Is the future of leadership human, automated, or both? It’s up to you!
In this post, we share how to use automation in your leadership without losing what makes you a human leader. These days it feels like there is a tool for everything. Tools that schedule, summarize, score, predict, and draft. Many of them are wonderful, and we are glad to have them! But a question keeps coming up in our conversations with leaders, and it is a good one. If the tools can do so much, what is left for me to do? The answer, we believe, is the very best part of leadership.
Picture this. A manager opens her laptop on the last day of the quarter and finds that the performance reviews have already been drafted for her. Every one is tidy, fair, and on time. She could send them all before lunch. Then she reads the one about a team member who held three people together during a messy reorganization. The draft mentions the numbers. It says nothing about who that person was in the middle of the chaos. Our manager has a choice. She can click send, or she can pick up the phone.
What automation does really well
Let us give credit where it is due. Automation is wonderful at the work that does not need your heart:
- Handling repetitive tasks without ever getting tired.
- Spotting patterns in more information than any of us could read.
- Giving you a first draft in seconds.
- Keeping things consistent and on time.
When the tools take on these things, you get something precious back: time and attention. The real question is what you do with it.
What only human capability can do
This is where we think leaders matter most. There are things a tool can imitate on the surface but cannot truly do, because they come from being a person in a relationship with another person. Here are a few of our favorites:
- Notice what is not being said. Pay attention to the pause in the meeting, the camera that stays off, the answer that comes a little too quickly. There is information in the silence.
- Acknowledge who someone is being. Not just what they produced. Tell a person they are steady, generous, or captivating when they speak from the heart, and watch what happens.
- Do hard things with your heart. Hard decisions and hard news are part of leadership. A person who feels seen in a hard moment will remember how you made them feel long after the details fade.
- Stay curious about them first. Before you decide what is going on with someone, ask. Be clear about what you need, and try not to imprint your own perspective on them.
- Keep feedback going all the time. Feedback is not a yearly report. It lives in everyday conversation, and it takes two people.
- Create safety so trust can grow. Folks share ideas, take risks, and admit mistakes when they feel safe with you. That comes from your presence, not from a system.
What happens at the extremes
When everything is automated, people begin to feel like tickets in a queue. Messages arrive right on time, but nobody seems to be on the other end. Trust wears thin, and people quietly stop bringing you their real thoughts.
When nothing is automated, leaders wear themselves out. They spend their best energy on tasks that never needed it, and then show up to the human moments running on empty. We have all been there, right?
Our take is simple. It is not human capability OR automation. It is BOTH, with the human firmly in the lead.
How to decide what to automate and what to keep human
Not sure where the line is? Ask yourself these questions before you hand something off:
- Does this moment involve emotion, trust, or someone’s sense of worth?
- Would I want to receive this from a tool if I were on the other end?
- Is the information enough, or is the relationship the point?
- Will I still have time to follow up in person?
And here are a few ways to put it into practice:
- Let a tool write the first draft, then rewrite it in your own voice.
- Spend the time you save on real one-on-one conversations.
- Be honest with your people about when and how you use tools. That builds trust too.
- Check in with your team often about how it feels from their side.
The tools will keep getting smarter, and that is okay. Let them carry the heavy loads of logistics so you can carry the heart. Lead with human capability AND automation, and keep the human in the lead. We are cheering you on!
Humanity Works Because of YOU!
Kate & Debbie
