Lead what’s next

No. Leadership at AE can take different forms. You can lead through deep expertise, coaching and developing people, client and business relationships, community building or thought leadership. Those paths can overlap, but they do not have to. Someone who wants to deepen their expertise does not automatically have to become a people manager. And someone who enjoys coaching others does not necessarily have to take on the same commercial responsibilities. The question is where your experience can create the most value. 

There is no single leadership role everyone is expected to grow into. You might help set direction in an expertise area, guide complex client decisions, coach colleagues, build a community, develop new propositions or strengthen long term client relationships. Leadership is less about having a particular title and more about where your expertise, judgement and actions help others move forward. 

Yes. As your experience grows, there are more ways to use it beyond one project. You can contribute to knowledge communities, coaching, internal learning, account development, propositions, thought leadership, business opportunities or internal initiatives. How much you combine those activities with client work depends on your role, ambitions and client context. There is no expectation that everyone takes on the same mix. 

There are opportunities to contribute beyond your own business unit or assignment. Leadership Days and Leadership Calls give experienced professionals visibility into broader developments and strategic choices within AE. They also create space to bring perspectives from your expertise, client work and part of the organisation into the conversation. You can also contribute through expertise communities, propositions and initiatives that help develop how AE works or what we bring to clients. That does not mean every strategic decision is made collectively. It does mean experience from across AE can help inform where the organisation goes. 

That is an important part of the experience we want to create. As your expertise grows, it becomes increasingly valuable to have peers around you who bring another client context, another discipline or deeper knowledge of a particular problem. You can connect with those people through business units, expertise communities, account teams, leadership forums and informal relationships across AE. The aim is not for you to always be the most experienced person in the room. 

More experience means more autonomy. It does not mean you have to work everything out alone. Your Long Term Coach can still be a sounding board for questions about your future direction, different responsibilities, another client context, your network or the balance between client work and broader contributions. As your experience grows, the form of support changes too. What you need from it may also change. For some people, one strong sounding board is enough. Others value different perspectives depending on the decision they are facing.

Yes, although the exact balance depends on your role and context. Your main contribution may still sit with a client, while part of your expertise also goes into coaching colleagues, developing a proposition, sharing knowledge or helping build an expertise area. There is no fixed model in which everyone has to divide their time in the same way. The aim is to use your experience where it creates the most relevant value. 

Thought leadership can take different forms. You might develop a new perspective or approach, contribute to a proposition, speak at an event, share expertise through training or communities, or help make what AE learns across client contexts visible to others. It does not require having an opinion on everything. It is about having something useful to add where you have the expertise and experience to do so.

At this stage, AI is less about mastering every new tool and more about understanding what the technology changes. That can mean recognising where AI creates real value, separating useful possibilities from hype, connecting technology to strategy, making risks and governance visible or helping teams develop new ways of working. Your existing expertise remains important because it gives you the context to judge whether something is actually a good idea.

No. One person may want to deepen their expertise and become a stronger authority in their field. Another may want to coach others, build stronger client relationships, develop propositions or contribute more broadly within AE. Those directions can also change over time. There is no standard combination of client work, coaching, thought leadership, people leadership and business development that everyone eventually has to follow.

That depends on your role and client assignment. AE has offices in Leuven, Antwerp, Ghent and Hasselt, and many of our clients are based in Brussels. For most consultancy roles, client presence is part of the job. In practice, that usually means two to three days a week on site, with flexibility around travel time, not a daily commute. We discuss location and mobility early in the recruitment process, so you know what a role involves before you decide.