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Top Performers Do Not Just Complete Tasks. They
Make the Business Run Better
It’s no secret that CEOs are desperate for AI to pay off. According to one survey, 90 percent of midsize and large firms are working to integrate AI into their organizations, spending $150 billion on it this year alone. The goal, of course, is for these large language models and AI agents to find new ways to grow business and—crucially, for many leaders—trim labor costs or improve employee productivity. But the big secret of the digital era may be that a firm’s most valuable asset might not be its proprietary AI, but the people using it. A growing number of leaders and academics say that the more ubiquitous AI becomes, the more organizations should emphasize both hiring—and keeping—top human talent. High-performing people can provide the nuance, judgment, ethics, and creativity that algorithms cannot simulate.
To be sure, organizations have long struggled to recognize that spark. Throughout the 20th century, the prevailing wisdom was that employee performance followed a bell curve and everyone was more or less equally productive. But as knowledge work replaced manual labor and machines, leaders and academics began to believe that a small group of workers, using a combination of intellect and hustle, could make a greater difference. The cliché that 20 percent of workers can do 80 percent of the work took hold. Indeed, in one groundbreaking study of 700,000 workers, researchers found that in some cases, a tiny number of “superstars” accounted for almost 90 percent of an organization’s value.
But leaders today don’t need studies or theories to see that shifting global events call for workers who can problem-solve on the fly and produce exceptional results. Whether it’s tariffs or new wars, firms have been stymied and their staff engulfed in business stressors. But top performers, experts say, don’t wait for clarity; they make good decisions based on the information at hand. They demonstrate a high level of emotional intelligence and calm that instills confidence in others. Indeed, they can boost the performance of their teams. “Stars and high performers can have positive ripple effects,” says Elizabeth Campbell, professor of work and organizations at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management.
AI is likely to tilt the value of the star worker even further. Sure, many top performers built their reputations on work that can now—or soon will—be done faster by AI. But AI tools, used effectively, endow a whole new cadre of people with the ability to become top performers. That puts the onus on leaders to reimagine how to find, measure, attract, and keep top talent. They’re relying on a variety of largely unconventional steps, from actually de-emphasizing tech skills to changing decades-old methods of compensating staffs.
People Skills Over Tech Skills
As they pour billions of dollars into AI, firms need current and future workers to know how to use it. Indeed, the AI boom has some experts suggesting firms won’t need workers who aren’t exceptional with AI.
However, the truth is more likely that AI skills will not be the most critical sign of a top performer. In five years, someone who can use Claude Cowork and Nano Banana might be the equivalent of a worker in 1990 who knew how to use a word processor and a fax machine. It’s why many experts say leaders should be looking less at tech abilities and more at emotional intelligence. As more tasks become automated, top performers will differentiate themselves with relationship-building skills. “AI has not replaced the ever-present core traits, like character, inquisitiveness, and potential for true leadership,” says Baruch Labunski, CEO of the marketing agency Rank Secure.
Some organizations are already learning this—perhaps the hard way—by hiring too many Gen Z workers who, while great with AI, lacked more of the emotional working skills needed. “Relationship skills are paramount to success and more important than the day-to-day deliverables of a job,” says Michele Capra, Korn Ferry’s vice president of recruitment process outsourcing.
Leaders As Top Performers, Too
Leaders don’t have to be the best individual contributors on their teams—but they can’t be slouches, either. Decades of evidence show that leaders who demonstrate high personal performance are more effective at driving others to do the same.
The push to identify top performers for top jobs is critical now. Eleven percent of the nation’s largest public firms changed their CEOs in 2025, the highest turnover rate since at least 2010. Of the 168 incoming bosses, more than 80 percent were first-time public-company CEOs. Experts say boards are desperate for leaders who can get their organizations to perform at a top level—ideally while also transforming and innovating. Only a limited number of CEOs have a track record of doing that.
Source: Briefings Magazine, Russell Pearlman; June 2026
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