It has yet to answer the more important question: influence for what? There’s no shortage of executives with impressive titles or founders with enormous platforms. Influence, by any measurable standard, has never been more abundant.
So why does it feel like almost nobody is actually leading? I would argue that we have become remarkably good at measuring what leaders accumulate, while all the time paying far less attention to what becomes better because they lead. The numbers can attest to that fact.
Gallup’s global research found that only 20 percent of employees were engaged at work in 2025, while the resulting productivity loss was estimated at $10 trillion globally. Manager engagement fell sharply too. If leadership is producing so much growth, why are so many people experiencing work as something to endure?
Numbers certainly matter within any organization. Margins and targets matter. A nonprofit still needs funding to keep its doors open.
But the mistake comes when the metric becomes the mission. External goals can tell you whether you are moving; internal purpose, however, tells you whether you are moving in the right direction. Artificial intelligence is accelerating our work by unprecedented standards, making human leadership more urgent than ever.
The Microsoft 2026 Work Trend Index shows 15 times more active agents operating in Microsoft 365 than just a year ago, while only 26 percent of surveyed AI users say their leadership is clearly and consistently aligned on AI. While AI can automate complex workflows and generate options in seconds, it cannot replace human judgment. It cannot decide who may be harmed by a decision or what kind of organization we want to build.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
