The future of work is being shaped by a number of disruptions, from new technologies and hybrid working models to generational shifts in the workforce and geopolitical risks. As leaders think about how these forces may affect their employees’ roles and productivity, it’s important to consider how their approaches to managing people will also need to change. What role will human-centered leadership play in a more tech-powered work environment? This week, we look at a new operating model for people management that reflects a growing focus on employee engagement and development, the fluid allocation of skills, and “humanness” in the workplace.

STAYING HUMAN

Some tech leaders worry that employees will become too reliant on AI and lose other vital skills, such as empathy and deep thinking. But McKinsey research shows that the workplace’s regular AI users actually want to become more human. McKinsey’s Aaron De Smet, Bryan Hancock, Sandra Durth, and their coauthors report that heavy gen AI users “overwhelmingly feel they need higher-level cognitive and social-emotional skills to do their jobs, more than they need to build technological skills.” Their survey of nearly 13,000 employees in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States also reveals that 88 percent of workers who frequently use AI are in nontechnical roles, including middle managers, healthcare workers, educators, and administrators. The desire among both technical and nontechnical respondents to build stronger cognitive skills is an important consideration for employers trying to attract and engage talent. “Organizations are on the cusp of gen AI pushing either positive or negative change when it comes to the nature of work,” the authors say. “Leaders have an opportunity to humanize that work by deciding where, when, and how their teams use gen AI so that people are freed up from routine tasks to do more creative, collaborative, and innovative thinking.”

Lead by fostering both tech and human skills.