C-Suite Perspectives On AI: Diane Egbers Of Leadership Excelleration On Where to Use AI and Where to Rely Only on Humans
An Interview With Kieran Powell
Trust your discernment that comes from understanding external trends and internal organizational realities to help you make key decisions. Your intuition will help you pivot in rapidly changing business environments to remain viable and competitive. For example, you can use AI to synthesize external market research and customer data into meaningful information that ensures data-based decision-making for your business. Customer demand is changing quickly!
As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to advance and integrate into various aspects of business, decision-makers at the highest levels face the complex task of determining where AI can be most effectively utilized and where the human touch remains irreplaceable. This series seeks to explore the nuanced decisions made by C-Suite executives regarding the implementation of AI in their operations. As part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Diane Egbers, Founder and CEO of Leadership Excelleration, Inc. (LEI) Consulting, a national leadership development firm based in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Diane is an inspirational and dynamic executive coach, management consultant and facilitator who leverages the latest research and proven strategies to challenge leaders to reach their full potential. For the past 25 years, she has been engaging with Fortune 500 clients, major healthcare systems, higher education, and government entities, while guiding her consulting team to offer transformative leadership development, organizational assessments and support for high performing teams. She is also the author of the book, The Ascending Leader.
Thank you so much for your time! I know that you are a very busy person. Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
I started my career in human resources, which was the foundation of how I developed and discovered my passion for connecting with and coaching people. After 25 years in this industry, I still love what I do and find it incredibly fulfilling.
What fascinates me to this day is how we each have the capacity to develop our own awareness and potential and use that insight to develop the next generation of leaders. Every leader I encounter is on their own journey, complete with unique experiences and development opportunities just waiting to be discovered and leveraged for success. I founded Leadership Excelleration to guide executives, teams and organizations through this transformation to create optimal performance.
In my experience, I have found that people follow leaders, not businesses. It’s the people you develop relationships with inside the business that make you want to stay connected.
Many of the friends I have gained over the years were my colleagues first. We met and did business together in a professional setting, but through our conversations, we forged a connection that extended beyond business. These kinds of rich relationships often develop when you truly care about others as people, not just view them as business colleagues. My colleagues, now friends, know that I care about them beyond the work that we do, and that is something AI can never replace.
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
In my first HR executive role, I was in Chicago working with our COO and CEO on a merger. I was so engaged in our conversation about executive talent that I unintentionally followed our COO into the tight quarters of a revolving door. It was a stressful day, and I wasn’t paying attention. He was gracious about my inadvertent intrusion into his personal space, and we laughed until our stomachs hurt.
From this embarrassing moment, I learned that I could be a sense of calm in the storm for leaders going through stressful situations and lead them into an attitude of transformation. Believing in the capacity of leaders to provide stability while driving for innovation creates hope for the future and is at the center of our work.
Having a sense of humor always helps, too!
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
We at Leadership Excelleration are in the process of launching a new, virtual, live facilitation form of leadership development called Leadership Hub Live, exclusively for senior leaders, high potentials and emerging leaders.
This new platform utilizes our original, best-in-class leadership development tools for intact teams, remote and hybrid leaders to offer development for the next generation of the ways we will work together. It aims to address the lingering isolation in various types of work teams, to build vital connections, ensure continuous learning, provide simulation and focused application as well as contribute to the retention of key leaders. We have created rich, proprietary content on more than 40 leadership topics that we are utilizing to share in new ways with leaders at all levels.
When more than 2,000 HR professionals were asked to evaluate their organizations upskilling, reskilling, and leadership development efforts in 2023, few gave their organizations rave reviews. Only about one quarter or fewer said their organizations were “very” or “extremely” effective at these tasks, according to SHRM, The Outlook on change by HR Executives, HR Professionals, and Employees.
Thank you for that. Let’s now shift to the central focus of our discussion. In your experience, what have been the most challenging aspects of integrating AI into your business operations, and how have you balanced these with the need to preserve human-centric roles?
The opportunities to synthesize our leadership content into new offerings that include AI generated tutorials is an exciting aspect of the next generation of learning and development in our profession.
