In less than five years, this organization has doubled its leadership team, grown its student population by over 50%, hired a new executive director, and launched a capital raise. By most metrics, they’re winning.
But look closer, and you’ll see the cracks: new leadership, a flood of new hires, and rapid growth all at once. These are the moments when organizations start to wobble, where the speed of expansion outpaces the systems and support needed to sustain it. Oftentimes its the manager and their people caught in the middle of it.
We’ve seen this pattern before. A company (usually a start up) grows faster than its capacity to scale in an effort to achieve ambitious goals. In the tech world this is called, move fast and break things, except usually what they break are their people. Everyone is focused on the getting to the goal, that they miss the collateral damage created in getting there. Burnout rises, morale dips and productivity stalls.
On the flip side, we’re now watching organizations shrink, cutting staff to weather economic uncertainty. But that too creates its own crisis. In addition to survivors remorse, those left behind are also experiencing increased burnt out and frustration at being asked to do more with less. Again: morale and productivity take a hit.
In both scenarios, the problem is the same: leadership capacity doesn’t match the pace of change. That’s where AI can play a meaningful role, but let’s not ignore the very real concerns.
The rapid rise of AI in the workplace is raising urgent, valid questions. Will it replace us? Whose jobs are most vulnerable? What about bias, privacy, or equity? These aren’t just hypotheticals, they’re active tensions in today’s workplace. But avoiding AI won’t stop its impact. It’s already here. The real challenge is figuring out how to engage with it wisely.
We believe organizations can scale—up or down—without breaking, if they invest in their managers and equip them with tools to lead through complexity. With responsible use, AI can augment human leadership, not replace it. Managers, positioned between strategy and execution, are uniquely capable of using AI to improve clarity, decision-making, and team well-being.
At ManagerEQ, we help managers use AI-powered coaching insights to focus on what they do best: leading people. When supported well, managers become the stabilizers during rapid change, not just survivors of it.
If your organization is navigating growth or contraction, now’s the time to invest in your managers. Let’s talk about how to use AI to scale leadership capacity without breaking your people.
