The Capacity to Lead What’s Coming
As I settle down at my desk to write this article with ChatGPT and Claude my eager and willing companions, I am aware of an interesting paradox;
The more capable AI becomes, the more deliberately I need to develop the qualities that make me human.
For real!
If you’re still wondering about whether AI will replace you one day, you may be asking the wrong question.
The greater threat may not be AI itself, but another leader who learns to combine its capabilities with distinctly human judgement, wisdom and care.
AI is already entering the human territory of leadership
Think for a moment about the aspects of your work have shifted from a human interaction to an AI interaction?
The usual suspects may well be on your list; analysis of data, preparing for meetings, generating ideas, drafting and perfecting communications.
But what about activities we would have once considered more uniquely human; exploring complex challenges, testing decisions, preparing for important or difficult conversations.
Recent research from the Chartered Management Institute found that 70% of managers surveyed had sought advice from generative AI instead of asking their own manager. They cited quicker, more detailed, more timely responses as some of the reasons.
On one level this shows initiative, on the other it raises an important question
If someone would prefer to seek advice or guidance from AI than their leader or manager, is that evidence of AI’s capability or a warning of the quality of the leaders around them?
AI can provide an immediate answer, but it cannot create the culture in which someone feels safe enough to ask the question.
What will we do with the capacity AI releases?
A UK government trial of 20,000 civil servants found that on average people saved 26 mins per day, equivalent to almost 2 working weeks per year.
Imagine having 2 weeks to invest in your leadership!
What could become possible if you consciously reinvested that time?
Could we spend more of it thinking strategically, building relationships, bringing people together, coaching others, solving difficult problems or creating something new?
Or will the space simply fill with more e mails, more meetings, more reports and greater expectations of output?
The leadership opportunity presented by AI is not only about efficiency, it’s about consciously reinvesting the time, energy and cognitive capacity that technology releases into the work that creates distinctly human value.
The leadership opportunity presented by AI isn’t simply about efficiency. It’s about increasing our capacity by consciously reinvesting the time, energy and cognitive space that technology creates into the work only humans can do: thinking strategically, building relationships, exercising judgement and leading with care.
The habits that brought us here may not take us forward
Many of us have built successful careers by knowing the answers, drawing on previous experience and providing certainty and clarity.
But the pace of change and the open access to knowledge means that experience has a much shorter shelf life. Leaders will increasingly need to provide confidence without pretending to possess certainty.
Future ready leaders will require a different balance of qualities;
- Curiosity: to question what they think they know
- Critical thinking: to assess the quality of the answers that AI provides
- Adaptability: to change direction as new evidence emerges
- Humility: to learn alongside their teams
- Emotional intelligence: to understand and empathise how change is being experienced
- Wise compassion: to make hard decisions in a human way
- Wisdom: to balance short term efficiency with longer term human and organisational consequences
The future does not belong to leaders who reject AI or those who hand over too much responsibility to it.
It belongs to leaders who can intelligently and consciously move between the strengths of technology and the qualities that remain distinctly human. leaders who know when to draw on AI and when to slow down and think, who combine information and technological capability with context, wisdom and genuine human care.
Organisations are investing heavily in AI. The question is whether they are investing with equal intention in the leaders expected to use it wisely.
And for each of us, the question is even more personal and potentially life changing;
Will we use AI simply to do more, or will we use the capacity it offers to lead and live better?
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