Things Leaders Do

How Leaders Should Use AI: Practical Guide to People-First Leadership

• Colby Morris

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Your inbox is full of articles about AI replacing jobs. You're wondering: Am I next? Here's the truth: Great people-first leaders won't be replaced by AI—but 88% of heavy AI users are burning out because they're doing it wrong.

In this episode, you'll learn how to use AI strategically to become MORE people-first, not less. Get the exact methods leaders are using to save 100+ hours per year while spending more time with their teams, not less.


What You'll Learn:

  • Why 88% of AI users burn out (and how to avoid the trap)
  • Two practical AI applications you can start this week
  • What makes you irreplaceable as a leader
  • How to use AI for difficult emails and data analysis
  • The paradigm shift: More time with people, not more tasks


Featured Insights:

James Zallie (CEO, Ingredion), Rick Western (CEO, Kotter), Steve Case (CEO, Revolution Growth)

Perfect for leaders who want practical AI strategies without losing the human connection that makes leadership work.


Connect with Colby Morris

Services: Executive Coaching | Leadership Training | Keynote Speaking

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Remember: Keep using AI to free up time for your people, not to avoid them. Because those are the things that leaders do.

#AILeadership #PeopleFirstLeadership #LeadershipDevelopment #ExecutiveCoaching #LeadershipPodcast


SPEAKER_00:

People first leadership. Actionable strategies, real results. This is Things Leaders Do with Colby Morris.

SPEAKER_01:

