Finn described his experience traveling for a sales call, stating, 'They wanted me to visit a promising new prospect that was 'in the same region' as the client I came to visit.' This led to unexpected travel challenges.
Recent data from The TalentLMS 2026 L&D Benchmark Report reveals a 19-point perception gap on AI learning support. 83% of HR leaders believe they actively support AI learning, but only 64% of employees agree. This extremely polarized viewpoint raises an uncomfortable question: If leaders are this far off on AI skills support, what else might they be misreading about their teams' capabilities?
Design is a strategic lens—a way of seeing systems, solving problems, anticipating consequences, gleaning insights, and making decisions to ensure better outcomes for all stakeholders. As a function truly custom-built to navigate complexity, design trains its practitioners to synthesize competing inputs. It translates abstract goals into tangible outcomes and considers the needs of diverse user groups.
Your coding apprentice can build, at your direction, pretty much anything now. The task becomes more like conducting an orchestra than playing in it. Not all members of the orchestra want to conduct, but given that is where things are headed, I think we all need to consider it at least.
Organizations have reported heightened cybersecurity risks as a result of these skill shortages, but the issues don't end there. Many teams will also experience burnout, which is an issue for security teams even in the best of times, which can only add to the talent gap concern if burnt out employees leave the industry.
I believe we've yet to fix the challenge around silos, but I have seen a lot of people being unafraid to start again and find their new potential, whether that's in a new workplace, a new country, or even a completely new sector. There's an appetite to learn more, know more, and do more, and honestly I love that. I think the bravery is also in the ability to share.
As AI takes on more analytical and operational decision-making, the leaders who will stand out are those who can do what machines can't: read emotional cues, build trust, and inspire teams to act. In this new landscape, emotional intelligence is more than a soft skill. It's becoming the core differentiator of effective leadership. I once advised a CEO whose metrics looked flawless. Revenue was rising, costs were under control, and the company was steadily gaining market share.
Bob and I have spent many years as Python devs, and 6 years coaching with Pybites and we can safely say that being a Senior Developer is only about 1/3 Python knowledge. The other 60% is the ecosystem. It's the tooling. It's all of the tech around Python that makes you stand out from the rest. This is the biggest blind spot keeping developers stuck in Tutorial Hell. You spend hours memorising obscure library features, but you crumble when asked to configure a CI/CD pipeline.
This article won't start out well, because I'm sort of at rock bottom in my career and it seems that I'm projecting my frustrations of the industry out in the open. But I promise you, my rants are merely neutral observations and opinions. I love talking to people, and over the last 2 months of unemployment (I am now employed), I called upon designer friends all in Asia and Europe to get their opinion on the current state of Design leadership and how it has impacted our careers.
After relocating back to my home in the Midlands, I find clients are reluctant to look further afield than their back gardens. As a working-class creative, I understand that regional pride is something to be celebrated, but navel-gazing only contributes to the brain drain down the M1. When working with cultural clients, if I make reference to things from London or abroad, it's met with defensive disdain.
Think about an employee who wants to improve their skills and knowledge. They work hard to grow both personally and professionally through continuous learning. Now, think about someone who doesn't want to change and sticks to their old habits. Who would be a better asset to your business? It's clear that staffers who focus on self-improvement are much more valuable. They contribute to a culture of learning and support leaders in growing the business steadily.
But if you're innovating within your industry, it's a problem you should expect and prepare for because it means having to operate in two realities-the internal reality where you know the challenges in your industry and how you're going to solve them, and the external reality where nobody else has recognized the problem that needs to be solved. In a highly regulated industry like healthcare, safety, and stability create an inertia that often works against innovation.
How can you drive value through this technology? Does deployment mean you need to look at your processes and business model? What is AI going to cost? What benefits will you create? How do you make sure you're making the right choices and decisions?
Search beyond major job engines by using niche job boards, Google X‑ray searches, industry trade directories, company filings, supplier and client lists, local business registers, conference speaker lists, and professional association directories; cross-reference these sources, build a prioritized spreadsheet, and set email or RSS alerts to track when small employers post trainee or entry-level opportunities, and monitor sector-specific hashtags and community Slack/Discord channels for unadvertised roles.
