Month: January 2025

Servant leadership really is the best kind of leadership. It’s all about building an environment where your team can thrive and do their best work. To start, it’s crucial to hire the right people and set them up for success. That means putting them in the right roles, giving them clear responsibilities, and aligning on expectations together. It’s not just about filling a spot—it’s about making sure every person is in the best position to contribute and grow.

Once you’ve got the right people in place, you need to empower them. Give them the tools, support, and team they need to succeed. Make sure they have a realistic budget to work with and goals that they’ve had a hand in creating. But here’s the key: those goals can’t be too comfortable. People need stretch goals—targets that push them just outside their comfort zone and challenge them to grow. That’s where the magic happens.

Accountability is another huge piece of this. Instead of you constantly checking in or micromanaging, set up a peer-to-peer accountability framework. When teammates hold each other accountable, it creates a culture of shared responsibility and support. To make this work, you need a regular rhythm—like weekly meetings—where everyone reviews their responsibilities, progress, and any challenges. This keeps everyone aligned and ensures no one is slipping through the cracks.

As the leader, your role isn’t to command from above; it’s to serve from below. You’re there to facilitate, support, and remove obstacles so your team can perform at their best. Whether it’s solving problems, providing guidance, or simply being available, your job is to make sure your people feel supported and valued. They should leave work each day feeling like they’re doing the best work of their lives—and that your support played a big part in that.

Servant leadership is about flipping the traditional leadership model on its head. Instead of controlling and dictating, you’re lifting your team up. You’re giving them what they need to succeed, pushing them to grow, and fostering a culture of accountability and support. When you lead this way, you create an environment where people can truly thrive—and that’s when your organization reaches its full potential.

AI in meetings is on the verge of a huge transformation. Right now, it’s mostly a passive tool—think of things like Read AI, Otter, or Firefly. They sit in the background, recording, transcribing, and summarizing what’s being said. But that’s just the beginning. It won’t be long before AI starts becoming an actual participant in meetings, not just something that waits for you to ask it for help.

At first, AI will be reactionary. You’ll ask it for a specific piece of data or insight, and it’ll deliver. Need a quick fact, a number, or a summary of past meetings? AI will chime in instantly. But the real shift will come when it stops waiting to be asked and starts contributing proactively. It might notice a gap in the discussion or spot inconsistencies in data and speak up. Imagine an AI saying, “Hey, the numbers on this slide don’t match last quarter’s report,” or “You might want to explore this option based on recent trends.”

In online meetings, this could get even more advanced. AI will not just analyze what’s being said but also what’s being shown. If someone shares a spreadsheet or a slide deck, the AI will process that in real time, adding relevant input without missing a beat. And it won’t stop there—it’ll be able to read the room, or rather, the screens. By analyzing facial expressions and tones of voice, it could gauge how people are reacting, who’s disengaged, or where there’s tension. That might sound a little unnerving, but it’s not hard to imagine an AI that can adjust its contributions to steer conversations in a more productive direction.

This kind of evolution isn’t limited to online meetings. In-person meetings will see the same shift. Cameras and sensors in the room will let AI “see” everything happening. It’ll watch participants’ body language, analyze how people interact, and even follow along with what’s being shared on a projector or screen. It’ll be just as involved in understanding and reacting as it would be online.

The potential is incredible but also kind of unsettling. On one hand, it could make meetings more efficient, pulling in insights, keeping people on track, and even noticing when something important is being overlooked. But there’s a lot to think about—like privacy concerns. How comfortable will people feel knowing their facial expressions and every move are being monitored? And what happens if the AI misreads the room or makes decisions based on flawed assumptions? There’s also the risk of becoming overly reliant on AI, losing some of that human touch and creativity that makes collaboration so powerful.

It’s an exciting and slightly scary future. AI isn’t just going to assist in meetings; it’s going to participate. Whether it’s reacting to questions or jumping in with ideas, it’ll be a real part of the conversation, online or offline. It’ll change how we collaborate, and while that opens up incredible possibilities, it also means we’ll need to approach it with care. This isn’t just about technology—it’s about how we integrate it into the way we connect and work together.