13.06.2024 Today’s Insights from HBR: How AI Can (Paradoxically) Make Us Better Leaders
Dear Students,
Here’s a new twist on how AI may impact your professional life – what if it actually makes you a better leader?
In the intriguing article below, the authors, themselves principals in a global leadership development and research firm, propose a model of what they call AI-Augmented Leadership, which “…uses the power of AI to enhance the core human qualities of awareness, wisdom and compassion.” Based on 15 years of research, they highlight the benefits of this concept via the words of Paul Daughterty, Accenture’s Chief Technology and Innovation Officer: “Through strategic application of AI systems and tools, leaders can cultivate their best human qualities and human areas of leadership.”
Having interviewed thousands of executives and thought leaders across major global firms, the writers have concluded that “…leaders with high awareness, wisdom, and compassion are far more ready to become AI-augmented leaders. These leaders are superior in leveraging their human strength in both providing context and identifying AI content relevant to current goals. They are excellent at both asking insightful questions and discerning answers provided by AI. And they are masters at both leading with heart and leveraging insights from AI algorithms.”
Our coaches are eager to support you, as ambitious – yet sometimes anxious – international students, in viewing AI through this lens, as a potential facilitator of your leadership power skill development, and even one that may well drive your global career success (as opposed to “take your job.”)
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Humans are good at inventing tools, but not as good at adapting to the change these tools can cause. While there has been much focus on the technical impacts and potential dark side of AI, the authors’ research has shown that AI can enhance and empower leadership, actually helping make leaders more human. To do this, we need to invest just as much in the development of our human potential as we do in harnessing the power of AI. This means focusing on the core leadership qualities of awareness, wisdom, and compassion, as well as taking on a both/and mindset. The “AI-augmented leader” can leverage both the power of AI and develop their most human qualities, bringing the best of both human and machine to their leadership practice.
hbr.org
How can AI augment your life – and potentially your leadership skills – this evening?
Best,
Amy-Louise