The Leader Mindset #43

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We Are Not Thinking Big Enough About Leadership in the Age Of AI

I have been thinking about this topic for some time, and this article comes from a keynote address I presented a few months ago.

Artificial intelligence feels like a freight train sprinting into everything we do at work. Unfortunately, most leaders do not look up from their daily grind long enough to notice what is coming at them.

Certainly, we have experienced major changes before. Personal computers, the internet, mobile phones, automation. Those waves reshaped industries, disrupted jobs, and forced people to learn new skills. And we adjusted. We survived. New roles appeared, and if necessary, people built new careers.

If we are being honest with ourselves, AI feels totally different. This time, the technology is not just helping humans work faster, which has been the case in the past. It is starting to do the work itself.

That difference changes everything.

Don’t assume this plays out like the last wave

AI is already doing work that used to require whole teams. Customer questions are handled before a person gets involved. Sales outreach is written and sequenced automatically. Financial analysis that took days now appears in minutes. HR triage, research, scheduling, compliance checks. Much of it now starts with software, not staff.

For some this may feel like a novelty, while not understanding the exponentiality of what is coming over the next few years. When leaders treat AI like simple efficiency improvement, they miss the deeper reality. The question is no longer how fast people work. It is which work will even need people at all.

If leaders pretend nothing fundamental has changed, their teams will feel the consequences anyway. For leaders it is critical not to fight the technology, but to help people understand it, adapt to it, and still see themselves in the future that is being created. Here is the leader’s playbook in the age of AI.

The first responsibility: Build belief

People want to be part of a team that is moving forward. When AI enters the picture, it can feel like the ground is shifting beneath their feet. Skills feel temporary. Roles feel uncertain. And employees wonder whether their company has a plan to navigate the future. That uncertainty grows fast when leaders stay quiet or simply tell people to “keep doing what they’re doing.”

Leaders need to bring people inside the story. That means explaining the disruption, naming why it matters, and outlining where the organization is going next in simple, human language. When teams understand the change and see the path ahead, they are far more willing to lean in, experiment, and help shape the future rather than resist it.

Belief becomes the natural result. Not blind optimism. Belief comes when people trust that their leaders see what is coming, have a vision worth chasing, and are confident enough to run toward it. And to create that, leaders have to push past their own hesitation and model the courage they want others to follow.

The second responsibility: Create focus

As AI expands what is possible, companies will be tempted to chase everything at once. New tools appear, new ideas get pitched, and industries feel suddenly wide open. The danger is that teams get spread too thin, drowning in activity without making progress on what counts.

This is where leadership can build credibility. Focus is oxygen in a landscape of endless options. Leaders need to narrow the aperture and help teams pick the ideas that matter most. Clear goals. Fewer priorities. Simple markers of success. Ultimately, producing progress people can see.

When everyone understands what winning looks like, they move faster and with more conviction.

In times of rapid change, distraction is the real enemy. The leader’s job is to filter noise so teams can move forward together rather than scattering their energy.

The third responsibility: Pressing the accelerator

Once a leader has painted a compelling future and focused the team on what matters most, the next realization arrives quickly. The skills that carried the team to this point will not be enough for what comes next. Even the most capable employees quietly wonder whether they are equipped to thrive in a new environment shaped by AI. That uncertainty is normal, but it can slow progress if leaders ignore it.

This is the moment leaders need to step back and take a clear look at the capabilities the future demands. That means honestly assessing team gaps, treating learning as essential rather than optional, and giving people opportunities that stretch them beyond their comfort zones. It requires encouraging experimentation with new AI tools and creating space for real practice.

When leaders intentionally build capability, everything changes. Teams build confidence, which enables them to move faster, adapt sooner, and start taking initiative rather than waiting for direction. Most importantly, they stop fearing the future and begin shaping it. That is how organizations accelerate through disruption.

The fourth responsibility: Earn trust

Radical change creates fear. When teams are scared, frustrated, or confused, they watch leaders more closely than ever. Teddy Roosevelt’s famous quote is relevant here “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

Trust will be a leader’s currency. Trust grows when leaders are transparent about where the organization stands. When they share what they know and admit what they do not. When they show steadiness instead of spin. When they treat people like humans who are trying to do their best in uncertain times.

AI will push companies to make incredibly difficult decisions and about people. Trust is what keeps those decisions from fracturing a culture.

A future that still needs leaders

No one knows exactly where this will end. Work may change in ways we cannot imagine today. Maybe new categories of value emerge. Maybe we find ways to partner with technology that make work more human and more meaningful.

But one thing is obvious already: extraordinary leads will be essential to that future.

Leaders will be the bridge between the tools and the people. The interpreters of what comes next. The ones who help individuals see the opportunity in change instead of the threat.

The leaders who step into that responsibility will shape the next phase of work. Those who bury their heads and hope it goes away will be left behind, along with the teams who were counting on them.

AI might rewrite the rules of business, but leadership will determine whether people grow through the change or get swallowed by it.

And honestly, too many leaders are still thinking way too small about their role in it.

Andy Noon, PhD

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Andy