So your inbox has yet another article about AI replacing jobs. Your LinkedIn feed is full of experts telling you to adapt or die. And you're sitting here wondering, well, am I next? Will my role even exist in five years? Here's what I want you to hear today. Great people first leaders will not be replaced by AI. But, and here's the catch, 88% of heavy AI users are experiencing significant burnout right now. They're stressed, disconnected, and twice as likely to quit. Meanwhile, other leaders who use AI strategically are saving over 100 hours per year, and 77% of C-suite leaders confirm real productivity gains from AI adoption. So what's the difference? That seems paradoxical, right? The leaders who succeed aren't choosing between people and technology. They're actually using AI to become more people first, not less. Hey leaders, this is Colby Morris, and this is the Things Leaders Do podcast. Today we're talking about something that is keeping a lot of leaders up at night, and that's how to lead effectively in the age of AI without losing the human connection that makes great leadership possible in the first place. So let me be really clear about something. AI will not replace great people first leaders. Okay, leadership is fundamentally human-centric, and the best leaders understand that deeply. They get it. He put it perfectly when he said, We in positions of leadership and management have a responsibility and accountability to employees to continuously try to figure out on their behalf how they can have fulfilled careers and be motivated. I took my job as CEO as Chief Clarity Officer. Hmm. Chief Clarity Officer. I absolutely love that. And here's the thing: 79% of business leaders say their company needs to adopt AI to stay competitive. And it's not because AI is magic or some silver bullet, but because it frees you to do what Zali is talking about. Providing clarity, motivation, and fulfilled careers for your people. Now, the leaders who ignore AI completely? Look, they're going to be okay if they're already great people first leaders, but they won't be nearly as effective as they could be. They can keep doing the same thing, sure, but why wouldn't you want to optimize? Why wouldn't you want to free up your time so you can spend more time on your people? That just makes sense. Alright, so let's talk about what AI is genuinely good at because this is where the practical magic actually happens. First, AI crunches numbers and finds patterns you'd miss. I'm talking about data analysis that would take you hours or that you never even attempt because let's be honest, who has that kind of time? AI can look at performance metrics, budget allocations, team productivity, team productivity patterns, and it can pull out those insights in minutes, seconds, not hours, minutes. And second, AI drafts communications you can refine with your human touch. Notice I said drafts, not writes perfectly. You still need to add your voice, okay? Your understanding of the situation, your knowledge of the people involved. But starting from a solid draft instead of a blank page, that's a game changer. So let's do a real-time example. Let's say I want to, I don't know, talk. I would say I want to tell my team about a deadline change. Okay. What I want to say is, and I'm going to type this where we're going. Hey team, the client moved the deadline up by a week. I know this sucks, but let's figure it out together. All right, so I'm going to type then to Claude, and I'm going to say, help me rewrite this email to my team to sound more professional and empathetic in the delivery. All right, here's what Claude gives me back. Dear team members, I am writing to inform you of a modification to our project timeline. The client has requested an accelerated delivery schedule, advancing our deadline by seven business days. I have confidence in our collective ability to adapt and meet this challenge with professionalism and dedication. Okay. We'll see what happened there. AI went full corporate speak on me. Modification to our project timeline. Seven business days. Yeah, nobody talks like that. So now I take that draft, I strip out like all the stuff that sounds like a legal document, and I put my actual voice back in. So I'd say something like, hey team, heads up. The client just moved our deadline up by a week. I know that's not ideal timing, but I've seen this team pull off tougher pivots before. Let's regroup tomorrow morning and figure out the game plan together. Yeah, that's not bad. So that's the process. See, AI gives you the structure, you give it the soul. That's pretty good. That's using AI as your starting point, not your finish line. Third, AI and analyzes data so you can focus what it means for your people. There's a huge difference between knowing the numbers and knowing what to do about them. See, AI handles the what, you handle the so what and the now what. Here's an example for you. Let's say you're looking at team performance data. AI can tell you that productivity dropped 15% in Q3, and that it correlates with a spike in project handoffs, and that three specific team members are showing signs of overwhelm based on their communication patterns and deadlines. I mean, that's valuable information, right? But what AI can't tell you is why those three people are overwhelmed. Okay, it can't read the body language in your 101s, it cannot sense the hesitation when you ask how they're really doing. It can't see what's not being said in those conversations. And that's where you come in. So this is the most important part of this entire conversation. Okay? You possess inherent skills that AI will not have, at least for a very long time. Maybe ever. You can read body language and emotional cues. When someone says, I'm fine, but their shoulders are tense and they won't make eye contact, you you see that. AI doesn't. It can't. You can see what's not being said. The team member who who used to contribute ideas but has gone quiet, the high performer who's suddenly asking about other opportunities, the shift in energy when a particular project gets mentioned. AI misses all of this completely. You build trust and psychological safety, and people don't trust algorithms, they trust other people. They trust leaders who've shown up for them, who've had their backs, who's made tough calls with empathy and fairness. That's human stuff. You make judgment calls on nuanced people situations. Should you push this person harder or give them space? You know, is this is this conflict about the project or something deeper? Does this team need more structure or more autonomy? These aren't math problems with you know right answers. They require wisdom and experience and human judgment. Rick Western, the CEO of Cotter, said something that really resonates here. He said, This is the broadest view of diversity. It's about opening your aperture and not acting like you've got all the answers yourself because things are so complex. That complexity, that's the train of human leadership. AI can inform your decisions, absolutely, but it can't make them for you. You're the leader that people look to. You have a role that can't be replaced. But you need to lean into that and start adopting the AI tools that free you up to be even better at the irreplaceable parts. Both things can be true at the same time. Alright, so let's get really practical here. If you're just starting with AI, here are two specific ways to begin that will give you immediate value. Number one, difficult email drafting. Look, we've all been there, right? You have to deliver tough feedback via email or communicate a decision that people won't like, or you know, address a sensitive situation where tone is absolutely everything. Here's the process I use. First, write out the key points you need to communicate, just you know, bullet points. Doesn't need to be pretty or polished. Second, you have to give the AI context. Something like, you know, I need to write an email to my team about in whatever the situation is. The tone needs to be in, you know, whatever you need it to be here. It could be, you know, direct but empathetic, professional but warm, firm but supportive. Okay. And then the key points are, and you put your bullets, you know, your bullet points in there. And then third, this is really crucial, tell it to generate three or four different drafts. Ask AI to vary the approach. Okay, one more direct, one that's more conversational, okay, one that leads with empathy. Get options. Fourth, and listen to