The Future of Leadership: Balancing AI Coaching Tools with the Human Touch

Can artificial intelligence truly capture the essence of human coaching? This month, we tackle the tantalizing possibilities and potential pitfalls of AI in the coaching sphere. As companies increasingly turn to AI platforms to streamline leadership processes, we scrutinize whether this trend could inadvertently eclipse the irreplaceable value of person-to-person interactions, particularly in sensitive areas like year-end reviews. Imagine a system that augments self-awareness and bolsters active listening within teams — we delve into a cutting-edge coaching automation tool that promises to do just that, setting the stage for a workplace transformation.

Join us as we dissect a candid conversation with a forward-thinking company on the brink of harnessing AI in their leadership practices. We examine the delicate balance between technological efficiency and maintaining the human touch in coaching, questioning if AI can truly enhance or if it risks replacing the nuanced art of human leadership. Get ready for an episode that not only forecasts the future of coaching technology but also serves as a critical reflection on how we define effective leadership in an increasingly automated world.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:37

April is going to be coaching technology month, and how people go about using technology for the support and, potentially, the delivery of coaching. And artificial intelligence is all the rage. We love AI. So I want to be very clear when I throw out some cautions, that I'm not against AI. You just have to use it strategically.

Speaker 1: 1:00

Recently I was talking to a company not a client who was using AI and said, oh, we're going to deploy a new AI platform. I saw that's fantastic. And they said, yeah, it's really going to help our leaders save time. You know, they just don't have time to coach. And she went on and on and I said I have to ask you something and I don't want you to answer right away. Are you cool with that? And she started laughing. She said sure, and I said who's doing the end of the year review the leader or AI? And she is about to answer. I said no, no, you said you're going to wait. After about 30 seconds you could see her head spinning. She said boy, that's a great question. I said look, I love AI. I use it all the time. We have AI built into our coaching platform. You have to be careful that AI doesn't become a replacement and leaders. Many leaders will grab ahold of that in seconds.

Speaker 1: 1:51

So at the end of the year. It reminds me of a company 20 some years ago where everybody was going to have their end of the year review and it was Evaluation Day, or they call it annual review day, and the place was like a ghost town, was really quiet and you could see leaders rushing to get their end of the year evaluations done, which indicates potentially not done thoughtfully. And I remember watching people come out it was a call center come out of these people's offices, dismayed, and I would ask people. I said what's wrong and they said, oh, the evaluation, I just hate it. Every year we go through this and they chose this software tool and there's these eight components and one of them is entrepreneurship. Has the employee Denver demonstrated entrepreneurial strategies in ways? Now, I found that funny because I'm an entrepreneur. There wasn't another entrepreneur in that building. Yet the leaders who are not entrepreneurs we're going to evaluate, by the way, never facilitate training, coaching or mentoring in entrepreneurship. Yet we're now going to evaluate people and their entrepreneurial ways. And he created discord.

Speaker 1: 2:57

I believe that AI will do the same thing if people try to replace the leader to employ conversation. So April is going to be coaching technology month. Now let me also tease you a little bit. We've also come up with a very cool tool Leveraging coaching automation. Now we have an AI tool, but coaching automation. Let's take the fundamental component of self awareness, and we'll do this in our next lesson or our next episode. I should say what if you could automate getting people to answer questions? That would build self awareness, that would accelerate teamwork, accelerate their top of mind mentality when it comes to listening to their teammates. Wouldn't that improve the workplace?