THE NEW WORK PLAYBOOK

Most of what we consider to be leadership is about managing resources, not leading humans. AI is about to make that impossible to ignore.

The leadership practices that would actually make work better for us are not new. They've just never been trained and practised well enough. Instead we focused on efficiency, control and output. That's management. Now AI can handle all of that much better. What's left for us?

I think this is the defining question of our time.
Instead of asking if AI will replace leaders, we should ask whether we'll finally build the kind of leadership that deserves to stay.

The New Work Playbook is a weekly podcast for anyone who believes that work gets better because people matter.
Monday episodes explore why something matters for leadership in the age of AI. Friday reflection episodes give you something practical to try.
Hosted by Annett Burger, a leadership practitioner with twenty years of experience in executive search, leadership development, and consulting.

THE NEW WORK PLAYBOOK

Latest episodes

Authenticity Theatre

Authenticity Theatre

24m 23s

Authentic leadership has been one of the biggest ideas in modern leadership development.
More than twenty years of it, and we haven't ended up with more genuine leaders.

In this closing episode of Season 1, I trace how modern authentic leadership movement focused the search for authenticity too much on self-awareness and self-discovery and missed that authenticity in leadership is built in relation with others. At the same time, the organisations leaders work in shape what shows up in the role through what they reward, allow, and tolerate.
The two together are what we end up watching: a workplace performance...

Practicing Care

Practicing Care

12m 5s

Care is not just good intention. It needs practice.
Three tools to turn caring into practice.

The main episode made the case for why empathy and care are different and why leaders need both.
This reflection episode gives you three practices to make care part of how you lead.

The first is the simplest and most powerful.
Small acts of care propagate through your network in ways researchers have measured, which means you have more influence on the carelessness around you than you may have realised.

The second is a short reflection on the four trust dimensions to consider before...

Daring to Care

Daring to Care

26m 31s

Do you know the difference between empathy and care?
Many leaders don't. And it's costing us more than we realise.

Most of us have been trained on empathy and assume care comes with it.
But empathy and care don't even activate the same areas of the brain.
And empathy without care is what's been draining leaders for years, without the results we hoped for.

In this episode I take you on the discovery journey that changed how I think about both.
From psychology to neuroscience to philosophy, research has been pointing at a clear distinction for decades. And the difference...

Rebuilding Trust in Yourself and with Others

Rebuilding Trust in Yourself and with Others

15m 52s

What moral value would most people say they live by?
Across cultures, the answer is honesty.
So why do we pass on the small daily moments where saying something honestly costs hardly anything?

This is the reflection episode following The Broken Spine.
I tell the story of a stranger who once spared me a real embarrassment,
and what that moment taught me about kindness.

We move through two practices for self-trust and two practices for trust with others.
The practices are small.
Their power is consistency.

Trust starts with us.
As trust and care go hand in hand, the next...