India, Jan. 29 -- Automation has quietly slipped into our everyday work lives. It schedules our meetings, screens our CVs, tracks our productivity, predicts our sales, and increasingly tells us what decision might be 'best.' Somewhere along this rapid adoption, a convenient narrative emerged: the system decided, the algorithm flagged it, technology made it inevitable.

That narrative is comforting - and dangerous. Automation, by itself, is neutral. It has no intent, no values, no moral compass. Leadership, on the other hand, is never neutral. Every decision to adopt automation, to deploy it hastily or thoughtfully, to use it as an enabler or as a shield, reflects human choices. Technology does not absolve responsibility; it merely exposes...