Speaker 1: Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
Speaker 1: performance through strong human relations, team building and golajieving. This
Speaker 1: is the seven minute Leadership podcast with your host Paul Fellowledo.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to this seven minute leadership podcast.
Speaker 2: It's episode six forty seven. Automation is everywhere. Scheduling tools,
Speaker 2: AI note takers, chatbots, performance dashboards, smart workflows, automated onboarding,
Speaker 2: automated feedback, automated follow up emails. The tools are getting faster, cleaner,
Speaker 2: more efficient. Here is the real question. Are your people
Speaker 2: feeling faster and cleaner too, or are they feeling replaced.
Speaker 2: Because automation can increase output, it can also quietly decrease
Speaker 2: connection and when connection drops, culture starts to crack. I'm
Speaker 2: not anti automation. In fact, if you listen to this podcast,
Speaker 2: you know I talk about AI systems and digital leverage.
Speaker 2: Often leaders who ignore technology fall behind. That is reality.
Speaker 2: But leaders who hide behind technology lose something far more valuable.
Speaker 2: They lose humanity. There's a big difference between streamlining work
Speaker 2: and stripping the human out of the work. Automation should
Speaker 2: remove friction, not remove faces. Let me give you an example.
Speaker 2: You install an automated scheduling system. It eliminates back and
Speaker 2: forth emails, It fills shifts, it sends reminders. It looks efficient.
Speaker 2: But now no one talks about scheduling anymore. No one
Speaker 2: checks in, No one asks how someone is doing. No
Speaker 2: one notices the burnout creeping in. Because the system handled
Speaker 2: the logistics, the process improved, the pulse disappeared. That is alienation.
Speaker 2: Automation without alienation means this systems handle transactions. Leaders handle relationships.
Speaker 2: You cannot outsource empathy. You cannot automate presence. You cannot
Speaker 2: delegate accountability to a dashboard. And here's where leaders get
Speaker 2: it wrong. They measure productivity gains and assume morale followed.
Speaker 2: They see cost savings and assume loyalty increased. They see
Speaker 2: fewer errors and assume engagement improved. Data tells you what happened.
Speaker 2: It does not tell you how people felt about it.
Speaker 2: And if you lead long enough you know this, people
Speaker 2: will tolerate inefficiency longer. Then they will tolerate in difference.
Speaker 2: So how do we automate eight without alienating? First, narrate
Speaker 2: the why. When you introduce automation, do not say we
Speaker 2: are implementing this new system. Say we are implementing this
Speaker 2: because I want your time spent on higher value work.
Speaker 2: I want you less buried in admin. I want you thinking,
Speaker 2: solving and building. Tie the tool to a human outcome. Second,
Speaker 2: keep the touch points. If your onboarding is automated, schedule
Speaker 2: a real conversation anyway. If performance reports are auto generated,
Speaker 2: sit down and discuss them face to face. If a
Speaker 2: chat bot answers basic HR questions, still walk the floor
Speaker 2: and ask how are you doing? Technology should reduce noise,
Speaker 2: not reduce presence. Third, watch for silent drift. Automation can
Speaker 2: make leaders lazy. It becomes easy to say the system
Speaker 2: will catch that, the system will flag it, the system
Speaker 2: will notify me. Leadership cannot run on notifications. Red key
Speaker 2: moments still require a human decision. They require judgment, context,
Speaker 2: and ownership. A dashboard can flash red, it cannot carry
Speaker 2: the weight of the decision. And here is something else.
Speaker 2: Automation shifts power. The person who understands the system often
Speaker 2: gains influence. The person who does not may feel left behind.
Speaker 2: That creates microcultures insiders and outsiders. If you roll out
Speaker 2: new tech, you better roll out training with it, and
Speaker 2: not once repeatedly because nothing alienates a team faster than
Speaker 2: feeling stupid and run of a machine. So let's talk
Speaker 2: about tone. If every message from leadership becomes automated, your
Speaker 2: culture will start to sound robotic. Birthdays, anniversaries, recognition, warnings, reminders,
Speaker 2: all automated. Your team will feel like they work for
Speaker 2: a system, not a leader. There is a place for
Speaker 2: automation in recognition. There is not a place for automation
Speaker 2: in appreciation. Those are different things. Appreciation requires attention. So
Speaker 2: here's a gut check. If your entire tech stack shut
Speaker 2: down tomorrow, would your team still feel connected to you.
Speaker 2: If the answer is no, you are over automated. If
Speaker 2: your culture depends on software to function, you have built
Speaker 2: a digital company, not a leadership culture. Now let me
Speaker 2: flip this. When automation actually increases humanity. It gives people time,
Speaker 2: It reduces repetitive strain, it removes pointless steps, It frees
Speaker 2: mental bandwidth. But only if leaders intentionally reinvest that free
Speaker 2: time into relationships. Do not automate and then fill the
Speaker 2: gap with more work. Automate and reinvest The gain more coaching,
Speaker 2: more clarity, more visibility, more time listening. That is how
Speaker 2: you prevent alienation. There's also a trust element here. Some
Speaker 2: employees hear automation in think layoffs, they hear efficiency in
Speaker 2: think replacement. You have to address that directly, say it clearly.
Speaker 2: This tool is here to help you perform at a
Speaker 2: higher level. It is not here to eliminate you. And
Speaker 2: then prove it because if automation becomes a stepping stone
Speaker 2: to cutting peapeople without honesty, trust evaporates, and once trust
Speaker 2: is gone, no system will rebuild it. Leadership is still
Speaker 2: about people, even in a digital world. You can use
Speaker 2: AI to draft, you still need judgment to decide. You
Speaker 2: can use analytics to predict. You still need courage to act.
Speaker 2: You can use automation to scale, You still need character
Speaker 2: to lead. And remember this technology amplifies culture. If you
Speaker 2: already have strong relationships, automation makes you faster. If you
Speaker 2: already have weak relationships, automation makes you distant. So before
Speaker 2: you implement the next tool, ask yourself one question, is
Speaker 2: this going to make us more human or less connected?
Speaker 2: And if you cannot answer that clearly, slow down seven
Speaker 2: minutes a day. That is all I ever ask. Spend
Speaker 2: seven minutes checking in with someone without a device between
Speaker 2: you seven minutes explaining a change, seven minutes listening to frustration,
Speaker 2: seven minutes reinforcing that behind every system is a person
Speaker 2: that matters. Automation is not the enemy. Indifference is use
Speaker 2: the tools, leverage the systems, improve the workflow. Then double
Speaker 2: down on humanity because at the end of the day,
Speaker 2: nobody stays loyal to software. They stay loyal to leaders
Speaker 2: who see them. And if you want more free leadership resources,
Speaker 2: head over to Paul Fallablido dot com click on free Stuff.
Speaker 2: I have over twenty five free leadership documents you can
Speaker 2: use starting today. This has been the seven Minute Leadership
Speaker 2: Podcast and I thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: For more Paul fell of Alito Podcasts, visit paulfellowalito dot
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