The challenge has been encouraging leaders to see AI as a tool that can help create efficiencies and potentially reduce the need to hire, not see it as a replacement for human positions.
According to SHRM’s The Outlook on change by HR Executives, HR Professionals, and Employees, 330 HR executives noted the two most significant needs for change in learning and development were management development, leadership development, and employee experience.
Our AI and leadership courses will support leaders through this change in process, so they develop the mind sets, tool sets and skill sets to implement AI in comprehensive ways to enhance efficiency and create strategies to accentuate the human aspects of leadership that will not be replaced, but rather enhanced by AI.
With more than 200 customized tools, we will be measuring the success of each to understand more about how leaders are applying the knowledge and what additional support we can provide in this ever-changing AI landscape.
Can you share a specific instance where AI initially seemed like the optimal solution but ultimately proved less effective than human intervention? What did this experience teach you about the limitations of AI in your field?
AI tools are often too generic and not specific enough to address the needs of unique client cultures, organizations and situations. With this type of work, companies need humans to help them carefully curate solutions for their issues with specific and strategic insights. And in these instances, human touch and voice provide important context that AI cannot pick up on.
What I have found is that it’s best to think of AI as a great business partner that can pick up operational and repetitive tasks to free up human energy and focus for strategic work that requires human insight.
Humans will always need connection with leaders who galvanize and garner influence as a way to lead people into the future. It is the unique aspects of human intelligence, including emotional, social, cultural and IQ, to forge connections that will prevail.
Human intuition, experience, education and situational knowledge will discern strategy and direction for AI/human performance, consistency and sustainability long-term.
It’s the human curiosity, creativity and ingenuity that it takes to program AI that proves our human innovation will foster AI innovation. And because of that, I believe we will evolve together.
How do you navigate the ethical implications of implementing AI in your company, especially concerning potential job displacement and ensuring ethical AI usage?
For us as a leadership consulting firm, AI will enable us to create internal efficiencies that will prevent us from having to hire additional help. The ethical dilemmas with AI for us are around the issue of protecting the exclusivity of our intellectual property. With more than 25 years of experience packed into our materials, content, and tools, we are in an excellent position to scale, grow and leverage AI to build the reach and use of our content exponentially. Our biggest risk is found in those who may try to cultivate value for themselves by trying to utilize and pass off our proprietary content as their own.
Could you describe a successful instance in your company where AI and human skills were synergistically combined to achieve a result that neither could have accomplished alone?
Technology is not only transforming the nature of work but also revolutionizing how we learn and develop. According to SHRM’s 2024 AI in HR Report, 43% of organizations are leveraging AI to support learning and development, making it one of the top three use cases for AI adoption in HR. Among organizations using AI for learning and development, 49% utilize AI to recommend or create personalized learning opportunities for employees, while 45% use it to monitor and track development progress.
We are discovering new synergies with AI on a daily basis with our AI consultant firm dedicated to helping us discover new pathways and programming to build upon learning and development with new AI applications. So much of our expertise as speakers has not been captured until now. It is exciting to convert a voice recording of deep expertise on many topics into content that our clients can utilize and learn from through new forms of media. Such an exciting time to be in our business!
Based on your experience and success, what are the “5 Things To Keep in Mind When Deciding Where to Use AI and Where to Rely Only on Humans, and Why?” How have these 5 things impacted your work or your career?
AI may offer insights but lacks the emotional nuance and intuition essential for genuine relationships, according to the 2024 SHRM AI in HR Report.
Leadership is about connecting, motivating, and inspiring people. Here are 5 things to keep in mind when deciding where and when to rely on humans at work:
1 . Influence
Think about the situations in your business that require human connection to inspire others to choose to follow your vision and direction. How can you utilize AI to communicate your vision to multiple audiences at once? When helping clients update and share their unique and differentiated brand identity, AI is helpful to develop rapid messaging on multiple platforms.
