Why leaders must rethink workflows, translators, and trust - Three leadership roles every organization needs in the age of AI
- Liza Engel
- Sep 29
- 4 min read
When was the last time someone asked you not just what problem to solve, but how the very workflow producing the answer should be built from scratch?
Most of us still approach challenges in the same way we have always: identify the problem, generate a solution, and deliver the result. That rhythm worked in the past. But the context has shifted.
Today, the bigger question is how the process itself should be designed. In the age of AI, it’s not just about the solution you deliver - it’s about the machinery that produces it. And that requires a different kind of leadership.
Leadership in the age of AI isn’t just about making the right call - it’s about cultivating the builders, translators, and trust-sustainers who make responsible decisions possible.
This shift isn’t isolated to consulting, tech, or any single sector. It touches every industry.
Traditionally, leaders focused on two questions:
What’s the problem?
What’s the solution?
But now, two more questions must be added:
How is the solution being generated?
Who ensures it is understood, trusted, and used responsibly?
A recent Harvard Business Review article AI Is Changing the Structure of Consulting Firms shows how this reality is reshaping entire professions. The insight extends far beyond consulting. Every leader who relies on expertise - whether within a corporation, a start-up, or a public institution - faces the same challenge.
AI isn’t just changing what gets delivered. It’s rewriting the structure of how work gets done - and how talent develops.
Three Critical Roles
1. Workflow Builder-Implementer
This role designs and operationalizes the processes and tools that generate outputs. They determine how data flows, which AI or automation tools are integrated, and how quality is ensured.
Leadership shift required: Leaders must invest in workflow design capabilities to drive effective change. It’s no longer enough to focus only on the answer - you need to care about the machinery that creates it.
Risk if ignored: Without this role, you end up with brittle processes, hidden bias, and wasted investment.
2. Lead Translator
This role guides the problem work, interprets outputs, and crafts recommendations. They turn raw insights into strategy.
Leadership shift required: Leaders must develop translators who combine technical fluency with strategic judgment.
Risk if ignored: Without this role, insights get misused, strategies are flawed, and you’re left with information that may have no impact.
3. Trusted Relationship Builder
This role sustains credibility, trust, and alignment with stakeholders. They manage expectations and keep focus on value and ethics.
Leadership shift required: Leaders must prioritize and develop their relational skills. Brilliance doesn’t matter if no one believes it, uses it, or trusts it.
Risk if ignored: Without this role, trust erodes, stakeholders disengage, and adoption stalls.
Together, these roles form a natural pipeline for talent development. A professional might start by building workflows, move into translation roles, and eventually grow into trusted relational leadership. But this trajectory only works if leaders deliberately design for it.
Experiments & Reflection Exercises
Practical steps leaders can take right now:
Map your process. Select a current project and sketch the flow from data collection to analysis, recommendation, and decision. Who owns each step? Where are the weak spots?
Experiment with role rotation. Ask someone strong in operational detail to step into a translator role - with mentorship. Notice how insights shift when framed differently.
Start trust earlier. Don’t wait until the final presentation. Build stakeholder check-ins during workflow design. Ask: What would make you trust this output even more?
Change your reward systems. Do you only celebrate the big recommendation? Or do you also recognize those who built the process and nurtured the relationships that made it possible?
Responsibility & Human Leadership
AI shifts not just tasks, but responsibilities.
Builders must embed transparency and fairness.
Translators must resist over-claiming what AI can say.
Relationship leaders must insist on ethical guardrails and accountability.
This is the human work of leadership in the age of AI: to ensure that technology supports dignity, trust, and sustainable value.
Here is a framework to assess your leadership system:
Technology & workflows: Do you have clear ownership of processes, data, and tools?
Recommendation & translation: Are outputs interpreted responsibly and usefully?
Authentic relationships: Are you sustaining trust and aligning with stakeholders beyond the “initial deliverable”?
Rate yourself on each. Where do you need to stretch?
The Leadership Stretch
Here’s a challenge to you: which of these three roles is weakest in your work today?
Where is time being wasted on messy processes?
Are your outputs and insights being translated into real action?
Or maybe you deliver well, but trust is eroding because people don’t feel involved.
Stretching as a leader doesn’t mean taking on all three roles yourself. It means empowering others, building the right capabilities, and recognizing where your own mindset must shift. It also means speaking openly and transparently with your people and embarking on this journey together. Responsibly.
In the age of AI, leadership is no longer just about making the right call - it’s about cultivating the builders, translators, and trust-sustainers who make responsible decisions possible.
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