Lead Like a Human or Be Replaced by a Machine

Are you a leader who analyses data, gathers insights from trends and historical patterns, allocates resources and assigns work?

Are you a leader who writes emails, memos and reports, prepares communications, provides executive summaries, creates slide decks and charts for stakeholder consumption?

Are you a leader who tracks key performance indicators, generates reports and dashboards, checks task delivery against deadlines, and sends reminders when needed?

Are you a leader who undertakes sentiment analysis, employee engagement surveys, and pulse checks?

Are you a leader who directs traffic, manages spreadsheets, and spends time scheduling meetings?

If you are any of the above, you are about to become obsolete.

AI is here and is taking on these tasks you once thought were your own.

You must stop operating like a machine and lead like a human.

Lead like a human

Leadership must be about what only humans can do.

This is about leading with emotional intelligence, providing purpose and meaning, being authentic, curious, and courageous. It means being adaptive and having a growth mindset. It is about having empathy, honesty, and humility. It is about connection and collaboration.

It means being prepared to unlearn and relearn what it means to be an effective leader in today's world. 

I loved this analogy from Ann Kowal Smith writing for Forbes.

“In The Adventures of Pinocchio, Carlo Collodi’s wooden puppet longs to be real. He walks, talks, and mimics a human boy. But without empathy, responsibility, agency, and free will he is doomed to remain a wooden facsimile.

AI is no different. It can imitate conversation, logic and even behavior. Still, it lacks the intelligence that comes from experience, the insight that comes from struggle, and the wisdom that comes from being human.”

Pinocchio becomes a real boy by demonstrating qualities AI does not possess. He is brave, unselfish, and true. He is honest, courageous, loving and devoted.

Unlearn and relearn

As Marshall Goldsmith famously said, “What got you here won’t get you there.”

Leading in the age of AI requires different leadership capabilities and competencies. Leaders must be prepared to unlearn and relearn to remain relevant.

Learning, unlearning, and relearning is a cycle of gaining and applying knowledge, eliminating outdated information, and then gaining new knowledge and applying it.

It involves staying current in the world and reflecting on one’s current knowledge and potentially revising it.

The human brain possesses a remarkable capacity to learn, unlearn, and relearn, but you must have a growth mindset.

The learn-unlearn-relearn cycle encourages you to use your critical thinking skills to analyse and challenge your knowledge to ascertain its current relevance.

Learning requires acquiring new knowledge, skills, and strategies.

Unlearning is the process of letting go of old habits, beliefs, and ideas that no longer serve you. The process can be challenging as it requires you to confront your biases and preconceptions. It involves questioning your assumptions, challenging your beliefs and being open to new perspectives. It is about acknowledging that the skills you have today, which took many years to master, are no longer relevant.

Relearning is the process of learning something again, often in a new or different way. Relearning is important because it allows you to update your knowledge and skills in response to new information and changing circumstances.

Check out my latest book, Be REMARKABLE!

Learn to Unlearn. The New Leadership Mindset.

Uniquely human

AI cannot unlearn. It can be retrained.

Whilst there is a lot of talk about machine unlearning in relation to data privacy, the research is still in its infancy. The only perfect way to unlearn is to retrain the AI from scratch with all of the data except the item we want to unlearn. This, however, is impractical given the enormous cost of AI training.

Only humans can choose to question their assumptions, beliefs, and ideas. It is an intentional action based on critical thinking skills.

How you do it

The process of learning, unlearning, and relearning is a continuous cycle that requires you to be adaptable and open-minded. 

·       Reflect on the assumptions, beliefs, and ideas that no longer serve you, the team or the organisation.

·       Seek feedback from others on what parts of your leadership are no longer relevant.

·       Be curious.

·       Acknowledge the need to unlearn and be committed to the change and the challenge.

·       Have the courage, humility and integrity to admit that what you did yesterday no longer serves you today.

·       Embark on the relearning journey.

·       Embrace setbacks as learning opportunities.

Empathy

Empathy is the ability to understand and perhaps share the feelings of another person. Compassionate action must accompany empathy. Empathy without action is empty.

Empathy is crucial for fostering positive relationships with others. When you possess empathy, you can understand the perspectives, needs, and intentions of others. Empathy means you care about other people.

In the workplace, Empathy in leaders is crucial because employees feel heard, valued, understood, and cared for. It fosters trust, enhances effective collaboration, and improves communication.

Empathetic leaders can view situations from the perspective of others. They can put themselves in another person’s shoes. The challenge for the leader is not to think about how they would feel in someone else’s shoes, but how the other person feels in their shoes. 

