Rasmus Hougaard, founder of Potential Project, argues that AI can amplify human leadership qualities like awareness and compassion. He draws on Buddhist practice and years working in Nepal and India to show how leaders can use technology to do hard things in a human way.
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So how do we learn to do the hard things in a human way? And most people feel that that is a dichotomy. Like either I have to choose to be a hard leader that gets shit done or I need to be a nice person that people like. Those two have to and can go together. And that is what it is to do hard things in a human.
Foreign. Hi friends. Welcome back to the Happiness Squad podcast. Today's episode is truly special. I'm joined by my dear friend Rasmus Hougaard, founder and CEO of Potential Project, one of the world's leading voices on human centered leadership. He's the author of Compassionate Leadership and his newest book, More Human, which is one of the most important leadership book I've read in recent years. In this conversation we go deep exploring how AI, when used intentionally, can actually enhance our humanity, not replace it. We touched on many topics including how AI can help us augment the three essential qualities of future ready leaders. Awareness, wisdom, and compassion. We also discussed simple ways to to use AI to overcome our own biases and show up with more humility and presence. And finally, how to do hard things in a human way. Something that every leader needs today to navigate this highly volatile, uncertain and complex world. If you're a leader navigating rapid change, juggling performance and people, and wondering how to stay grounded while leaping ahead, this conversation offers not just insight, but a roadmap. Let's dive in. Rasmus, it is so lovely, my dear friend, to have you with us on our Happiness Squad podcast. Thank you for joining us.
My pleasure. Ashish, great to see you and looking forward to this conversation. It'll be fun.
Yeah. You know Rasmus, I have always been so inspired by you and your journey towards, you know, really creating more human centered leaders. And really that's, you know, if I go back to your. The company you started 15 years ago, the firm Potential Project. That's the mission, to create a more human world of work. And you were such a pioneer so many years ahead of before human centricity became this big major buzzword everybody talks about. And I'm curious to just frankly start a little bit with that on, you know, what was a personal transformation or experience that so early on led you to embrace this compassionate, human centered leadership in business? Something that 15 years ago we weren't talking about, we were Busy talking about Y2K and whatever else was going to come in the tech bubble. Like human was not on any business leaders. Lips, minds, hearts.
Yeah, that is very true. We were definitely ahead of the curve and as you know, being ahead of the curve or behind the curve sucks because that needs to. You have to paddle much faster. But of course, the good thing is when the curve comes, then you're ahead of it and you reap its benefits. But there are probably two things that shaped this for me, and one is when I was quite young, as I've shared with you before, you know, I escaped to the places where you come from originally. So when I was 17, I kind of lost confidence in the Western model of getting a good education. You get a good job, so you get a good house, you get a good car and a good family, and then you get a better job and a better house and a better car and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It just didn't make sense to me. And so I ended up in Nepal and India and ended up spending quite a lot of time there in the first two decades of my adulthood, mostly in. In different Buddhist monasteries. And the experience of coming as a Westerner to a place where they have focused on inner technology, not outer technology like the. They don't have the same planes and as good chewing gum as, as, as we do in the west, but man, they have technology for training the, the mind and the heart.
Absolutely.
And that was just deeply, deeply, deeply mind blowing. And that became my path and has been for what now, whatever it is, 30 some years. So that, that's one thing that has really made me focus on the, on the human and. And the other thing is just a more, not more, but a very personal thing. My dad was a leader since I was a very young kid and being brought up in Scandinavia, which is generally very flat, very equality. And I thought that was just like how it was everywhere. And seeing him at work, you know, I was often with him at work when I was sick or just in general, I was always welcome there. And just seeing how he operated, which to me seemed not natural and normal. And then when I started to work with corporations, I saw that was definitely not normal. But that general attention and care for the people that you work with, that I had been brought up with and I thought was just, of course, everybody's like that. And seeing that it wasn't like that made me see there's a major, major, major need for more humanity and humanness in companies. So I saw that even when I was very, very young and potential projects just become a. Yeah. An expression of that.
So I love that story and so much resonance with our own right, the work we are doing now. RASMUS I started two and a half years ago. I literally tell everybody I feel this is missionary work, which basically means, you know, on this topic, I fundamentally expect 90, 90 out of a hundred people are not going to get it, or they're going to get it here, but they won't get it here, which means they're not willing to go do anything. And out of the 10 that who want to do this work, you know, you, you think, you imagine a Taj Mahal and they think a hut, right? Yeah, that's great. They can't even, you know, it's a little bit like they can't imagine that. And. And then you find three or four, and then you start from there. So I'm like. It requires perseverance, persistent, and real alignment, which only can come from within, as in your case, started very early to say, I know I'm on the right path. I'm going to speak my truth. I honor your truth of where you are right now. So I'm not doing it from a place of superiority. I honor your truth. And when we are ready.
