[Flash] 82% Believe Bots Are Better Than Bosses — Here’s How to Reinvent Your Manager Role

82% believe robots (aka AI) are better than managers at:

• providing unbiased information
• maintaining schedules
• managing a budget
• problem-solving

Uh-oh! What is left for managers to do if their people are turning to robots to solve problems?

drumroll…

Mentor people into future managers.

The AI at Work Study asked, “What can managers do better than robots?” People reported:

• Understand their feelings
• Create a work culture
• Develop them

Bingo! People want their managers to develop them – teach, train, prepare, guide, support, advise, listen, empower, grow, and help them thrive in their roles!

When I started my business two decades ago, I didn’t know how to lead people, so I focused on finding and fixing issues! But I struggled to grow the business.

My success shifted as soon as I evolved from a Problem Solver to a Developer of Problem Solvers. I was managing messes. I needed to mentor people.

Today, I measure my mentoring when:

• Clients contact my team directly for strategies, solutions, and support.
• People on my team provide our clients with solid advice, devise sustainable solutions, and offer world-class support without me.
• My team identifies problems I hadn’t noticed, accompanied by a viable solution.

My team doesn’t ask permission to solve something – they ask to collaborate. They ask for my mentoring.

How did I make this shift? By learning to:

• ignore my imposter syndrome
• hire smartly, not desperately
• trust people before they trust me
• let go of “my way” of doing things
• deploy challenge stress
• mentor

Research conducted by Professor Paul Zak of Claremont Graduate University identified “challenge stress” as one of the eight leadership behaviors we can deploy to foster trust in our teams.

It’s also a stealthy strategy for mentoring future managers.

Challenge stress is the energizing pressure people feel when empowered with a growth opportunity. The brain eagerly looks for a solution to help them meet the challenge.

Examples:

• leading a meeting or a team for the first time
• owning a project with high visibility
• presenting the results to leadership or a client
• submitting an abstract to a conference

Challenge stress develops confidence, improves problem-solving skills, and deepens mutual trust.

Knowing people flourish in the trusting, empowering environments we create, it feels silly to resist technology or attempt to out-problem-solve a robot.

We can use this interesting time in history to reinvent the value we bring to people and organizations.

Mentor the future.

© 2025. Ann Tardy and MentorLead. www.mentorlead.com. All Rights Reserved.