UpTrajectory Review
Marcel Schwantes uses a single line to frame his Inc. column for 2026: technology keeps changing how work gets done, but the fundamentals of leading people have not changed. The brevity of the available text tells us this is a thesis-driven essay rather than a reported feature. Schwantes, a longtime voice on servant leadership and workplace culture, positions human-centered leadership as the steady counterweight to another year of AI launches, automation pitches, and dashboard-driven management. Readers should expect a call to protect trust, judgment, and presence as tools multiply across every workflow.
For a small-business operator, the timing stings. You run lean, and every vendor promises that one more platform will free your schedule. Each tool also pulls you away from the floor, the counter, or the client call where your advantage lives. Schwantes argues that your edge over larger rivals comes from relationships and judgment, not from owning the same stack as everyone else. If you let software set the tone of your shop, you become interchangeable with any competitor who buys similar tools next quarter. The column lands as a reminder that your calendar, not your tech budget, reveals your real strategy.
The core claim is not new. Leadership writers have preached balance since the first spreadsheet reached the office. What feels current is the intensity of the pull. Schwantes treats balance as a defining leadership behavior for 2026, not a side note. We agree with the diagnosis but question the framing. Balance sounds tidy. In practice, you make trade-offs weekly: speed versus care, data versus instinct, scale versus presence. The column would serve operators better if it named those costs and offered a test for deciding when a tool earns its place and when it quietly erodes the service your customers remember.
The second-order effects split your team. Experienced staff may read deeper automation as a threat to their craft, and they may quietly withhold the context that makes new systems work. Newer hires may lean on tools too heavily and skip the judgment that only repetition builds. Customers feel the drift as well. A chatbot that answers fast but misses nuance can cost you a loyal account faster than a slower, human reply. Schwantes implies that leaders must model the blend, yet he underplays the hours that modeling consumes when margins are thin and every interruption carries a price.
Watch your calendar this quarter. If meetings with your people shrink while time in dashboards grows, Schwantes has named your risk. Pick one recurring process, such as onboarding or client check-ins, and decide which parts stay human and which you will automate. Then tell your team why, in plain language, and revisit the choice after thirty days. The original article supplies the principle. The discipline, as always, is yours to build, and the operators who build it will keep the customers that automation alone cannot hold.
“Technology may be changing how work gets done, but the fundamentals of leading people have not changed.” — Inc. Magazine
Takeaway: Audit one recurring process this month and decide which parts stay human; your calendar, not your tech budget, shows your strategy.
Excerpt from the original — Inc. Magazine
Technology may be changing how work gets done, but the fundamentals of leading people have not changed.