As we navigate the complexity of today’s workplace, leaders are being asked to steer their organizations through rapid, often disruptive change, and there is none more profound than the accelerating integration of AI (Artificial Intelligence). 

If you’re following the latest news, companies such as UPS, Meta, and Morgan Stanley are restructuring and recalibrating due to AI’s impact, with roles being redefined or displaced. This wave of transformation requires leaders to think differently, act courageously, and support their people with intention.

To thrive in this moment, leaders must guide their teams with a steady hand, embracing AI’s capability while addressing the very real fears and challenges it presents. The work we do with our clients shows that empowered leadership is not just desirable, it’s essential for navigating this evolution.

Understanding the Real Impact of AI on Your Business

AI is no longer a future-state possibility as it’s actively reshaping job roles, workflows, and entire business models. It’s also changing the very nature of how decisions are made, insights are drawn, and problems are solved.

Here are a few simple tips on what leaders can do to proactively embrace AI, while bringing their teams along during the change in a collaborative and inclusive way to achieve collective success. 

• Map Skill Shifts: Evaluate and audit current roles and map them to emerging AI-augmented skillsets. Identify what’s likely to change, what will remain, and where new capabilities are needed. Non-value add, repetitive work is low hanging fruit for AI, along with repetitive canned response opportunities, which can be included in your workflow and processes.
• Frame AI as an Enabler: Reframe conversations away from “replacement” to “augmentation.” This messaging provides comfort so employees better understand how AI can elevate their work, not just eliminate tasks. Remind everyone that people will always play a role, but the type of work and responsibilities will shift as technology becomes more advanced. We want them to work “smarter not harder”, and AI enables that capability.
• Be Transparent About the Unknown: Don’t pretend you have all the answers. We encourage you to be vulnerable and share that you might not have a clear path forward or understand the true potential of what is possible. You will learn and explore the possibilities together, which is a critical approach to ensure a smoother transition. 

Acknowledging ambiguity builds credibility and invites collaboration to figure it out together. Encourage your people to offer suggestions on how to augment workflow while enhancing the customer experience, making their roles more interesting by focusing on value-add efforts.

Empowering Teams Through Change

Empowerment during disruption isn’t a buzzword, it’s a best practice. When teams are informed, involved, and invested, they’re more likely to engage with transformation rather than resist it.

Here are some additional best practices leaders can leverage to support these change efforts:

Transparent, Frequent Communication

Transparency is key. Provide regular updates in your meetings on what’s changing, what’s not, and what’s still unknown. Always create time for Q&A, so people can ask questions and feel like they are part of carving a path forward.

The faster change happens, the more often leaders need to communicate. Avoid overly polished narratives. Instead, be real, be human, and keep lines of communication open.

Intentional Skill Building

Create personalized learning and development plans that align both the business and individual needs  Upskilling involves more than simply offering access to LinkedIn Learning or Coursera.  It’s about making learning feel relevant and integrated into everyone’s day-to-day work.

Co-Create the Journey

Create cross-functional “AI Advisory Circles” where employees can contribute their ideas and be part of the execution and delivery. Inclusive decision-making fuels better solutions and higher adoption. When people help shape the change, they are far more likely to embrace it.

Balancing Efficiency with People’s Needs

AI brings efficiency, but change brings emotion. Leaders need to manage both aspects of the change while driving performance and being there to support their people through it. Provide personalized coaching and support, let people tell you what they need vs. taking a one-size-fits all approach to leadership.

Recognize that change fatigue is real and people process change differently, so use effective coaching practices to meet them where they are at. Train your leaders to be great coaches who ask great questions, listen more, speak less, and provide the right level of support that each team member needs.

Make Well-being Structural, Not Optional

Build “resilience buffers” into the transformation timeline by planning quiet periods, focus time, wellness check-ins, and mental health resources.

Top performing organizations are doubling down on psychological safety and mental wellness as part of the way they do business vs. reacting to events that are caused by a lack of it within teams.

Lead with Appreciation & Recognition

Create a real-time “Recognition Wall” or internal channel celebrating how people are adapting, innovating, or learning in the AI transition.

Appreciation is a powerful change lever. Celebrate effort, progress, experimentation and lessons learned along the way to foster a continuous learning culture. 

Gallup's State of the Workplace notes that employees who strongly agree that they received recognition or praise are:

• Four times more likely to be engaged
• Three times more likely to report excellence at work
• Five times more likely to feel they belong

‍Lead the Future vs. React to It

Strategic leaders aren’t just responding to AI, they are shaping how it shows up in their workplace and cultures. Launch internal AI Labs or Innovation Pods where teams pilot new tools and share insights with the broader team and organization.

This fosters inclusivity, fuels innovation and builds internal momentum. It also signals that change is something we do together.

Partner Beyond Your Walls

Collaborate with local colleges, universities, think tanks, and industry peers to stay ahead of trends and co-create best practices.

No one has all the answers, so be proactive and seek out external insight and bring it back to fuel your own innovation and capability building.

That's a Wrap

Leaders who navigate this AI era with empathy, clarity, and courage, won’t just survive the AI shift, they will build the kind of organizations that thrive in it.

We are committed to walking this path with you by equipping leaders to empower others, navigate complexity, and lead with heart. Where are you in the evolution of AI within your organization? What best practices and approaches are working for you?

Send me an email at joanne.trotta@leadersedgeinc.ca or call me at 416-560-1806. I’d love to hear what’s working for you and how we can help support your success.

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