The title of the book made me think there’d be more about how to adapt to AI practically after a much smaller beginning section on the right mindset. Thus, I was a tad disappointed by the lack of AI-driven content.
I found the content that dealt with AI intriguing and worth exploring. The organizational shifts from, say, AI as an efficiency tool to AI as a generative collaborator were intriguing. However, for me, they were not explained enough, unfortunately. I understand that the author’s work as an executive coach likely deals with the attitudinal aspects primarily, but that doesn’t represent the unique aspect of her message, which should predominate an in-print book. Given the subtitle, I wanted to hear about how leadership changes in practice with the AI era, and I was left wanting.
Leaderwired: The AI-Era Leadership Playbook for Transforming How You Think, Decide, and Lead
By Anna Barnhill
Narrated by Rachael Doolen
Text copyright (c) 2026
Alpha Abundance Press
Audio copyright (c) 2026
Alpha Abundance Press
ASIN B0GRL3RHSY
Length: 5:43
Genre: Leadership, Self-Help
www.amazon.com