'Supermanagers' use AI to amplify human-centered leadership
In this podcast, HR researcher Julia Bersin explains why empathetic, people-first approaches are more effective than top-down mandates at fostering AI-driven transformation.
Human-centered leadership, a management philosophy that prioritizes empathy, inclusiveness and employee development, has roots going back to the early 20th century, but it is still largely aspirational in a world where traditional, command-and-control styles remain prevalent.
Now, AI is emerging as an effective tool for amplifying human-centered leadership. Managers who use AI successfully to implement the approach might be called "supermanagers," according to a report released last fall by The Josh Bersin Company, a consulting firm specializing in HR, talent management and workplace learning technology. Supermanagers are also using it to calm workers' fears about AI and teach them how to harness the technology for their individual productivity, autonomy and development.
In this episode of Enterprise Apps Unpacked, Julia Bersin, the company's director of research, explains other characteristics of supermanagers, the strategies they use to motivate employees and how they use AI in their own supervisory work. She also shares case studies of human-centered organizations that use the supermanager approach.
Julia Bersin
People-first approaches to AI adoption
Bersin began with a high-level definition. "Supermanagers are the leaders that organizations need to successfully lead them through AI transformation, not just to support teams along the way, but really to accelerate that, amplify innovation on their teams and create an environment where teams can thrive with AI in the picture," she said.
While supermanagers are tasked with similar AI-adoption mandates as traditional managers, they approach it differently and have different priorities. For example, they strive to foster a culture of AI experimentation so employees can "freely and safely" experiment with AI tools to figure out how to do their jobs better. They also look for ways AI can boost their listening capacity, gain insight into employee skills and career goals, and improve the overall employee experience.
Bersin noted a paradox: Putting business-first approaches aside to emphasize people-first approaches to helping workers perform better is ultimately more effective in advancing business goals. She said human-centered leadership has also proved to be a better route to the AI-driven transformation many organizations are seeking, citing a Wharton study. "It really emphasized it well that the human side of the AI transformation can either be the bottleneck or the accelerant," Bersin said.
"Navigating this change for employees and getting them on board and knowing that they are at the core of making AI transformation successful means that we need to have leaders that are empathetic, that understand what the impact is of AI on the team and really know how to coach, motivate and inspire employees to think differently about how their work can get done," she said.
Other topics discussed in the podcast include the following:
- How supermanagers use democratic, people-first methods to redesign work around AI.
- Effective training methods for helping employees become "superworkers."
- How to apply the supermanager approach with teams that are stressed by AI-driven staff reductions.
David Essex is an industry editor who creates in-depth content on enterprise applications, emerging technology and market trends for several Informa TechTarget websites.
