SMART Talk...Conversations That Matter
Last week, I had a fascinating discussion with a client and received his permission to share the essence of our conversation. His company is adopting AI in innovative ways, and he was curious about my opinion on AI assuming significant leadership positions. My initial inquiry to him was, "What kind of leadership foundation are you looking to establish?"
His company is in the distribution business so it's clearly evident that Artificial Intelligence will begin taking over a number of the operations from an efficiency perspective.
My question to him caught him off guard.
"What do you mean?"
"Well," I said, "What's missing from your current leadership roles? Is it data-analysis, quick turnaround in decision making, or," I said slowly, "is it people skills, emotional intelligence? We talked for quite a bit after that.
Where we landed was his understanding that leadership transcends more than just achieving distribution targets or expanding business operations. It's not solely about those outcomes.
Effective leadership focuses on the long-term growth of its people, encompassing the social skills required to recognize when an employee is struggling with personal issues. It involves guiding an employee through such challenges, fostering their emotional intelligence, and thereby enhancing overall business productivity.
Can AI replicate such nuanced leadership?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has transformed the world of work as we know it. Let's face it, it has changed every aspect of our human lives. And leadership is no longer just about managing people and making decisions based on experience and intuition.
I believe we will continue to need human leaders helping to shape our work environments of the future.
An example just happened to present itself to me twice this week. With polar opposites in each situation with both the AI interaction and the human interaction.
Chick-Fil-A is one of my preferred spots for lemonade. Like many fast-food establishments, Chick-Fil-A employs an AI voice to greet guests. Subsequently, a human voice expresses gratitude and proceeds to take your order. Chick-Fil-A's business philosophy centers around kindness and fostering customer loyalty. The human interaction was warm, courteous, and appreciative, even for a simple lemonade order.
In contrast, consider another fast-food restaurant I visited after my dog Auggie and I had hiked a few miles and needed to replenish our water supply, having finished ours during the hike. The AI voice that greeted me was pleasant, albeit hurried. The human employee, however, seemed irritated to be working and appeared inconvenienced by my request for water at the drive-through. Her demeanor at the window mirrored this attitude.
It dawned on me after talking with my client earlier that week, that the franchise owner of the second fast food place had an opportunity to do what AI can't do. Lean in to find out what the issues were with his/her employee and provide further training on kindness and customer service.
While traditional leadership is marked by leadership characteristics like vision, emotional intelligence, and the capacity to motivate and steer a team. AI, by contrast offers a skill set focused on analyzing data to foster business growth. Whether in business, government, non-profit, or other sectors, the concept of substituting human leaders with AI revolves around leading with empathy, compassion, and kindness. It's about guiding with a deep understanding of our well-being as humans on the planet.
Is it artificial leadership or human intelligence that will shape the workplace of the future. What say you?
These are the conversations that truly matter.
The WEBB Advisory Group
The WEBB Center for Social Impact was created and shaped by over 50 years of lived experience as a Black woman in America.
Focusing on domestic policy specifically, our institute provides a global worldview perspective for black and brown women from the diaspora living in America today.
Using research data, lived experiences, and stories of impact, policymakers and leaders can understand the social impacts various policies have on black and brown children and women, today and tomorrow.
In response to various incidents in our country's recent history, history mustn't repeat itself. Therefore, the WEBB Center For Social Impact strives to provide voter information, information on issues for policymakers, information for community activists, and information for anyone who seeks to understand the social impacts of public policy on individuals and communities.
Attention Bias
What is attention bias? Attention bias is our tendency to prioritize certain types of stimuli/information over others. At any given moment, an individual's senses can perceive countless stimuli in our immediate surroundings. Threat-related attention bias refers to the tendency to prioritize the processing of threats over benign or neutral stimuli. Is it no wonder we have biases related to race, ethnicity, disability, and more?
Each of us individually generates more information than ever before in human history. We take in almost 90,000 pieces of information daily, yet our brains can only filter in about 10 percent of that information. The rest, well is stored in our subconscious minds and often when we perceive a threat we act upon it.
How do you perceive the world around you and how can you understand your attention bias?
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Prayer for the Week
Dear God,
Let us pray for all leaders. We pray that we will not lead selfishly, for personal ambition or vain conceit. We pray that You help leaders to realize that leading is really a responsibility that requires us to serve. So, teach us what it means to be a servant leader and not in name only. Help us to work in humility. Make us selfless vessels of You, in Your image.
Amen
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