I recently came across new insights from global consulting firm Korn Ferry on what’s keeping CEOs and board directors up at night. While the full report on risk and risk management in 2025 won’t be available until September, part of the survey preview piqued my interest.
Of the nearly 250 executives asked, almost 70% ranked AI and tech skills as their top leadership priority for the next three years. That makes sense given today’s ever-evolving state of AI. However, the same group ranked emotional intelligence (EQ) and employee engagement at 38% and 20%, respectively, when prioritizing future business concerns and needs.
Needless to say, this caught my attention. I was perplexed by the apparent disconnect between AI success, emotional intelligence, and employee engagement for the simple reason that they aren’t mutually exclusive of one another. In fact, they’re critically interdependent.
One truth remains in every change initiative, no matter what it entails. The trust necessary to ensure a transformation’s success begins and ends with emotionally intelligent leadership. So, as AI continues to reshape how we work, lead and collaborate, we should prioritize trust and the importance of proven and capable leaders who can successfully build it.
Leadership trumps technology
We know the great promise AI brings to the future workplace. We also know it’s creating complexity, fear, and uncertainty in ways we’ve not previously seen. Not a day goes by that a new list of occupations at risk of becoming obsolete is published. Naturally, people are asking: Will I be replaced? Will I still be valued for my unique talents? Can we trust AI? Can I even keep up with the pace of AI?
If you dig deeper, these aren’t technical questions, but rather leadership questions. What employees are truly asking themselves is: Can I trust my leadership with this new technology, or will I be left behind? What are they really doing with AI and why? What’s next for me and my work in this new world of AI? How leadership answers questions like these through words, actions, and systems (purposefully listed last) can determine an organization’s AI successes or challenges.
Still, many in the C-Suite are treating AI as a technology upgrade instead of what it is, a leadership transformation that requires more than strategy decks and timelines. It necessitates clarity and a people-centered vision, from the top, which should have been cultivated for years prior to any AI launch.
AI amplifies culture
Before a single AI tool is deployed, leaders have already set the tone – positive or negative. And in moments of disruption, like AI, every leader becomes an even stronger cultural catalyst.
For highly effective leaders, fostering trust has always been more than a soft-skill nicety. It’s a strategic non-negotiable. They understand growing genuine, authentic relationships and ensuring psychological safety helps produce engaged team members who express high levels of trust within their organizations.
This trust equation, built on relationships, is anything but new. Still, companies struggle with understanding its vital importance. Your leaders’ philosophies, visibility and transparency either invite trust or undermine it. If they’ve been carefully building trust, you’re far better positioned to gain critical buy-in and adoption for anything within your organization, including AI.
But there’s more than rates of AI adoption at stake. Depending on your organization’s culture, there’s good or perhaps bad news. That’s because AI won’t immediately change your current culture — but it definitely will amplify it. After reading that, you’re likely in camp uh-oh or camp bring it on. Maybe even camp I told you so.
AI and leadership: Be a trust expert
If you find your organization in camp uh-oh, it’s not too late. You will, however, have to do better in the age of AI.
Particularly now, leaders must be emotionally present. Before you roll your eyes, being emotionally intelligent doesn’t mean you’re a therapist, a pushover, or just care about the “soft” skills – a term many loathe. And it certainly doesn’t mean you can’t hold people accountable. In fact, according to Harvard Business Review, 90% of top performers are also high in EQ. Conversely, only 20% of bottom performers possess high EQ.
Having both EQ and leadership skills does mean leaders hold space for uncertainty and intentionally create individual connections by being visible, empathetic, and human in ways that build trust. Through a learned and tangible EQ foundation, not focused on technical skills or IQ, they leverage a group of four competencies: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship building. Mastering these competencies enables them to maximize energy and buy-in for change, like AI.
Paired with that EQ, there are a few key areas leaders should focus on when looking to further build trust with their teams when it comes to AI endeavors.
Move from automate to augment
First, organizations need to align and answer the question: Are we using AI to replace our people or to elevate them? Lack of alignment, at all levels, on this critical and fundamental question can spell trouble for even the most EQ- savvy leader.
The old approach to AI was to automate tasks to reduce costs. Leaders are now adopting a paradigm of augmentation, not replacement, by thinking of and positioning AI as a digital teammate. It’s a co-worker that can draft reports in seconds, analyze years of data in minutes, or generate creative ideas at scale. Most importantly, it’s up to leaders to define and communicate the role of that teammate to ensure it complements rather than competes with their human teams. When leaders frame AI this way, trust grows. When they frame it as a quiet replacement plan, resistance grows, and trust erodes.
Educate and empower
One of the fastest ways leaders can build trust in AI is by investing in training. Unfortunately, most companies aren’t keeping up. Recent Forbes research uncovered ninety-three percent of U.S. companies plan to increase AI investment; but only 49% of Chief Human Resources Officers say their organizations are prioritizing AI or data training.
Knowledge and understanding drives trust. Without AI competence, fear and misinformation fill the narrative gap. Making AI fluency a leadership priority involves starting with yourself and then ensuring your team knows how these systems work, where they can fall short, and how to responsibly engage with them. When leaders demystify AI through learning, they reduce fear. When they skip that step, worry, anxiety, and resistance grow.
Embrace the J-curve
Every major AI implementation will come with a productivity dip. It’s a natural part of any change initiative and it’s called the J-curve, which gets its name from its shape on a graph, resembling the letter “J”. It’s a visual representation of the ebbs and flows of the time and effort people need to learn, adjust, and make sense of new tools.
It reveals that the real challenge doesn’t come in the AI deployment; but rather in the transition when short-term results falter. This is where leadership matters most. Some leaders panic and press harder, push faster, and demand instant ROI. In doing so, they fracture trust just when it’s needed most.
Emotionally intelligent leaders do the opposite. They invest in the support needed to climb the curve quickly and confidently. They prepare their teams by acknowledging the dip in productivity, calling it out and naming. They also know the importance of taking the time to encourage and celebrate learning, not just outcomes.
Reinvent roles, not just skills
Training is important; but it’s not enough. If you give your team new skills but don’t evolve their roles, you’ll create friction, not growth. People may feel capable, but stuck and boxed in.
Emotionally intelligent leaders know they must do more than just upskill; they have to reimagine work. Reskilling is tactical but reinventing roles is strategic. And it’s up to leaders to create that career pathing roadmap to make that leap. That means identifying the tasks AI can take over and then designing new, higher-value roles for their team members that leverage their strengths.
What’s next?
The future of AI really depends on the quality of our leadership today. The real differentiator in the AI era isn’t speed or data, it’s trust. So, before you deploy your AI strategy, ask yourself if you’re leading in ways that earn your team’s trust rather than just assuming it’s already there.
Need some guidance? Reach out to Falls & Co.
