Speaker 1: Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
Speaker 1: performance through strong human relations, team building, and golajiving. This
Speaker 1: is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host Paul
Speaker 1: fella Aledo.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to the seven Minute Leadership Podcast.
Speaker 2: It's episode five sixty nine. Recently, I watched an interview
Speaker 2: with the editor of a newspaper and he said something
Speaker 2: that completely stopped me in my tracks. He said, print
Speaker 2: defined us, Digital expanded us, and AI reinvented us. He
Speaker 2: was talking about the evolution of his newspaper over the decades,
Speaker 2: ink on paper, than websites and apps, and now artificial intelligence.
Speaker 2: But the moment I heard the quote, I stopped thinking
Speaker 2: about newspapers and started thinking about leadership because that sentence
Speaker 2: is not about the media. It's about survival, it's about relevance.
Speaker 2: It's about whether leaders grow with the world or get
Speaker 2: left behind by it. So let's start with the first part,
Speaker 2: Print defined us. Every leader, I think has a version
Speaker 2: of this. It's the thing that defined you early, your
Speaker 2: original skill set, your reputation, the way you learned the job,
Speaker 2: the systems you mastered, the culture you grew up in
Speaker 2: as a leader, and for some leaders. It's face to
Speaker 2: face meetings. For others, it's walking the floor. For some,
Speaker 2: it's handwritten notes, printed reports, whiteboards, binders, clipboards. In my world,
Speaker 2: it was radios, paper run reports, physical checklists, and showing
Speaker 2: up in person because that was the job. That foundation matters.
Speaker 2: It shapes your instincts, It builds discipline, it teaches accountability.
Speaker 2: It's where your leadership identity forms. But here's the quiet,
Speaker 2: dangerous part. What defines you can also trap you. I've
Speaker 2: watched leaders cling to what defined them in confused tradition
Speaker 2: with effectiveness. They protect the old way because it feels familiar.
Speaker 2: They defend it because it made them successful. They talk
Speaker 2: about how things used to work and ignore how things
Speaker 2: actually work. Now today, print defined the newspaper, It did
Speaker 2: not guarantee its future. Now here's the second line. Digital
Speaker 2: expanded us. Digital did not erase newspapers overnight. It expanded reach.
Speaker 2: It removed borders. It allowed stories to travel farther, faster
Speaker 2: into people who have never touched a printed page. In leadership,
Speaker 2: Digital did the same thing. Email messaging platforms, dashboards, remote work,
Speaker 2: virtual meetings, and suddenly leaders could reach more people, manage
Speaker 2: more complexity, and operate beyond physical walls. This is where
Speaker 2: many leaders stalled. They accepted digital tools, but didn't adapt
Speaker 2: their leadership style. They learned how to send messages, but
Speaker 2: not how to lead through them. They adopted systems, but
Speaker 2: did not rethink communication, accountability, or trust. An expansion without
Speaker 2: clarity creates noise. Digital gave leaders more access, more data,
Speaker 2: more speed. It also exposed weak leadership habits very fast.
Speaker 2: Poor communication traveled instantly, confusion scaled, culture problems spread quicker
Speaker 2: than ever, and this is where some industries collapsed. Newspapers
Speaker 2: included Digital did not kill them. Poor leadership decisions around
Speaker 2: digital d did and now comes the line that makes
Speaker 2: everyone uncomfortable. AI reinvented US. Reinvention is different than expansion.
Speaker 2: Reinvention means the old operating model is no longer enough.
Speaker 2: It means leadership must change shape. AI is not a
Speaker 2: faster email or a better spreadsheet. It's not another tool
Speaker 2: to bolt onto old thinking. With it forces leaders to
Speaker 2: rethink how work gets done, how decisions are made, and
Speaker 2: where human judgment actually matters. This is where leadership shows
Speaker 2: its true colors. Some leaders panic, They dismiss AI, they
Speaker 2: minimize it. They talk about risk without learning capability. They
Speaker 2: protect comfort instead of competence. Other leaders hand over everything
Speaker 2: blindly and call it innovation. They remove thinking instead of
Speaker 2: improving it, and that's not leadership. Either. Invention requires ownership.
Speaker 2: In aviation, I've talked about staying one degree off course.
Speaker 2: One degree feels harmless in the moment, but over time
Speaker 2: it puts you hundreds of miles from where you intended
Speaker 2: to land. Leadership works the same way. Ignoring AI is
Speaker 2: not neutral, over Using it without judgment is not neutral.
Speaker 2: Both are leadership decisions with consequences. The real question is this,
Speaker 2: what part of leadership must remain human and what part
Speaker 2: can be enhanced by machines? And this is my red
Speaker 2: key moment. AI can help analyze, summarize, predict, and accelerate.
Speaker 2: It cannot replace judgment, ethics, accountability, courage, or even ownership.
Speaker 2: It cannot sit across from an employee and deliver hard truth.
Speaker 2: It cannot earn trust in a crisis. It cannot take
Speaker 2: response ability when things go wrong, and leaders who understand
Speaker 2: this will be the ones who thrive. Print defined the newspaper,
Speaker 2: Digital expanded it. AI forced reinvention. Your leadership has the
Speaker 2: same timeline. What defined you early matters, but it cannot
Speaker 2: be your ceiling. What expanded you helped you grow, but
Speaker 2: it cannot be your crutch. What reinvents you will decide
Speaker 2: whether you remain relevant. Leadership is not about protecting the past.
Speaker 2: It's about honoring it while preparing for what's next. If
Speaker 2: you're leading today, ask yourself this, am I defending what
Speaker 2: defined me, managing what expanded me, or actively learning what
Speaker 2: must reinvent me? Because the world is not waiting for
Speaker 2: leaders to get comfortable, it's moving forward with or without them.
Speaker 2: So leadership has always been about seeing change early and
Speaker 2: responding with clarity instead of fear. The tools will keep evolving,
Speaker 2: the expectations will keep rising. The leaders who last will
Speaker 2: be the ones who respect where they came from, understand
Speaker 2: where they are, and take ownership of where they're going.
Speaker 2: This has been the seven minute Leadership podcast, and I
Speaker 2: thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: For more Paul Fell of Alito Podcasts, visit paulfellowalito dot com.