Editorial
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The Future of Leadership Development: AI-Driven Manager Enablement
Workplace conversations sounded very different just a few years ago. Empathy came up so often in articles and research to the point where it could have won the workplace buzzword of the year award in 2020. Even the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation published a blog with the headline, “In Times of Crisis, Empathy and Compassion are Business Imperatives.”
Leaders at the time openly discussed flexibility and mental health. Many organizations, rightly so, recognized that employees were dealing with a lot in their personal and professional lives.
The best organizations adapted. Managers checked in with their teams more often. Companies became more flexible about where and how people worked. In many cases, that flexibility stemmed from necessity, but it still mattered. Whole industries began to rethink what productivity really looked like.
But as things picked up again, empathy faded from many workplace conversations. Then, AI happened.
The Difference Between Motion and Progress
Workplace productivity is not inherently negative. As president of a growing SaaS company, I know businesses need momentum. I can also say based on my years of experience as a human resources leader that most employees want to be productive and move their organizations forward.
Technology can absolutely improve how work gets done. But somewhere along the way, many workplaces quietly began equating constant activity with value again.
Sometimes, the change is so slow that we slip back into old workplace habits without even noticing. Calendars fill up with back-to-back meetings. People respond to every message right away, regardless of time zone or importance. Exhaustion starts to look like proof of commitment or a badge of honor.
Busyness works until it doesn’t. Over time, that constant pressure takes a toll. Recent research from Monster suggests many employees are feeling the strain. In its 2026 State of Workplace Mental Health Report, 70% of workers said they feel pressure to appear “OK” at work even when they are struggling, while nearly half reported burnout tied to work-related stress.
Gallup’s 2026 State of the Global Workplace report paints a similar picture. Forty percent of survey respondents said they experienced stress during much of the previous day, while levels of anger, sadness and loneliness remain elevated compared to pre-pandemic norms. And this is not just happening in the U.S.
I admit, I see this dynamic in my own work too. There are days when a completely full calendar can feel productive simply because there is no empty space left. But activity and effectiveness are not the same thing.
Some of the best work happens when people have the space to think rather than constantly react.
Urgency Without Exhaustion
The pressure is slowly returning to the culture in many organizations. Not because leaders intentionally create unhealthy environments, but because many are reacting to the pace around them. Markets are changing quickly. Teams are leaner. Employees are asked to learn new tools, especially AI, as expectations continue to evolve.
As organizations invest in AI and other productivity tools, there is often an unwritten (and unspoken) rule that work itself should now move faster. If technology can summarize meetings in seconds, draft content instantly or automate repetitive tasks, then why not fill every available moment with more work?
But if the past several years taught us anything, it is that people are not machines.
Even in highly productive organizations, team members still need time to process information, collaborate thoughtfully and mentally reset between demands. Removing friction from work should create more clarity and focus, leading to better decisions, stronger ideas and more sustainable performance.
This doesn't mean organizations should abandon urgency. Healthy organizations still move quickly when action is required. The difference is that urgency is directed toward priorities and outcomes, not constant activity. When every task, meeting and message is treated as equally urgent, people lose the space to focus on the work that matters most.
Leaders, Model the Behavior You Want to See
This is where leaders must retire the “do as I say, not as I do” mantra.
Employees pay close attention to what leaders normalize. If leaders constantly operate reactively, employees feel pressure to do the same. If every meeting feels urgent and every calendar is overloaded, teams eventually start treating that pace as normal.
The irony is that most leaders are not looking for chaos. They want thoughtful decisions, strong collaboration, innovation and strategic thinking. Yet many workplace habits unintentionally reward visibility over effectiveness. Fast responses are more noticeable than focused work. Packed schedules appear more valuable than protected thinking time.
Over time, organizations can end up constantly moving without operating intentionally.
The healthiest workplaces I see are creating clearer expectations around priorities, responsiveness and focus. Their leaders make room for thoughtful work instead of treating every open moment as capacity to consume.
When leaders focus on outcomes rather than constant activity, employees feel more comfortable working intentionally, too. This matters because culture is rarely shaped by what organizations say. It is shaped by what people consistently experience.
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What Does High Performance Mean for You?
Too often, the future of work conversation focuses on technology, automation and productivity metrics. Organizations must also examine the emotional patterns forming around work itself.
Most people can sustain hard work for long stretches. What becomes much harder to sustain is the feeling that they constantly need to prove they are working.
As workplaces continue to change, leaders have an opportunity to redefine what high performance looks like. Not less ambition. Not lower expectations. Just a healthier understanding that meaningful work requires more than perpetual activity.
At the end of the day (busy or not), the organizations that thrive may not be the ones moving the fastest every hour of every day. They will be the ones disciplined enough to recognize when constant motion starts getting in the way of real progress.
Editor's Note: Holly isn't alone in noticing how AI is giving way to busyness without real productivity:
- AI May Be Eliminating the Rote Tasks Your Brain Needs — Our brains can only do roughly four hours of deep work a day. The smartest businesses protect that time, instead of cramming it with more.
- Your Employees Are Getting Things Done: But for How Long? — Burnout doesn't announce itself. It builds quietly, one borrowed burst of energy at a time. Here's what leaders need to know before the debt comes due.
- The Dirty Secret About Agile Organizations — Organizations can mistake motion for progress in pursuit of agility. Agility requires unglamorous structural work that most leaders skip in their rush to act.
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