One of the key responsibilities of being a leader is figuring out where your team's energy is best spent. Does this task require a human touch, or should automation and computers take the wheel? Should they spend their time mindlessly typing numbers into a spreadsheet? Logging hours? Or doing creative, meaningful work that only a person can accomplish?

When you're structuring your team around automation, take advantage of your team's talents. Make sure they aren't wasted.

With advancements comes automation, and it's becoming more and more commonplace in many businesses. By automating the repetitive, menial parts of your work , you help maximize your team's potential and allow them to grow.

Here are a few ways your team can spend the time automation opens up for them:

Coming up with creative ways to market your business

In a world oversaturated with ads and marketing schemes, you have to get creative. Someone needs to make sure you stand out from the sea of products and services, and a computer can't do that, no matter how much we want it to.

Computers can't create detailed communication plans, draft social media strategies, study growing trends, or pitch creative and fun news ways to achieve your goals. For that, you'll need a bright mind, and a bright mind works best when it's not bogged down by things that force them to work mindlessly.

Creating visual and written content

Whether it's for social media, a newsletter, an ad, or anything else that goes out into the ether, someone needs to be writing and designing it, and that someone won't thrive unless they're able to give their work the proper care and attention it deserves. Rushing creatives breeds carelessness and mediocrity.

Without the need to log data or manually crunch numbers, your team members are able to devote the time necessary to create meaningful, eye-catching, and effective content.

Building relationships with clients

One thing you can't teach a computer is how to navigate a complicated, multi-layered interpersonal relationship. If your team's work includes handling clients — whether it be coordinating, placating, or reeling them in — then it'll take a skilled person to do it well.

Handling clients is a task that benefits from the care and time put into it. The more time you're able to dedicate to making sure your clients' needs are met, the better your relationship is, and the more likely they are to continue your partnership and send other potential clients your way.

Honing their skills, and learning new ones

Another productive use of time and resources is making sure your team flourishes, whether that means honing the skills they already have, or giving them the opportunity to build new ones. Having automation at your side frees up your team's time for self-improvement. As their leader, it's in your best interest that they're in the best shape they can be, and a good investment on your part to help them towards that goal.

Being a team leader is more than just making sure your assigned tasks get done — it's making sure you are allowing those under you to do meaningful work,to become better people in the process, and to grow professionally. A happy, fulfilled team that is allowed to spread their wings is something no money can buy.

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