Leadership in the AI Age: You Need To Adapt or Get Left Behind! Feat. Brendon Burchard
Here are the top 10 key takeaways from Ed Mylett and Brendon Burchard's discussion on how leaders must evolve to thrive in the AI-driven future.
1. People support what they create
Most people no longer want to be simply led or to be leaders themselves. They want meaningful pursuits and fellowship, but they demand significant autonomy within that framework. This fundamental shift means traditional top-down leadership approaches are becoming obsolete.
The core principle is that people support what they create. Leaders must involve their teams in creating the vision and determining how to achieve it. When team members have skin in the game through participation in decision-making, they become fully engaged. Without this involvement, they resist being bossed around and may quietly quit.
This approach requires leaders to shift from being teachers or commanders to becoming facilitators and collaborators. Instead of simply casting a vision, leaders must enlist others in finding their vision and ensuring alignment with personal dreams and goals.
2. Leadership requires constant adaptation due to rapid change
The pace of technological and societal change has accelerated dramatically. Leaders can no longer rely on long-term strategic planning when they cannot see clearly even a month or two ahead. This reality demands a more collaborative and creative approach to leadership.
Business today resembles a dynamic football game where coaches must call plays constantly rather than simply handing players a playbook. The more dynamic the environment, the more discussion and calibration is needed. Leaders must engage in play-by-play leadership rather than quarterly check-ins.
Legacy thinking that relies on "we've always done it this way" will kill companies in the AI era. Leaders who resist change will struggle immensely in the coming years, as adaptability becomes a daily requirement rather than an occasional necessity.
3. Energy transfer is the leader's primary responsibility
Leaders significantly underestimate how much their job involves carrying the emotional load of their organization. In an age where people are bombarded with distractions and competing emotional stimuli, leaders must work harder than ever to emotionally enroll their teams on a consistent basis.
The quality of energy a leader brings directly impacts the entire team's performance and engagement. People can sense authenticity and enthusiasm, and this energy transfer happens in every interaction. Leaders who understand this dynamic and consciously bring positive energy create environments where people feel more human and connected.
This responsibility extends beyond occasional meetings or presentations. Daily interactions, stand-up meetings, and regular debriefs become essential for maintaining emotional connection and motivation, especially when routine work pales in comparison to the entertainment and stimulation available through technology.
4. Relatedness becomes the most valuable human skill
As artificial intelligence handles more cognitive tasks, the uniquely human capacity for relatedness becomes increasingly valuable. Self-determination theory identifies three core human needs: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. AI is rapidly commoditizing the first two, making human connection the primary differentiator.
Autonomy is easier than ever to achieve through technology and remote work capabilities. Competence in terms of intelligence and task execution is being automated through AI agents and artificial general intelligence. The ability to relate, connect, and build meaningful relationships with others remains distinctly human.
Leaders who master compassionate, kind, and generous ways of dealing with people will have the greatest advantage in the future. Your wealth will depend on your health and energy, mastery of your inner world, and the quality of your relationships and leadership abilities. Everything else can be handled by AI.
5. Emotional enrollment must happen more frequently
Modern leaders face unprecedented competition for their team members' attention and emotional investment. After work, people engage with highly stimulating content on their phones and other devices, making workplace engagement more challenging to maintain.
The traditional approach of providing clear processes and checking in quarterly no longer works effectively. Leaders must have more frequent touchpoints, daily discussions, and ongoing emotional enrollment to keep people connected to their work and the organization's mission.
This doesn't necessarily mean constant meetings, but it does require understanding that emotional engagement needs regular renewal. Teams working with clear, stable processes may need less frequent interaction, but dynamic environments demand continuous communication and emotional connection.
6. Self-mastery must precede competitive dominance
The foundation of all great leadership and performance is self-mastery rather than the desire to dominate others. History's greatest athletes and leaders consistently prioritized personal excellence and continuous improvement over simply defeating competitors.
Competition becomes healthy and productive when it serves as a context for demonstrating and developing self-mastery. When leaders and team members compete to level up their own performance, they achieve sustainable success. However, when competition is primarily about dominating others for status or hierarchy, it ultimately leads to failure.
This principle applies to business leadership as well. Leaders who focus first on mastering themselves, their skills, and their character create stronger foundations for long-term success than those who prioritize beating competitors without developing internal excellence.
7. Leaders must learn to enjoy the process
Many high-performing leaders fall into the trap of grinding through their work without actually feeling or enjoying their daily experiences. They achieve outcomes and maintain discipline, but miss the satisfaction and fulfillment that should come with meaningful work.
The ability to "feel the day" while working hard represents true winning. This means being present and engaged with the process, not just enduring hardship or focusing solely on outcomes. Mindfulness became popular because people realized they were mindlessly completing tasks without integrating the experiences.
Leaders who model enjoyment and playfulness while maintaining high standards create more attractive and sustainable work environments. This doesn't mean every moment must be enjoyable, but there should be enough contrast and conscious appreciation to make the journey worthwhile.
8. Modern leadership requires shorter-term collaborative quests
The traditional model of a single leader casting a long-term vision and rallying others around it becomes less effective when the future is highly uncertain. Instead of multi-year strategic plans, leaders must engage in shorter-term collaborative quests with their teams.
This shift requires leaders to become more conversational and present-focused rather than relying on heroic individual vision-casting. Teams must work together to navigate uncertainty and create solutions as they go, rather than following predetermined paths.
The collaborative approach acknowledges that no single person can see far enough ahead in rapidly changing environments. Success comes from bringing diverse perspectives together and maintaining flexibility to adjust course as new information emerges.
9. Consistency should give way to adaptability with new information
Great leaders must be willing to change their minds when presented with new information rather than maintaining consistency for its own sake. The desire to appear consistent can become a liability when circumstances, technology, or competitive landscapes shift rapidly.
Leaders who publicly acknowledge when they've learned something new and adjusted their approach build credibility rather than losing it. This transparency demonstrates intellectual honesty and creates permission for the entire organization to adapt and evolve.
The key is distinguishing between core values that remain constant and tactical approaches that should evolve with new information. Leaders who can make this distinction help their organizations stay grounded while remaining agile.
10. Quality relationships determine future wealth
In a world where AI handles increasing amounts of cognitive work, human wealth will be determined by health and energy, mastery of one's inner world, and the quality of relationships and leadership capabilities. Traditional markers of success become less relevant as technology advances.
Leaders who invest in building genuine connections, developing emotional intelligence, and creating positive experiences for others will have sustainable competitive advantages. These human-centered skills cannot be replicated by artificial intelligence.
This shift means leaders should prioritize relationship-building, energy management, and personal development alongside traditional business metrics. The leaders who understand this transition and adjust their focus accordingly will thrive in the AI-enhanced future.