When Everything Changes, Influence Matters More
AI is changing how we work at an incredible pace. It's creating opportunities we couldn't have imagined a few years ago, while also creating a level of uncertainty that many leaders have never experienced. Employees are wondering what AI means for their jobs. Customers are questioning what information they can trust. Leaders are trying to determine how quickly they should adopt new technology. Deepfakes and AI-generated content make it increasingly difficult to know whether what we're seeing and hearing is real.
Even students are using AI to complete homework, forcing schools and parents to rethink what learning looks like. The technology is moving faster than many organizations can adapt.
So, what should leaders do?
Lean into influence.
When everything around your team is changing, people need something they can trust. They need to know where the organization is going, why it matters, and whether their leader is actually there with them. AI doesn't eliminate the fundamentals of leadership. It makes those fundamentals more important.
That means going back to the basics of influence: communicate consistently, build relationships, listen, create trust, and help people understand what happens next. Your team shouldn't have to wonder what leadership is thinking or where the organization is headed. Regular touch points become essential. One-on-one conversations, team meetings, video messages, town halls, customer conversations, and informal check-ins all matter more than ever before now that everything is moving so much faster.
Consistency matters just as much.
If the CEO says one thing, the executive team says something different, middle management interprets it another way, and frontline employees hear something completely different, you don't have a communication problem, you have an influence problem. Because when messages are mixed up, lack of trust in leadership is soon to follow. Leaders need to make sure the message remains consistent as it moves through the organization's span of command. Everyone doesn't have to use exactly the same words, but they should understand the same mission, priorities, and expectations.
And leaders need to get out of the castle.
I've seen organizations where the CEO or senior leader rarely interacts directly with employees. Everything comes through emails, recorded videos, or layers of management. That might feel efficient, but leadership from a castle creates distance. If your employees only see the CEO on a screen, they may joke that the CEO is AI. One organization in Ohio has had that exact joke about their CEO.
Technology can help you communicate, but it shouldn't become an excuse not to connect.
Get out and talk to people. Visit different locations. Have lunch with employees. Walk the floor. Talk to customers. Ask frontline employees what they're seeing. Meet with people who don't normally have access to the executive team. These conversations provide something dashboards and AI tools can't always provide, context and the temperature of the organization.
Leaders also need to keep up with the speed of change. AI is accelerating how quickly organizations can create, analyze, communicate, and make decisions. If your organization moves at yesterday's speed while your competitors move at tomorrow's pace, your costs will eventually go up. Slow decisions create inefficiency. Inefficiency creates cost. And eventually, it’s up to your sales team to go negotiate price increases to customers. A recipe for broken trust with customers.
That doesn't mean adopting every new AI tool just because it exists. It means creating a culture that is willing to learn, experiment, adapt, and move. Leaders need to ask, “What can we do better, faster, or differently because of this technology?” Then they need to equip their teams to actually make the change.
This is where tools such as AI assistants, collaboration platforms, CRM systems, project management software, virtual meetings, surveys, and employee feedback systems can help. They can give leaders more visibility and create more opportunities for communication. But don't confuse having more tools with having more influence. Don’t mistake this paragraph as we already do these. Just because we are doing them now, does not mean we are interpreting them correctly or doing anything with the data.
A CRM can tell you what happened with a customer. A dashboard can tell you what happened to a KPI. AI can summarize a meeting. A survey can tell you how employees responded to a question.
But leadership happens when you do something with what you learn.
If an employee tells you they're struggling, follow up. If a customer tells you something is changing in their business, listen. If your team tells you a process isn't working, address it. If your organization says it values people but leaders never make time for people, the message your employees receive is very different from the message on the wall.
The AI era doesn't require us to become less human.
It requires us to become more intentional about being human.
The leaders who thrive won't necessarily be the ones who understand every new AI tool. They'll be the ones who understand how to lead people through uncertainty. They'll communicate consistently, create regular touch points, stay visible, listen to their teams, move quickly when change requires it, and build enough trust that people are willing to follow them into an uncertain future.
AI may change the way we work.
It doesn't change why people follow leaders.
When the future becomes harder to predict, influence becomes even more valuable. Go back to the basics. Build trust. Communicate consistently. Get out of the castle. Talk to your people. Help them understand where you're going and equip them to get there.
Because in an AI world moving faster than ever, your greatest competitive advantage may still be your ability to influence people.
Master the Art of Influence: Build Trust, Drive Sales, and Lead Effectively
Are you ready to become the magnetic force that attracts top performers and your best customers?
I’m Kevin Sidebottom—keynote speaker, sales trainer, and author—and I help organizations unlock the power of influence to achieve breakthrough results.
In this blog, I reveal why influence is the ultimate currency in business and leadership—and how you can use it to:
✅ Motivate customers to stay loyal and buy again
✅ Build trust and engagement with your team
✅ Transform your leadership approach to inspire stronger performance
With decades of experience studying why people buy and how leaders earn loyalty, I equip sales professionals and executives to deliver lasting value, strengthen customer relationships, and drive higher revenue.
👉 Featured Resources to Grow Your Influence:
· Email: kevin@kevinsidebottom.com
· The Sales Process Uncovered Membership
· The Sales Process Uncovered (Book on Amazon)
If you’re serious about elevating your sales process, leadership impact, and team performance, this blog will show you the path.
