The Importance of Leadership

Now even more relevant

Eight hundred years ago, a child got bored of his schoolwork and drew himself as a warrior on horseback. This particular child was 7-year-old Onfim from Novgorod, Russia, a wealthy region known for its fur trade. Many children in Novgorod learned to read and write at a young age, and birch bark was commonly used as paper in schools. This of course isn’t anywhere near the oldest sketch, which is currently an abstract drawing of cross-hatched lines found on a rock fragment in South Africa's Blombos Cave that is 73,000 years old. This small piece of ochre-on-stone, resembling a "hashtag," predates previous earliest drawings such as the spectacular prehistoric painted caves of southern France and northern Spain, the oldest dated example of which, Chauvet Cave, may be close to 40,000 years old. All of which I recount in order to point out that a normal activity that happened almost a thousand years ago (a bored student doodling) and ones that are even much older (memorializing or decorating our walls), are still happening today.

Philosophers throughout the ages have argued over the immutability of human nature. Thomas Hobbes, in his theory of human nature, posited that humans are driven by self-interest and a desire for power, suggesting an innate and somewhat fixed, or at least consistent, human nature. Whereas the existentialist, Jean-Paul Sartre, argued that "existence precedes essence," meaning humans are born without a fixed nature and create their own essence through choices and actions, making human nature essentially mutable. Whether human nature is immutable or not, I don’t know but I do think there are some things that have remained the same for humans for millennia. One of those is that humans need leadership and good leadership matters.

There has already been a lot of debate about the impact of AI on jobs, education, healthcare, government, and much more. My take is that no doubt it will change many parts of our work and lives in unimaginable ways. It reminds me of the statement by Bill Gates, "We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten." However, there are two things that have remained constant through every technology innovation humans have experienced ever since the discovery of fire and the wheel. The first is that we find a way for human creativity to use the technology to do things we never could have without it. The second is that leadership is still required to make the technology useful for groups of people. This second point is what I want to talk about today. Leadership is evergreen.

The thing about leadership is that it has always been required for humans to move forward together. Whether it was organizing a hunt, building aqueducts, or founding new companies, groups of people have always needed someone to articulate a vision, create alignment, and make hard decisions when the way forward wasn’t obvious. Leadership is the force that converts potential into progress.

When new technologies arrive, the printing press, electricity, the internet, etc., they are never immediately useful on their own. Someone has to see their potential, inspire others to believe in it, and make choices about how to apply it. That’s leadership. Periods of disruption magnify the qualities of good leaders. Vision and courage matter, of course, but so does clarity in the fog of uncertainty. Leaders must be capable of holding both: the pragmatism to avoid panic about tomorrow and the conviction to prepare for a decade ahead.

And, perhaps most critically, leaders in times of change need empathy. Technological disruption is not just about systems and workflows, it’s about people, their livelihoods, fears, and hopes. Leaders who ignore the human element risk creating resistance instead of momentum.

Today’s leaders are already expected to make decisions with more complexity and uncertainty than ever before. AI will increase that demand for faster decision making. That’s why frameworks matter.

Amazon popularized the concept of “one-way doors vs. two-way doors.” A one-way door decision is hard to reverse, so it requires deep care. A two-way door can be walked back if it doesn’t work, so speed is more important than perfection. Good leaders know the difference and don’t paralyze their teams treating every choice as irreversible.

Another useful lens is the Consequences & Conviction 2x2: high consequences with low conviction are dangerous, better to pause. Low consequences with high conviction? Move fast. These tools don’t make decisions for leaders, but they create a common language for making them wisely.

AI will absolutely reshape industries, jobs, and even aspects of human creativity. But AI will not lead. It will not comfort anxious employees, reconcile ethical dilemmas, or decide whether a company should prioritize safety over speed. That’s leadership.

In fact, AI raises the stakes for leadership. Leaders must now answer new questions:

• How do we apply this technology responsibly?

• What boundaries must we draw?

• How do we ensure human creativity is amplified, not replaced?

The temptation will be to see AI as an automatic solution. But just like fire, the wheel, or electricity, it’s only useful when paired with leadership that provides direction and purpose.

So what remains true, no matter the century, the culture, or the technology?

• Clarity: People need to understand the “why,” not just the “what.”

• Ethics: Doing the right thing, even when costly, builds enduring trust.

• Empowerment: Great leaders don’t hoard control; they create the conditions for others to thrive.

• Adaptability: Leaders who are curious and open to cross-disciplinary ideas are more resilient.

• Accountability: Culture is shaped by what leaders allow, not just what they say.

These are the constants.

Eight hundred years ago, a boy named Onfim doodled himself as a warrior on birch bark during a boring school lesson. Seventy-three thousand years ago, someone in a cave etched a cross-hatched pattern on a stone. Across time and technology, humans have always created, imagined, and needed leadership.

AI will not change that. The tools evolve, but the need for leadership, to inspire, to direct, to protect, to push humanity forward, is evergreen. If anything, the age of AI is not a time when leadership becomes less relevant. It’s a time when it becomes more so.