We’re deep into The New Leader series right now, but before we keep going, I wanted to pause for a moment and invite you into what’s coming next. I’m starting to plan July’s content, and I’d love to hear what’s on your mind before the series fully takes shape.
AI has changed the rhythm of work in ways that are exciting, useful, and sometimes a little disorienting.
Many leaders are being asked to move faster, produce more, make decisions with new tools, and help their teams adapt while they are still figuring it out themselves.
This is not about whether AI is “good” or “bad.” And it is definitely not about telling leaders they are doing something wrong.
I am more interested in the human question underneath all of it:
How do we stay grounded, thoughtful, and meaningfully human in a world that keeps pushing us toward more speed, more output, and more optimization?
So coming up, I am planning a series around uniquely human leadership in an increasingly AI-driven world.
We will look at questions like what should remain human, what should not be optimized, how leaders can help people find meaning as work changes, what leadership skills we want to keep practicing, what non-negotiables we want to carry with us into this next chapter, and – of course – what role personality plays in all of this.
But before I build the series out, I would love to hear from you.
If you feel comfortable doing so, share what you would like to see covered in this series in the comments below. If you aren’t sure where to start, here are a few prompts you can riff off of:
What is one question you have about staying human as AI becomes a bigger part of leadership and work?
Where do you feel the tension between using AI to move faster and wanting to lead with more meaning, care, or intention?
What is one human leadership skill, habit, or value you hope leaders keep practicing in the AI age?
I’ve opened up commenting on this post so everyone can respond.
I truly do read every response, and what you share will help shape where this series goes.
And if you have a leadership topic you would love to see covered in the future, all paying subscribers are invited to join the Leadership Council, where you can submit ideas directly.
I am really looking forward to this one because I think many of us are living inside this tension right now.
AI can be genuinely useful. It can save time, spark ideas, and make parts of leadership easier. But it also raises bigger questions about judgment, meaning, trust, creativity, and what we want work to feel like.
Those are the questions I want to explore with you.
Until next time,
Carly from the 16Personalities team
Re. staying human and tension between AI - what is appropriate to let AI do and what should we still make sure we're doing with the human touch? Performance reviews were something I found there was tension over. AI could generate a performance review if given access to systems with productivity data, or even a list I'd made myself of someone's achievements/feedback. AI-advocating managers probably would have gone mad if they'd known how much of my own time I spent writing my reviews and feedback, but I felt it would be unfair to offload that work to AI. I wanted my people to get a review that truly represented them, and which took into account those things which couldn't be written into a prompt, and I also curated the way the reviews were written depending on that person's personality and how comfortable they would be receiving feedback on the topics that came up. It's also something I wanted to ensure was a well-rounded representation of them, particularly my review of their communication skills, as the review would be logged for their future managers to see and could affect their future career prospects if the review missed something important. It's probably hard to justify how much time it takes to write detailed reviews for larger teams when an AI could just do it, but I couldn't phone it in. Will people who generate performance reviews using AI even read them?
For one human skill I hope leaders keep practicing, I was going to say empathy, but on second thought, I think it's more important that we keep practicing advocating for the people we're responsible for, and treating them as humans - not just workers, but as people with needs like safety, satisfying work and health. Taking a holistic view.