this, don't don't use any of them verbatim. Don't just copy and paste. Read through them and pull the phrases that resonate, combine the elements and add your own voice. Okay, the AI gave you the architecture, but you're doing the finishing work. I use this constantly. It saves me from staring at a blank screen for 30 minutes trying to figure out how to start a difficult message. Instead, I spend you know five minutes getting drafts and then 10 minutes refining that into something that sounds like me and addresses the specific human dynamics at play. And that's powerful. Application number two is data analysis and pattern recognition. This is where AI becomes a genuine force multiplier for leaders. Say you're you're looking at your team's performance metrics, you know, budget utilization, project timelines, employee engagement scores, those kind of things. Separately, you might notice a few things, but AI can look at all of it simultaneously and find patterns you'd never spot on your own. Here's how I approach it. Just upload your data or share the key metrics with your AI tool. Then start asking it questions. You know, what patterns do you see in team productivity over the last six months? Are there correlations between budget allocation and project success rates? What might be you know causing the dip in engagement scores for this specific team? The AI will analyze combinations of factors that would take you hours, maybe days, to investigate manually. It might tell you that projects with certain characteristics consistently run over budget, or that engagement drops correlate with specific types of project assignments, or that certain team members are bottlenecks that you hadn't identified. Here's what you do with that information: you dig deeper with your people, you have conversations, you ask questions, use your human judgment to understand the why behind the patterns. The AI gives you the investigative leads. You do the actual investigating. That's the partnership. Now, if you want to take this further, and I do this with several of my clients, you can create custom AI agents designed specifically for your role or your company's needs. I have agents built for specific clients that understand their industry, their company values, their communication style, their common leadership challenges. When I need to analyze a situation or draft something for them, the agent already has all the context. Okay, it's like it's like having an analyst who's been with you for years and knows how you think. You can do the same thing. You can create an agent that knows your team structure, your strategic priorities, your leadership philosophy. You can, you know, feed it relevant documents, past communications, successful initiatives, and then just use it as your like your first pass analysis for everything from performance reviews to you know strategic planning. It's really a game changer when you set this up right. So let's talk about the people first plus AI integration. It's the paradigm shift I want you to embrace. Using AI actually makes you more people first, not less. Let that sink in for a second. Think about it. Right now, how much time do you spend on tasks that don't require your unique human judgment? Budget spreadsheets, performance review templates, status report summaries, data compilation, calendar management, all that stuff. Well, what if you cut that time in half? What would you do with those extra hours? Well, you'd spend more time in one-on-ones actually listening instead of rushing through them. You'd have space to mentor that high potential team member who needs your guidance. You'd notice the subtle shifts in team dynamics before they become problems. You'd be present in meetings instead of mentally writing the follow-up email while someone's talking. The trap that the 88% of heavy AI users fall into, the ones experiencing burnout, is that they use AI to do more work at the same pace instead of using it to do the same work with more presence and better quality. Now yeah, let me explain what I mean by that. See, when you when you get good at AI, suddenly you can draft that email in five minutes instead of 30. You can analyze data in 10 minutes instead of an hour, you can create that presentation in 20 minutes instead of half a day. I mean, that's amazing, right? But here's what happens. Instead of taking that save time and investing it in your people, you fill it with more tasks. You think, great, now I can respond to 50 emails instead of 20. Now I can analyze five data sets instead of one. Now I can create three presentations instead of one. And suddenly you're more productive on paper, but you're working at the same frantic pace, or or worse, you've got no space to actually lead. You're you're still rushing through one-on-ones, you're still not fully present in meetings, you're still not seeing the early warning signs on your team, you're just doing more stuff faster. That's the burnout trap. Don't fall into it. Don't add more tasks to your plate just because AI makes each task faster. Use the time savings to be the leader your people need. That's the whole point. Steve Case, the CEO of Revolution Growth, observed we're seeing a transition from AI being a big horizontal platform to more vertical AI deployed in industry verticals, which creates an opportunity all across the country. What does that mean? That means AI is becoming more tailored, okay, more specific, more useful for your particular context, which means the tools will get better at handling your specific task, freeing you up even more for leadership that only you can do. And that is exciting. So here's what I want you to do this week. Just this week. Start small. First, identify one repetitive task that eats up your time, but doesn't require your unique human insight. Email drafting, data analysis, report generation, just just pick one. Don't try to boil the ocean here. And second, experiment with using AI for that specific task. Don't try to revolutionize your entire workflow overnight. Just test one thing. See how it feels. Refine your approach as you go. And third, and this is the most important part, track what you do with the time you save. Don't let it just disappear into more busy work. Intentionally redirect it towards people first leadership activities. Have an extra conversation. Spend more time observing your team. Think more deeply about someone's development. Be intentional with it. Remember, you're not competing with AI. You're not being replaced by AI. You're learning to use AI so you can focus more energy on the things that make you irreplaceable. Reading people, building trust, making nuanced judgment calls, and providing the clarity and the motivation that humans need from their leaders. The leaders who figure this out won't just survive the AI era, they will thrive in it. Because while AI is getting better at task, your people still need and will always need human leadership. That's what you bring. And AI should make you better at it, not worse. If your organization needs help integrating AI into your leadership approach without losing that people first focus, hey, I'd love to help. I work with leaders and teams through keynote speaking, executive coaching, and leadership training to build people-first cultures that drive real results. Now, with the power of AI working for you, not against you. You can connect with me on LinkedIn or feel free to visit my website, next stepadvisors.com. There's no e, just nxt, next stepadvisors.com. And hey, if this episode resonated with you, would you do me a favor? Subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts, and please leave a review and share this episode with another leader who needs to hear it. That's how we grow this community and how we get the word out to make a bigger impact on the workplace. Because the more leaders who get this stuff right, the better workplaces become for everyone. And remember, keep using AI to free up time for your people, not to avoid them. Keep reading what's not being said, not just what the data shows, and keep being the leader your team looks to because AI can't replace that. And you know why? Because those are the things that leaders do.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you for listening to Things Leaders Do. If you're looking for more tips on how to be a better leader, be sure to subscribe to the podcast and listen to next week's episode. Until next time, keep working on being a better leader by doing the things that leaders do.