Is AI Making Leadership Obsolete?

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Multiple sources have stated that AI will flatten organization structures in the future. That sounds innocuous to read, but really think that one through for a moment: what would the point of having a nice title, corner office, power and authority be if your subordinates (or a machine) are able to find the answers to challenges faster than you can?

You got into "leadership" (which is really management, but indulge me for a moment) because you were good at your job. You climbed the "leadership" ranks because you were good at solving other people's problems for them. Sure, maybe you learned how to rally your subordinates together from time to time to get the workload down or a project accomplished on-time. Eventually, you may have made it to the top, and are now creating compelling visions for tomorrow, next year, or a 5-year plan.

All of this sounds great, but we've only proven problem-solving skills, project management skills and sales skills thus far. Frankly, AI can either augment those skillsets with someone of a much lower pay-grade, or replace a human being entirely.

Finally, you may have gotten to where you are because you know quite a bit. Solving problems, managing projects, and selling a vision for a better tomorrow has roots in knowing the answers to people's most pressing questions. Our society at work demands our "leaders" to have these answers, and subsequently solve these challenges for us when we fail to do so.

But knowing the answers is now becoming obsolete. AI knows more than you. If it someone does not yet, it will. AI can process the answers faster than you, and has access to whatever data-set you give it access to to find it ... and it will in seconds!

So when AI doomsayers claim that we will have flattened organizational structures, they may very well be right. Management should be concerned with having part or much of their jobs taken by AI.

But leadership - real leadership - is safe from AI takeover.

Leadership in its more complete definition - the process/action of mobilizing people to confront a reality they would rather avoid - is something I find hard to imagine AI will replace from human beings.

Why?

Because the work of leadership is rooted in what makes human beings....human.

Much of the industrial revolution into 20th century was replacing human being's physical labor with machine labor. We thus evolved more into brain-based work. Now, machines are starting to think better than we can. The great shift may just be from labor of the mind ...to labor of the heart and soul.

That's where leadership tends to happen. When logic and facts have failed, the work must thus shift to where beliefs, values, and behaviors truly come from. Leadership requires new learning - adaptation to the challenges at hand. It requires some horizontal skill development, sometimes. But the real work is in vertical development, aka the development of how we view and understand the world.

AI may help us learn new skills faster. But I have yet to see AI do a better job of touching the human experience the same way another human being can. AI can mimic behavior and logical reasoning. It may even behave in ways we tell it to (or not to..which is downright scary to think about) - but for AI to move us vertically through challenging our worldview in the face of adversity? I find that hard to imagine in the foreseeable future.

AI (probably) Cannot Replace Humanity

Never say never, but the human existence is what makes leadership so darn tough...and yet so darn beautiful. It also feels pretty darn safe from AI takeover. What frustrates us about people is what makes the human existence so powerful. When logic and facts about something fail to move people to change, you have to reach them in their worldview ... usually in the heart, gut, and perhaps the soul.

To paraphrase Ron Heifetz - how can we possibly measure the good done in the world, let alone a machine doing it for us? These beautiful moments of good in the world - from holding the door open for someone every day, to saving a life from raging waters, and everything in-between - there is no one way to measure good. Nor should there be!

Takeaway(s)

Leadership is not management. Management's job may be partly (or even fully) outsourced by AI. Leadership the activity is human in nature. The work of human beings in emotion, intuition, and even spiritual (which I'd define as living as close to your values as possible) work is right within our grasp. These are not just innate skills we are born with; we can build and grow these skills! Investment in the capacity to adapt to the change around us helps build the necessary progress to solve our most pressing challenges within our life, organizations, and even society as a whole.

So no, AI is not making leadership obsolete. But without conscious effort to build leadership capacity (aka the ability to adapt and be resilient, in part), that skill will continue to erode as we get more reliant on the allure of quick fixes with AI.

Building leadership capacity is no longer a "nice to have": it is a necessity.

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At Well Led, we partner with organizations to build their adaptive capacity from the management, team, department, and whole organization levels. Well Led offers 1:1 coaching, workshop facilitations, as well as customized training cohorts to help your people build the capacity to lead and make progress on their toughest challenges.

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