How to embrace leadership styles for the AI-driven workplace
Effective business leaders build organizations that withstand uncertainty, change and competition, using leadership styles based on personal experience, background, education and training. A ‘leadership style’ generally relates to the interpersonal aspects of leadership and is important for organizations seeking to understand the role of leaders in influencing organizational performance and innovation.
Empirical research has uncovered significant positive relationships between certain leadership styles and innovation performance. Studies have also found that organizational performance is positively correlated to certain leadership styles with knowledge management as a mediating variable and that leadership styles influence the level of output and overall performance of employees.
Leadership styles and archetypes have also traditionally served as models for developing leadership approaches, and they provide leaders, their teams and their organizations with a shared language and common understanding of leadership qualities. They are often also used in leadership training programs to help leaders focus on specific leadership competencies and adapt their styles accordingly.
Identifying the style
There are dozens of well-known leadership styles or leader archetypes that have gained popularity over the years through scholarly and commercial leadership publications, training programs and endorsements by executives and subject matter experts, and many of these styles overlap. An example of a well-known style is the command-and-control leader archetype, which refers to a leadership style characterized by authoritative decision-making and intense team supervision.
Leaders who embody this archetype rely on hierarchical structures, clear directives and a top-down approach to managing their teams. In contrast, the servant leader archetype emphasizes a people-first approach, with empathy and service at the center. A servant leader prioritizes the wellbeing and growth of team members and empowers others to achieve their best work.
These are just two ends of the spectrum of leadership styles or archetypes, the first being more directive or ‘leader-centric’ and the second more supportive or ‘follower-centric’.
Given the demonstrated value of understanding leadership styles and their potential impact on organizational performance and innovation, it’s important to consider new leader archetypes that integrate the unique challenges and opportunities that the AI revolution presents.
Existing leadership styles and archetypes fail to fully address the rapidly changing dynamics that AI introduces to the workplace for today’s leaders.
Existing leadership styles and archetypes fail to fully address the rapidly changing dynamics that AI introduces to the workplace for today’s leaders. These dynamics include the need for AI-augmented decision-making, the willingness to take calculated risks and experiment with new technologies and the ability to foster an environment where innovation can thrive.
The AI era also includes a need for greater leader adaptability with a stronger emphasis on strategic thinking that leans heavily toward navigating through the complexities of AI disruption. Most importantly, though, the AI era requires leaders who can display empathy and adopt a people-centric approach to their leadership. The true promise of AI is its power to remove the mechanical, routine and repetitive tasks that dominate the workplace, freeing employees to harness and showcase their uniquely human capabilities.
This transformation applies to leaders as well. By shifting the machine-like aspects of leadership to AI, leaders can embrace and embody their humanness more deeply, leading with authenticity and empathy. This means leaders who are compassionate, empathetic and vulnerable – and who create connection in their teams by valuing ‘team-ship’ over leadership – are the ones who will truly thrive in the new AI context.
The humanistic catalyzer
The AI era calls for leaders who act as strategic AI catalysts within their organizations, who can fully embrace and capitalize on the potential of AI while simultaneously embodying and nurturing the best human traits in themselves and their teams. It also demands leaders who represent the archetype of the ‘humanistic catalyzer’.
This archetype embodies the unique blend of skills and competencies that leverage uniquely human traits such as curiosity, creativity, collaboration, complex problem solving and ethical reasoning with the full power of AI. The humanistic catalyzer embodies four key traits: they are AI-integrated visionaries, empathetic communicators, continuous learners and collaborative innovators.
The humanistic catalyzer recognizes AI as a powerful enabler for the organization. They have a clear vision for how AI technology can streamline organizational processes, improve the customer’s experience with products and services and drive innovation.
They use AI to analyze data, predict trends, and generate insights that guide strategic decisions that create a durable competitive advantage for the organizations they lead. The humanistic catalyzer also prioritizes responsible use of AI by ensuring that data privacy, inclusivity and fairness are included in their strategic frameworks.
The AI era calls for leaders who act as strategic AI catalysts within their organizations.
The humanistic catalyzer understands the importance of human connection in their leadership and takes a heart-centric approach. In leading their teams, they focus on transparent communication, building trust through authenticity and understanding and a willingness to be vulnerable and humble. They embrace ‘team-ship’ over leadership.
In an age where AI will continue to evolve rapidly, humanistic catalyzers embrace lifelong learning. They are agile and curious, and they like to experiment, take calculated risks and learn from intelligent failures to chart the forward course. Their continuous learning mindset enables them to adapt quickly, pivot when required and upskill and reskill their teams to accommodate changing human capital requirements.
They encourage their teams to be curious, creative and imaginative. Humanistic catalyzers leverage AI to facilitate collaboration and enhance creativity within their teams. They create more space for inventive troubleshooting and proactive problem-solving. They nurture a team culture where technology and human talent can coalesce to unleash greater value.
Cultivating leadership qualities
In today’s complex and rapidly changing world, strict adherence to a single leadership archetype can be limiting, and leadership archetypes are most beneficial when viewed as a guide rather than a dogmatic definition of how a leader should be in all circumstances and under all conditions.
Further, each leadership archetype has its own pros and cons, and the most influential leaders are often those who can adapt their style to the specific needs of a leadership situation.
Leadership archetypes are most beneficial when viewed as a guide rather than a dogmatic definition of how a leader should be in all circumstances and under all conditions.
However, leader archetypes can still help us understand and cultivate the leadership qualities needed to adapt, inspire and lead effectively in different contexts. A lack of fit between a leader’s primary archetype and the context in which they operate is a main cause of team and organizational dysfunction and executive failure.
In the AI-era context, the humanistic catalyzer archetype should be leveraged to inform hiring of new leadership, leader identification within the organization and in setting priorities for leadership training and development.