The Story Behind the HUMAAN Leadership Compass.

The Story Behind the HUMAAN Leadership Compass. A six-capability model for human centred leadership in the age of AI.

LEADERSHIPSELF AWARENESSHUMAN LEADERSHIPAI

Roland Lewis

9/4/20265 min read

The Story Behind the HUMAAN Leadership Compass.

A six-capability model for human centred leadership in the age of AI.

Why I believe in AI

I’ve long been fascinated by Artificial Intelligence. I saw such value in a world where computers and people collaborated to create really awesome outcomes. I invested in AI companies in the stock market, so strong was my conviction in the value this technology might accrue. Were they successful? Some were… some weren’t. The ones that were, made me a lot of money. I am so grateful I chose to follow that path.

My interest is part of an even longer love of technology. I have this cousin, Simon. He’s amazing. He was pulling apart and putting together computers when we were all trying to figure out DOS. He’s always been about 10 steps ahead of me (and I’m about 50 steps ahead of almost everyone else in my world), so he knows his stuff. He even worked for one of the biggest tech companies and was given his own AI model to explore, in his own time. He’s in the space where he builds his own AI models, so I reckon that 10 steps has probably extended to about 1000. All this is to say, that when Simon’s in town, I’m always keen to learn about what’s happening and what’s coming.

He’s a pure technophile; I’m a learner. I love to learn, explore, create and manipulate using technology. To give you a bit of insight, I coded a game into my Texas Instruments Graphics Calculator during the spare time after I’d finished my GAT[1], in Year 12.

So, when ChatGPT launched in 2022, I was pumped to be able to interact with an AI using plain language – this made the inaccessible accessible and I threw myself in headlong. My first interaction was on 26 January 2023 at 10:29 pm Melbourne time (according to ChatGPT). I trained it how to write like me and pumped out text like it was going out of fashion. The trained text output back then was a whole lot better than it is now, which is interesting.

I was a school leader at the time, so I saw a lot of risk unfolding. In particular, personal privacy risk. People were uploading sensitive information about themselves and others willy-nilly. So, I’m glad I could influence the people in my community and help educate and advocate for responsible use of this technology.

It wasn’t until 2026 that I was hit with a confronting view on the AI models.

The day I was told coaching is dead

I had decided to move away from educational leadership and focus on my passion for coaching and leadership development. I love learning and people, and I see leadership, done well, as a way of affecting the world for the better. So, I struck out on my own and started Roland Lewis Coaching.

It was that very same year that I was told, “coaching is dead.” AI can coach people just as well, if not better, than a person.

Whack!

My whole future slammed – just like that.

What came next was some serious soul searching. Could I pursue a career as a coach? Would the profession survive? What would that mean for someone entering the profession? Sure, I had 11 years of training and experience but no credentials outside education. This was a real crisis of confidence.

But then it struck me. What do I love? Learning, people and leadership. These are all deeply human things. Anyone who tells you that learning doesn’t require people, is missing the point (and has probably leaned into people free learning too far – hence lack of real sense).

That’s when it struck me. We are all humans, and humans need humans. We’re built to be social. Hell, most of the problems we face as a society are because people are being pulled away from each other.

I want to work with humans who want to work with humans. There’s going to be plenty of them in this world of 8,000,000,000+.

It was mulling over this word human, when it came to me. We need direction back to find our people. We need to return to what makes us well. We need a compass that will direct us towards humanity.

I had a name that sounded good – The Human Leadership Compass. A model for choosing human leadership in a world where AI is entering the workforce.

But what was going to be in the model?

Building the model

Understanding had to be there – leaders need to understand, make understanding and are at risk of losing that through cognitive outsourcing. We need the discipline to be able to sit in the pits of discomfort, to be able to build the understanding that underpins the solutions to the complex problems we face. Easy, understanding goes in.

Moral Judgement – this one was a no-brainer. It was the whole underlying message of Jurassic Park, even the character Dr Ian Malcolm says his own, classis version of, ‘just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.’ AI can’t make ethical decisions. Moral Judgement goes in.

Awareness – this one was another no-brainer. Any leadership learning program/model/book will tell you that good leadership requires self-awareness. Tasha Eurich research, Daniel Goelman’s work and books on Emotional Intelligence and even Michael Bungay Stanier’s work on coach-like leadership all espouse the importance of awareness (self and others). AI can’t be our self-awareness. No brainer, it goes in.

Humanity came next. This one was tenuous but critical for the direction of the model as a whole. I just had this gut feel that it needed to be there. I’m glad I listened to my body because it has become the foundation, the bedrock for the model. I’ll tell you more about that later.

It was around then, that I started writing them in a list, to explore the ideas a bit more. I put them down the page like this;

Humanity

Understanding

Moral Judgement

Awareness

It hit me like a ton of bricks – it almost spelled HUMAN!

As soon as I saw that the last letter arrived. My love of etymology is what brought it to life.

Love. AI cannot love us. It’s doing a creepily good job of convincing some people that it does but I’m not going to go there.

What does love look like in leadership – Nurturing our people.

Nurturing Growth emerged…and we had the word HUMAN.

Adding the second A

I was super happy and started sharing this idea with colleagues and friends. It was out at dinner, with a marketing executive where the final piece came along.

She loved it but she pushed back. “You can’t have a leadership model without accountability. This is a major issue at the moment across all industries. People are avoiding accountability. Give it 2 As. Awareness and Accountability. AI can be held to account, the people who use it are. Awareness without Accountability is just introspection.”

And so the HUMAAN Leadership Compass was complete. The dual A. The Internal and External. The inward facing and the outward facing.

There is a lot to this model, too much for a single blog article.

So, this is a start.

Over the coming months, I’ll share more of this model.

In coming articles, I’ll dig into Humanity, Understanding, Moral Judgement, Awareness, Accountability, Nurturing Growth and the dual axis Awareness/Accountability relationship. I’ll explore what this means for leaders today and how we can work together to build better human skills and lead well into the future.

Some of it is complete; some of it is still under construction. It’s all copyrighted, so I can build it out safely here online.

So join me for the ride. Subscribe to my blog for ongoing updates.

Join me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roland-lewis-coaching/

Reach out and share your thoughts at roland@rolandlewiscoaching.com

Even check out my HUMAAN Leadership reflective diagnostic here: https://rolandlewiscoaching.com/human-leadership-reflective-diagnostic-assessment

I’d love your thoughts and feedback along the journey.

Let’s chart a course to more HUMAAN Leadership together.

Lead on. Lead well.

Roland

[1] General Achievement Test: A three hour exam used as moderating data and a safety net for final exams for Victorian school students.