AI in practice

10 tiny leadership habits for AI adoption in your team

20 September 2026 · 4 min read · Lees dit in het Nederlands

When I started reading about AI adoption and the role of leadership, I felt something very important was missing. It was either focused on vision and strategy (C-level), or on very practical tips like how to automate your meeting notes and to-dos so you can be more efficient.

What the advice keeps missing

But that is not the core challenge in most large organisations I work with. The core challenge is that both the employees and their (team) managers are still learning about this AI thing. So how do you work together in figuring this thing out? How can you support your teams in experimenting with AI?

It is a human challenge

It is much more a human challenge: making people feel safe to try, to learn, to be sceptical, to be fearful about their own job. To create space for profound conversations.

From that perspective, when I was working with one of my clients on Tiny Habits for AI adoption, I decided to build a menu of 10 tiny habits for leaders to support their team in this transformation.

As a leader, you orchestrate the team's adoption, not just your own. These are not productivity habits, they are rehearsal habits for leading through change: modelling, coaching, listening, and making room for both anxiety and curiosity.

I turned that menu into a one-pager you can print and keep next to you, and the ten habits are written out below it as well.

Free download

Ten leadership habits for AI adoption

The whole menu on one page, taken straight from my Tiny Habits for AI Adoption programme. Print it, keep it on your desk, and pick the habit your team needs first.

Download the one-pager (PDF)

One A4. No email address needed.

Here is the list of the 10 habits you can apply right away.

  • Reverse mentor moment, Weekly. Each week I ask one team member: "Teach me one thing you've figured out with AI that I probably don't know." Fifteen minutes, I take notes and try it that day. Next week, someone else.
  • Pre-1:1 adoption check, Weekly. Before my 1:1s, I ask my AI tool to sketch each person's adoption pattern (no names: "two excited, one cautious, three on the fence, one skeptic") and "one question I should ask each type this week".
  • Share my own experiment, Wednesdays. Every Wednesday I post one thing I tried with AI, including what flopped. What I tried, what happened, what I'd do differently. No polish, just thinking out loud.
  • Anticipate the anxious voices, On rollout. Before any new AI tool or policy, I ask my AI tool to anticipate the three concerns most likely to surface, especially from the people who find it nerve-racking, and how I can best acknowledge them.
  • Two-minute pair-prompt, On demand. When someone is stuck on something AI could help with, I sit with them for two minutes and we prompt it together. They drive, I observe. Then I ask what they'd tweak next time.
  • Make the skeptic useful, On AI decisions. On a real AI decision, I ask my most skeptical team member: "What are we missing about how this could go wrong?" Then I act on at least one thing they say, visibly.
  • The Friday adoption check, Fridays. Every Friday I spend five minutes mapping how far each person got with AI this week, and ask my AI tool: "what's the one thing I should pay attention to next week?"
  • "Show me your prompt", In meetings. When someone references something they made with AI, I ask, with genuine curiosity, "Can you show me the prompt you used?" That way we learn together how to get AI to do what is actually relevant for us.
  • Match the support to the learner, On demand. After someone struggles, I ask my AI tool: "given this person learns by watching, not doing, how can I offer support without it feeling like I'm checking up on them?" Then I see how that lands for them.
  • The "I don't know yet" rep, Weekly. At least once a week, in front of the team, I say: "I don't know yet, let me see what AI thinks and come back to you." Then I do, and share both the answer and what I did with it.

Start experimenting

Just pick the one that resonates most with you right now. See how it goes, be open and willing to learn, and also share it when a habit is not working out for you.

Don't forget to have fun with it and chat with your AI buddies about your experiences and how to tweak your habit based on your own context and preferences. Finding a way to make this energising for you is the best and fastest way to let AI add value to your daily work.