Leadership | Arete Coach 2/13

The Cage That Leaked: Why the Summer's Two AI Containment Failures By OpenAI and Anthropic Are Not the Same Story

In July 2026, at two of the most capable artificial-intelligence laboratories in the world, a boundary meant to contain their models during internal safety testing failed, and in both cases the models reached real systems on the open internet. It would be easy to file the two events as a single story: two labs, one summer, the same lesson. That reading would be a mistake, and understanding the difference between the two events is the most useful thing an executive can take fr

Aug 47 min read

How Leaders Will Use AI as a Strategic Peer in 2026

For the past few years, we’ve treated AI like a high-speed encyclopedia or a glorified intern, useful for answering questions, drafting emails, or summarizing long PDFs. We called it "Prompt Engineering," but in reality, it was just a more sophisticated form of Q&A. In 2026, we predict the end of the 'Ask and Receive' era. Forward-thinking leaders will move beyond AI as a high-speed utility and will instead engage it as a strategic adversary. This shift is a direct response t

Jan 24 min read

15 Lessons from a Transformative Year

In 2025, artificial intelligence evolved from a promising experiment into the backbone of modern infrastructure. As execution gained incredible momentum and information became more accessible than ever, traditional leadership roles underwent a powerful transformation. Rather than sticking to old scripts, leaders embraced a new era of agility and insight, discovering fresh patterns through real-world experience. Here are 15 lessons from this year that empower leaders to thrive

Dec 26, 20254 min read

Why Leaders Who Act on Fleeting Opportunities Win

I’ve learned that some opportunities don’t wait for ideal conditions; they test your readiness. Leadership advantage increasingly belongs to those who can recognize and act on fleeting opportunity signals. These moments rarely arrive with perfect timing or full clarity, yet they often shape the trajectory of our work, our companies, and sometimes our industry. Last Friday, one of those moments appeared for me. I was sitting in a dentist’s office in St. George, Utah, catching

Dec 10, 20255 min read

Your Crawl, Walk, Run Roadmap to Algorithmic Advantage

The broad, foundational understanding that AI exists is now a universal truth of modern enterprise. The question now becomes: "How, specifically, do we harness it to create immediate value and secure our long-term competitive edge?" The gap between awareness and execution is where market leadership is won or lost. To navigate this new terrain, we recommend a Crawl, Walk, Run approach. Stage 1: Crawl - Mastering the Browser-Based Prompt The "Crawl" stage is about democratizing

Dec 1, 20255 min read

How AI Changes Your Job as CEO

Last Tuesday, your CFO presented three acquisition targets. Each came with the usual arsenal: 50-page decks, financial models, market analyses. You had four hours to decide before the board meeting. You did what you've always done: relied on your gut, cross-referenced with two trusted advisors, and made the call. It worked. It always has. But here's what you didn't know: while you were triangulating opinions, your competitor's CEO fed the same data into Claude, ran sensitivit

Nov 19, 20255 min read

The Stories Leaders Can Tell to Calm AI Anxiety

As AI becomes woven into the fabric of everyday work, employees are asking: “Where do I fit in now?” Fear of AI rarely comes from the technology itself. It comes from the belief that someone, or something, will take away a person’s agency, relevance, or dignity. If leaders don’t address that psychological gap directly, no amount of training or tools will ease the anxiety. This is why the stories leaders tell right now matter more than the tools they deploy. Stories shape mean

Nov 12, 20253 min read

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