For a long time, being a “good manager” mostly meant being competent.

Could you hit the numbers?
Could you ship the work?
Could you keep the train moving?

But something has shifted.

Today, people aren’t just asking, “Can this leader deliver results?” They’re asking, “How are those results being delivered — and at what cost?” And I don’t think that expectation is going away. I think it’s accelerating. Especially as AI becomes part of the equation…

There’s a narrative that AI will simplify leadership. Think about it: we can use AI to automate decisions, reduce complexity, and make things “efficient.” But here’s what I suspect will actually happen: AI will make ethical judgment more important. Not less.

Because now managers will have to ask questions like:

Should we automate this role, even if we can?
Is this algorithm fair, or just efficient?
Who might this decision disadvantage?
Are we using data responsibly — or just because we have it?
Where does human judgment still matter most? DOES IT??

These aren’t technical questions. The are values questions. And no dashboard is going to answer them for you (but then again, AI is getting pretty smart).

I think it’s very possible that, particularly with this political climate, transparency will become even more vital. We will crave it. It may be short-lived — desiring the truth sometimes is — but I do anticipate that organizations will be well-served to be transparent to both employees and to consumers.

This seemingly goes back to trust. Can you trust an organization and the people within, if there are no guidelines about how AI is used? If there isn’t clarity about the standards and practices of how it is to be leveraged? We are only at the tip of the iceberg. What’s to come is unknown, but it will revolutionize the way we work, and it just may challenge us to consider how we will get along without a technology thinking (and making crucial judgements) for us.