2 . Intelligence
The emotional, social and cultural insights that appeal equally to the heart (emotional) and the head (rational) elements of a business case will encourage key stakeholders to buy-in. A great example is in large non-profits. When appealing to board stakeholders to garner support for new programs, you would focus on how these programs will expand the mission. AI can be used to take elements of your business case and help you create an outline and plan for a new program.
3 . Intuition
Trust your discernment that comes from understanding external trends and internal organizational realities to help you make key decisions. Your intuition will help you pivot in rapidly changing business environments to remain viable and competitive. For example, you can use AI to synthesize external market research and customer data into meaningful information that ensures data-based decision-making for your business. Customer demand is changing quickly!
4 . Innovation
Be curious and ask uncommon questions. This kind of ideation and discernment will result in the most profitable ideas, allowing for creativity and adaptability. Think about the incorporation of new AI applications, leadership practices, structure, process technology and talent to garner more competitive services or products to differentiate and enhance competitiveness. This new way of automating and synthesizing information into real business solutions is the next generation of work.
5. Impact
The career implications are expansive for those willing to pioneer their way into the automation economy. It is a career legacy opportunity for me to have more leadership knowledge with a fresh approach using AI to create a greater impact for more leaders everywhere.
Looking towards the future, in which areas of your business do you foresee AI making the most significant impact, and conversely, in which areas do you believe a human touch will remain indispensable?
Organizations should promote a culture of continuous learning and demonstrate how AI supports, rather than replaces, human development, according to Alegandro Bravo, Forbes Coaches Council.
The greatest impact for our business will be the speed and efficiency with which we make our content readily available on multiple platforms, along with better follow-up tutorials and measurements of success. The human touch will always be our primary form of facilitation, and we will continue coaching and consulting with clients in the ways they prefer to connect.
When considering what truly forges connection, we need leaders so customers will be loyal to businesses through that vital human connection. AI cannot create the warmth and build brand loyalty like human connection can.
While some are saying up to 50 percent of workforce will soon be replaced by AI, I’m not sure I agree with this prediction. Instead, I believe AI will help enable leaders to be more agile and strategic.
Leaders will begin to think of AI as having a robotic team member that can automate a lot of tasks, without having to hire another employee. There is so much efficiency through operational tasks that can be automated. The job market won’t be restricted as long as leaders retool themselves and think differently about AI. A lot of leaders are still avoiding the topic as opposed to learning how to leverage it advantageously.
I believe it’s the investment you make in human connections and enduring relationships that will not be replaced by AI. To achieve happiness, we as individuals need human connection every day.
Think about your favorite person you do business with and the investment of time you’ve spent with them, the connection you’ve built, and how you look forward to your time and work together. That kind of personal connection is invaluable.
While it may supersede human intelligence, AI is a tool to be leveraged. It is not a replacement for authentic human relationships.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I think we are in the beginning stages of this, but I would like to see a large community of leaders foster a vast network of varied connections that extend beyond the workplace.
We as humans need to have a sense of belonging. So why not take the place we spend most of our waking hours and turn it into a community of personal and professional connection among leaders?
For me, this would mean that no position or title is more important than another, that all responsibilities are valued. It would be a safe place where we elevate and celebrate each other’s successes no matter how big or seemingly insignificant. Breaking down the traditional hierarchical business model and moving toward more leadership communities based on collaboration and trust is where the best kind of human connection happens.
By authentically building a network of connections intended to evolve and grow, we can have a ripple effect that will organically grow into a meaningful network of people who otherwise would not be connected. It can all begin at work!
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Please feel free to connect with me personally on Linkedin, check out our website at LEI-consulting.com and follow Leadership Excelleration on Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter as well.
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
About The Interviewer: Kieran Powell is the EVP of Channel V Media a New York City Public Relations agency with a global network of agency partners in over 30 countries. Kieran has advised more than 150 companies in the Technology, B2B, Retail and Financial sectors. Prior to taking over business operations at Channel V Media, Kieran held roles at Merrill Lynch, PwC and Ernst & Young. Get in touch with Kieran to discuss how marketing and public relations can be leveraged to achieve concrete business goals.
C-Suite Perspectives On AI: Diane Egbers Of Leadership Excelleration On Where to Use AI and Where… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.