They are emotionally intelligent. They can rise above the emotion in the conversation and put aside their own and the other person's feelings to view the situation subjectively. The emotions in the conversation do not control the outcome.

Empathy is critical to building trust. When employees know that leaders will listen to them and consider their thoughts and feelings, even if they don't initially agree, they will trust their leader.

Empathetic leaders demonstrate a genuine concern for others, whether it’s a person’s mental state, a challenge they face, or a professional or personal situation. They reach out, ask questions, and when they understand, they help. They provide support, guidance, coaching, motivation, comfort, or whatever may be required to help remedy the situation in which the other person finds themselves. Only by being empathetic can you truly understand the other person’s situation and offer the appropriate assistance.

Uniquely human

AI can recognise emotions, but it cannot feel them.

It cannot care. Empathy isn’t pattern recognition; it’s a human’s ability to connect with others and understand how they are feeling. It’s the look across the table that says, “I see you and I understand you.” It’s compassion that leads to action.

AI lacks subjective experience, emotions, and genuine concern for others' well-being. While AI can simulate cognitive empathy, understanding and predicting emotions based on data, it cannot experience emotional or compassionate empathy.

How you do it

·       Understand what empathy is and is not.

·       Create an environment where others feel safe expressing their feelings.

·       Check in regularly.

·       Practice active listening.

·       Be fully present.

·       Ask how the other person is feeling and use open questioning.

·       Wait for their response.

·       Do not interrupt.

·       Reflect on what you have heard before responding.

·       Suspend assumptions and truly listen to understand, not respond.

Purpose-driven influence

Leaders foster a sense of purpose in the workplace. When people have a sense of purpose, they find meaning in the work they do. They understand how their daily tasks contribute to something bigger. They believe that what they do matters.

True leadership isn’t about control - it’s about inspiration. It’s the ability to rally people around shared meaning and values, especially in uncertain times. Leaders make the organisational purpose visible to employees. They then link their jobs to that purpose and highlight how individuals across all functions and levels can fulfil that purpose.

Uniquely human

AI doesn’t care. It cannot believe in a mission. Only humans can speak with conviction, spark hope, and act with intention. You can lead hearts, not just tasks.

How you do it

·       Be clear on your own “why”

·       Talk about vision with emotion, not just logic

·       Connect individual goals to shared team and organisational purpose

·       Use storytelling to inspire action

·       Walk the talk and live your values

Trust

Trust is the foundation of effective leadership. It’s built through consistency, vulnerability, honesty, transparency, compassion and integrity.

Trust means there is no doubt. There is no doubt about another person’s intentions or capabilities. Trust is a two-way street. Leaders must show trust in their team if they expect the team to trust them.

If a leader does not create, maintain, and sustain trust, there is no sense of team. When there is trust within a team, each member knows they can rely on one another to do the right thing. They believe in each other’s integrity and strength and know they have each other’s backs. The team feel safe with each other. They can be open and honest with each other, take appropriate risks, and show their vulnerabilities. They share knowledge and communicate openly.

Uniquely human

Trust in leadership comes from feeling seen, heard, and safe. Machines can’t do that. Only humans can create psychological safety.

How you do it

·       Show you genuinely care.

·       Be transparent.

·       Be vulnerable and admit mistakes.

·       Be consistent.

·       Provide an environment of psychological safety.

·       Follow through on promises.

Ethics

Ethics is about leaders making decisions based on what is right for the common good, rather than just what is best for themselves or the bottom line.

It is about doing the right thing even when it’s hard or ambiguous. It's about making values-based decisions, not just following rules. Ethical leadership involves leaders consistently demonstrating values such as honesty, integrity, fairness, and accountability.

Ethical leaders encourage the same behaviour from their team members. They build an environment in which transparency, collaboration, and inclusion are valued, and there is psychological safety, so that everyone feels safe to share their voice.

Uniquely human

AI doesn’t know right from wrong because it only knows what it’s been told. Only humans can make principled decisions, speak up when things feel wrong, and lead with integrity.

How you do it

·       Define your non-negotiables.

·       Engage your team in ethical dilemmas.

·       Ask: “Just because we can, should we?”

·       Reward courage, not just compliance.

·       Make space for conscience in your culture.

Conclusion

AI is here, and it is getting better every day. If your leadership is built on processes, efficiency, or control, it is time for you to evolve.

The future belongs to those who can do what AI cannot. That means leading with empathy, acting with integrity, adapting with curiosity, and inspiring through purpose. It means connecting hearts, not just managing hands. It means embracing vulnerability, fostering trust, and having the courage to unlearn what leadership used to look like—and relearn what it needs to become.

The future belongs to those who lead like humans.