Authentic Leadership 2026: Leading with Courage, Connection and Core Values in an AI World

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AI is now part of everyday life for most of us. My daughter just bought an AI-powered washing machine that has sensors and algorithms to detect fabric types, load weight, soil levels, and softness, then automatically adjusts water usage, detergent amounts, cycle times, and temperatures for optimal cleaning. AI is an intriguing development and can be a versatile tool for automating repetitive tasks, accessing information quickly, and enhancing decision-making.

I tell my graduate social work students who are training to be psychotherapists that, yes, AI can help you write stronger papers, assist you in accessing research, and help you retrieve information. But AI won’t make you a better therapist. It won’t make you a better social worker. It won’t make you a better person. It will not support or deepen your personal reflection or awareness of yourself. It won’t make you a more caring human being.

AI, like all technology and digital tools, can increase our sense of isolation, even while we appear more connected than ever. AI poses a significant risk of skill atrophy for those who are not well trained, particularly younger generations who have been immersed in it from the beginning. It has enormous environmental impact. And it’s evolving faster than our moral compass can find its bearings.

That’s why, in response to AI and all technologies, we need to be very intentional about building real community and creating spaces where people can grow together in authentic ways – ways aligned with our values, deeply held dreams, and our hearts.

While AI can complement human skills and enhance productivity, does it really make our world better? Is it improving the quality of our lives? Does it address fundamental human needs? Despite the overhyped predictions about artificial intelligence’s limitless capabilities and fears of it displacing jobs, organizations are still human systems even if they are 98% automated. We will always need human beings who care about each other.

After observing the hype and backlash of technology development over many decades, I note that technology always changes faster than headlines. It ultimately is our courage, connection, and core values that determine whether those changes make our lives better or worse. Technologies like AI need to serve deeply held human values through intentional, optimized use, not clutter our attention or replace meaningful effort.

Three strategies to make that happen:

  1. Define a desired future. Have a clear goal of what a better world is for you. Sit with yourself or your family or your team and define what a better world means where you work and live. Take the time to define how AI (or any other technology tool) is helping your commitment to move you toward your desired future and where it may be hindering you. Stop and get your bearings, reevaluate your life, and set out to keep yourself on track as you move toward your desired future.
  2. Foster deep human connection. Make human connection a priority. Talk with your team about how you can integrate technologies such as AI as a tool to help foster relationships. Build genuine connections by leveraging AI to enhance, not replace, empathy by using it for initial data gathering, then dedicate time to create dialogue that uncovers team motivations and fears. Promote informal settings like casual check-ins to reinforce psychological safety, ensuring technology amplifies relational bonds.
  3. Turn off technology. Shifting the relationship with AI from a driver to a toolstarts with developing a new relationship with all technology. And that begins with making room for life without distractions. A good friend founded an initiative that has turned into a social movement around taking intentional breaks from social media (starting with just one day a month). It encourages people to disconnect from screens and engage in real-life activities like nature, sports, arts, hobbies, volunteering, and self-care to boost wellbeing and connection. It’s intended to interrupt the addiction to screens and give people a taste of the difference between being absorbed in social media and being engaged in real life.

Boundaries and Bravery

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Boundaries are healthy and important, but can the idea of a boundary give us an easy out and prevent us from being brave and stretching ourselves?

Years ago, in a family counselling session, parents were complaining that their 25-year-old son living in their basement wasn’t employed or contributing to the family in any way. The parents wanted me “talk to him to get him motivated.”
These parents eventually learned that this wasn’t a motivation problem. It was a boundary problem. Motivation eventually followed when they set clear boundaries. Reality is a great motivator.

Here are five principles for healthy boundaries:

  1. Boundaries keep us healthy. Just as the immune system says no to unwanted bacteria and viruses, saying no to unwanted demands on our time keeps us healthy. Caring about others while suppressing our own needs, contributes to illness.
  2. Boundaries are about self-care. There’s a difference between self-care and self-centeredness. Self-care says that we take care of ourselves so we can be strong and better take care of those we love and serve. Self-centeredness says we take care of ourselves so we can take care of ourselves. Boundaries remind us that we are responsible TO others, not FOR others.
  3. When we take care of ourselves, we ultimately take care of others. Rescuing people from the natural consequences of their behavior weakens them. Saying no may risk disappointing another, but in the long run it helps them make necessary changes to improve their life.
  4. Boundaries are not an excuse. Boundaries used as an excuse to take the easy road are not boundaries at all – they are excuses. Boundaries are firm but not rigid. It takes bravery to set clear boundaries, not brutality.
  5. All life, to be sustainable, requires boundaries. I grew up in an age when you had a phone on your office desk that was wired into the wall. When you were done work you went home. The boundary between work and home was clear. Then we were promised that computers would simplify this. Now in a 24/7 world, establishing boundaries has never been more of a challenge. But without boundaries you have no clear priorities or focus. Everything is important and nothing is important. We all need boundaried time for uninterrupted, focused work or play that requires our full attention to what matters.

How to Create a Growth Plan for 2023: EQ, Authenticity, and the Power of Self-Awareness

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A great deal of research suggests that emotional intelligence (EQ) – the ability to identify and regulate one’s emotions and empathize with the emotions of others – is vital to success at work and in life. A high EQ helps you build healthy teams, reduce stress, increase engagement and motivation, achieve higher productivity, foster psychological safety, defuse conflict, and improve job satisfaction.
One of the four pillars of emotional intelligence is self-awareness – having a comprehensive grasp of who you are as a person and a leader, and how you show up in the world. The more you understand yourself, the better you can connect with others. Self-aware leaders know their strengths, weaknesses, and blind spots, and how to work with them. They are comfortable with themselves and genuine. They have a better understanding of emotions and how they affect behaviour and can recognise those emotions in others.
So… where does self-awareness come from? How do you develop it? Can you create a plan to become more self-aware?
The following suggestions will assist you in designing your own authentic leadership development plan for the new year by incorporating the five components of self-awareness.
  1. Purpose and Vision. Leadership is a consuming activity. A sense of purpose, along with a clearly articulated vision of what you want your life and your leadership to be like in the next five years, will enable to you to stay passionate so you can inspire those under your care.
  2. Insights. Learning is key to self-awareness and growth. What insights do you need this year to build your personal capacity toward your purpose and vision? What books will you read? What courses will you take? What teachers will you seek out?
  3. Self-Reflection. Connecting to others begins with listening to oneself. And listening to yourself requires a place where you can hear yourself think. When you spend so much of your life attending to the demands of others, you can lose yourself by failing to distinguish between your authentic voice and other voices that clamor for your attention.
  4. Feedback. While a habit of personal reflection can bring an element of growth and self-understanding, it will only take you so far. You ultimately can’t solve problems with the same thinking that created the problems. We all have blind spots. We need feedback from others to see what we can’t see.
  5. Employing a guide. Authenticity is a lonely journey, but it can’t be done alone. The lone-warrior model of leadership is, in the words of Ron Heifetz, “heroic suicide.” Guides – those who can take us into the unfamiliar territory of our own development, can come in the form of therapists, coaches, confidants, recovery programs, and peer-mentoring groups.
As you continue your authentic leadership journey into 2023, incorporating some strategies to increase your EQ will undoubtedly heighten the success of your growth plan. What strategies will you try?