Be the Leader No Algorithm Can Replace

In the age of AI, your humanity is your greatest leadership legacy

My dad was a cricketer, an educator, a coach, a mentor. A teacher to many.

When he passed a couple of months ago, over 150 people came to his memorial. Family, friends, former colleagues, people he'd managed, people he'd taught, fellow cricketers, Western Australian Cricket Association administrators. Writing his eulogy, I was struck by the sheer breadth of a life lived across nearly 90 years. So many achievements. So many people's lives touched.

What people said about him

The things that stuck with me most weren't the awards or the titles. They were the words people used when they described him. Words like was calm, kind, respectful. Emotionally intelligent (even before that was a thing). His collaborative leadership style in the 1980’s-90’s was a radical contrast to the era’s typical top down, control-based style.

The stories I heard kept reminding me of the well known quote: "People don't remember what you said, but they remember how you made them feel."

But I think it goes even further than that. It's not just how he made people feel, it's what they did with that feeling. That's where legacy lives.

The moment that changed a career

One of the women in my dad's team, Val, once worked up the courage to ask his permission to attend a course she was interested in — to complete it during work hours, which was almost unheard of in the 1980s, especially for a woman.

His response was simple: "As long as you get your work done, Val — you're a professional. Go ahead, I trust you to do the right thing."

That sentence changed her life.

The confidence and belief he placed in her became the catalyst for an extraordinary career — a Masters, a PhD, a Professorship. She has credited that moment, that quiet act of trust, as the spark that made her believe she was capable of more.

Their professional relationship became a lifelong friendship built on mutual respect.

The circle of trust

Fast forward to Dad's final years. With his mind clouded by dementia, he couldn't remember her name. But he knew he was safe with her.

And so it was Val — this woman whose career he had quietly helped ignite decades earlier — who was taking him out for coffee in his last years. And at his memorial, she was the one person we asked to speak.

Seeing the potential in others can change lives, but it's a deeply human, intuitive act that at this stage, no system, framework or algorithm is able to replicate. Sure there might be data from performance reviews or insights from diagnostic assessments but your ability to pay attention and say to someone ‘I think you can do this’ is powerful.

And in my Dad’s case, he was just a person who chose to believe in another person and watched that choice come back to them in ways they could never have planned.

The things left unsaid

So many people pulled me aside at the memorial to share how Dad's encouragement had shaped them. Whether they were struggling with their teaching, navigating something personal, or simply needing someone to believe in them.

Almost all of them said the same thing: "I never got the chance to tell him."

That has stayed with me.

And so I've made it my mission — a quiet, personal one — to tell the leaders who have positively shaped my life exactly how they did it. Not in vague terms, but specifically. The moment. The words. The impact.

Because they deserve to know and what is the point in me just keeping those thoughts to myself?

A thought for the leaders reading this

We're told to move faster, be more efficient, more data-driven. And AI will help us do all of that.

But when 150 people gather to farewell someone who lived a meaningful life, nobody mentions the productivity metrics. They talk about how he made them feel. What he saw in them before they could see it themselves.

No algorithm replicates that yet. But as a leader, you have the opportunity to do this every day, right now.

You may never know which moment becomes the spark. But if you show up with enough humanity, one day someone you once believed in will show up for you. And perhaps even take you out for a coffee.

What leader in your life deserves to hear the impact they had on you? It's not too late to tell them.