Leading in the Missing Middle: What Human + Machine Demands of Leaders

Rene Grywnow’s 5-Minute Business Punch · Sep 6, 2026 · 5m

This week ran as a set: Part I named the human advantage, Part II the energy discipline, and Part III puts both inside one job description, drawing on Paul Daugherty and James Wilson’s Human + Machine (HBR Press, 2018).

For a century, “Who executes this task?” was a complete leadership question. It stopped being one when the answer became “a person and a machine, together.” Value now sits in what the authors call the missing middle, where AI amplifies human skill rather than replacing it wholesale. Leadership becomes hybrid-aware: less “who executes this” and more “how is this collaboration…