You’ve heard you’re supposed to be using AI. Maybe you’ve played around with it. Maybe your team is already using it and you have no idea how or how much. The anxiety is real: what if you automate the wrong thing? What if you replace the human judgment that actually makes your team work? Here’s the truth. The problem is never the tool. The problem is not having a clear system for where AI fits and where it does not. These episodes will help you build that clarity so AI becomes a multiplier for your team, not a source of chaos or quiet resentment.
Why most leaders feel behind on AI (and why that’s not your fault)
The conversation around AI moves fast and it is almost entirely aimed at individual productivity. Open a browser tab, save twenty minutes, summarize your emails. That is fine. But it tells you nothing about what to do as a leader responsible for a whole team. Nobody handed you a framework for deciding which decisions still need a human, which workflows are safe to automate, and how to talk to your team about any of it. That gap is a system problem, not a knowledge problem. You are not behind. You are missing a map.
What AI should and should not replace on your team
AI is genuinely good at processing, summarizing, drafting first passes, and spotting patterns in data. It is not good at reading the room, holding someone accountable with empathy, noticing that a high performer is quietly burning out, or making a judgment call that requires institutional context and trust. The Unstoppable Team framework is built on the idea that your job as a leader is to create the conditions where your team can do their best work. AI can clear away low-value tasks so your people have more room for high-value thinking. It cannot replace the relationship infrastructure that makes a team actually function. Know the difference before you hand anything over.
Leading Gen Z through the Gen AI moment
Younger employees are often more comfortable with AI tools than their managers are, and that gap can quietly create friction. Gen Z workers tend to expect that smart tools will be part of the workflow. They also have strong instincts about authenticity and will notice immediately if AI is being used to fake connection or manufacture feedback. The move here is transparency. Be direct about what the team is and is not using AI for. Invite their input on where it helps. Make it a conversation, not a policy memo dropped from above.
The right questions to ask before you automate anything
Before you hand a task to an AI tool, run it through three questions. First, does this task require human judgment, emotional intelligence, or relationship context? If yes, it stays human. Second, if this output is wrong, what is the cost? Low cost, low stakes tasks are good automation candidates. High stakes outputs still need a human checkpoint. Third, does automating this free up your team for deeper work, or does it just create a new layer of review work that nobody has time for? Automation should simplify, not shuffle the burden. Use these questions as your filter and you will make far fewer decisions you have to walk back later.
Building a team AI policy that people will actually follow
A one-page policy nobody reads is not a system. A real team AI policy answers four things: what tools are approved, what data is never allowed into an AI prompt, who reviews AI-generated outputs before they go out, and how the team shares what is working. That last part matters more than most leaders expect. Your team is running experiments every week. If there is no channel for sharing wins and failures, you lose the collective learning and end up with ten people solving the same problem ten different ways. The Manager Essentials Program covers how to build lightweight governance systems like this so they run without you having to police them.
All episodes on this topic
- Ep 232: What to say when your team is scared about AI (and what not to say). When your team hears “AI,” they immediately think their job is on the line, and if you haven’t addressed that fear directly, it runs silently in the background of every conversation. Lead with your vision for how AI enhances your team’s work rather than replacing it, and save 10 to 15 hours per project by targeting the tasks that were never the core of anyone’s job. This episode is most useful for owners and leaders who need to open the AI conversation without triggering a productivity crash or a quiet exit.
- Ep 208: What AI should replace on your team (and what it should not). AI can handle tactical tasks like notetaking and scheduling, but replacing an entire role means losing the invisible human value that holds teams together. Lia walks through a practical way to audit what to automate versus preserve, using the example of an executive assistant whose real job was culture, candor, and translation. This episode is most useful for founders, operators, and leaders who are under cost pressure and tempted to automate their way out of staffing decisions.
- Ep 197: How to navigate the Gen Z and Gen AI collision on your team. The tension between Gen Z workers and AI tools creates three specific problems for leaders: entry-level jobs disappearing, critical thinking skills going undeveloped, and team members outsourcing work entirely to AI. The fix is not banning the tools but training people to think first and use AI second. This episode is most useful for owners and leaders who are watching their newer team members default to copy-paste AI output instead of doing the real work.
- Ep 189: The hidden cost of using AI as a leadership shortcut. Using AI to replace your leadership presence, whether through AI video clones, copy-pasted team messages, or scripted feedback, erodes team trust and accelerates disengagement. Lia’s framework is simple: use AI to brainstorm and prep, but never let it substitute for the human moments that make you indispensable. This episode is essential for any leader wondering how to stay relevant and keep their team motivated in the age of AI.
- Ep 186: Your team is overdoing it with AI. Here is what to do.. When your team leans too hard on AI, the fix is not banning it. Set clear expectations first, then decide intentionally what to do with the time automation frees up. This episode is most useful for founders, owners, and team leads who are embracing AI but feeling uneasy about how their people are actually using it.
- Ep 185: How to decide when AI actually solves a problem on your team (and when it doesn’t). AI only helps when you know exactly what problem you are solving first. Lia walks through a root-cause framework for diagnosing real team breakdowns, then matching the right solution, whether that is an automation tool or a leadership skill. This episode is most useful for owners, founders, and team leads who are feeling pressure to adopt AI but are not sure where to start.
- Ep 184: Are managers really the easiest role to automate? Here is why that gets it wrong. No, managers are not the easiest role to automate. The tasks that can be automated, like assigning work in a project queue, are not actually what great management is. Lia argues that the irreplaceable core of leadership is human: communication, cross-functional influence, conflict navigation, and knowing how to read and motivate your people.
- Ep 171: How to actually use AI as a leader without losing your team in the process. AI can give you a great plan, but deploying it without talking to your team first will get you nowhere fast. Lia walks through a three-step framework: set context with your team, get their input, then roll out the plan in terms of what is in it for them. This episode is especially useful for owners and leaders who are stuck in the weeds and tempted to let an AI tool do the hard human work for them.
Also relevant
- Ep 231: Why delegating keeps failing (and the shift that actually fixes it). Delegation fails when leaders dispatch tasks instead of handing off outcomes, keeping themselves as the bottleneck at every step. The fix is shifting from fetch-the-answer assignments to giving a team member ownership of a full result, with clear context, defined success, and agreed checkpoints. This episode is especially useful for leaders who know they should delegate more but still find everything coming back to them.
Want to go deeper?
The Manager Essentials Program. Lia’s flagship program for new and rising managers.