Transcript

My Team Is Terrified of AI (How Do I Lead Them Well?)

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0:29 twenty seven. Surve closes September 30th. If there's one thing you can count on in business, it's change. especially with things like AI on the rise. That's what Emily Garner was facing when she sat down.

0:50 with entree leadership's head coach Sean Falkins. for a live coaching session. She's trying to lead a team of software engineers who are terrified AI will steal their jobs. She sees the possibilities. She sees the vision.

1:04 Her team only sees doom. But you're about to watch John give Emily a light bulb moment that changes her entire perspective because leading a team through change isn't about reassuring them. Great leaders do one incredibly simple And powerful thing.

1:20 Keep their teams. From spiraling. Let's get to it. Well, Emily, thanks for coming and hanging out with us today. Thanks for having me. I'd love to learn about your business. Tell me what you what y'all are doing. Sure. So my company is Five Pack, and we create apps. We're a software company. We are based out of Dallas. We have an office in Tulsa. That sounds very exciting. Yeah, I love it. It's been a wild ride. And what's uh what's been going on? Like what's the biggest challenge? That you're trying to tackle. What do you want to talk about? Sure, yeah. My question coming in was how to be an effective leader during an industry change, which I think everyone is experiencing that. Just a blanket statement, an entire industry change. Of course, we're in software, so we're seeing a ton of change with AI that's coming in with the software development side.

2:05 Yeah. You know, Dave Dave likes to say people don't Dislike change. When it's Better.

2:15 That's a good way to say it. You know, like I'm gonna get a new car. That's change. That's great change. That's right. But What they're excited about is that new car. Right. So when you're talking to your team about All of this AI stuff and and how it

2:31 Seems like it can do some people's jobs. Right. What vision are you casting for the team About the future and it being better than than today's reality. Definitely turning more into a product company. And so we've been service for so long where folks walk through the door, we finish that product for them and then they're back out the door, right? And so instead we're looking at partnering with clients, um, having more of a you know, a revenue service that continues licensing software. Um that would be a big change for the company.

3:01 And then of course for our team members just the knowledge that they're not going to be replaced. Yeah. Our big thing is that you are an expert. You're good at what you do. AI can only make you that much better. Um it's just going to equip you to be the best you can be. And so that's kind of where we've come to we can't Blanket statement. The industry, obviously, we don't always see around the corner, but as far as my team is concerned, they're really good at what they do and I just want them to be comfortable that they're not going anywhere. Yeah, we we talk to our team, we say, Hey, AI's not gonna take your job. Right. But somebody that learns how to use it might must be open to change.

3:39 So what specifically is it about leading through this change that you that you wanna do better or you feel like, you know, you're seeing some things that you want to improve on? I do feel and of course I think everyone deals with this at some point, um We're reacting as fast as the changes are coming. And so I can put some things on the board and I can say let's go get it but Being able to effectively communicate the confidence level

4:05 Of the vision. They aren't confident if I'm not confident, right? And so to be able to know how to instruct them on, you know, you you do need to be motivated to go see what's around the corner and and you should probably be educating I can only do that to some extent. We do have um workshops that we do or w we know we'll have every other quarter we'll do some training events, but would love for the team to be motivated that way themselves. And that's

4:34 That's only something I can preach so long, right? It's it still has to happen, but um Like I said, I do think that they can be Irreplaceable if they're Like you mentioned, motivated themselves to change and to learn. Yeah. You know, I think about

4:49 The advancements in in AI and the The rate at which it's happening. A lot changes every other quarter. Absolutely. That's every six months. It's literally a different training session every quarter. Every quarter. Yeah. If I came to your office and I observed what was going on, what would I see That is concerning to you. Just observably. My teams work on very different things.

5:16 I have some teams that can be all out AI. They're able to be on the forefront of everything. I have teams that are on projects that are very old school. Very traditional. Um it it's very much Client based. Um And at that point

5:32 I can motivate them to, you know, why don't you go look at it at some point. Um but if they have a A project that's been so traditional and so ingrained in that, you know, old way of doing software. Uh that's concerning to me, right? You know, I And I can't necessarily change the projects they're on. You know, that's the work we have and so we want to keep that going. Um but that's

5:54 If you were to walk into my office, you know, you would see Teams of people working on very different software approaches. And so as we go forward, would love to see everybody come up to speed, be more on the forefront. Yeah. That may not be realistic, but I I would like it. That would be my dream. And how are you how are you talking about that to the team? Dream, right? Or vision. Yes. You have this mental image.

6:19 Of the whole team. Yes. Regardless of the different projects we are all doing development the same way. Because we know you know we all get on the same page. We're gonna move a lot faster, we're interchangeable. Um Yeah, talk about that a little bit. I would love for it to be collaborative. One of the things we talk about is that You know, if we're able to do software faster than we've ever been able to produce it before, we can spend more time on

6:45 On the things that are polish oriented or the fun stuff. You know, things that are more um user friendly. We have the user experience we talk about. Our devs are creative and they have great things they could bring to the table but historically they've not been able to just because of timelines, budget, the normal thing. And so as we're seeing um AI with its capabilities and they're speeding up those processes. Um we're actually changing to fixed bid approaches. You know, we've never been able to do that before. It was always time and materials for us. Right. And so now I'm I am encouraging them to be like, this should be something where once you've delivered early within a project, we can go back to that client and say, What are the bells and whistles? You know, where are you seeing your dream really come to reality that maybe in the past they had to cut out just because of timeline or budget and so

7:33 I again The dream is there, right? It's it's all good. It sounds good. Um but they're also watching LinkedIn layoffs and that's always, you know, it's on the other other side of their mind, for sure. For sure. We'll get right back to our episode, but first Your team is worth every dollar you invest in them. And behind payroll, healthcare is one of the biggest expenses that businesses have. That's why I want to tell you about Christian healthcare ministries.

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8:42 One of their representatives will walk you through your options and help determine whether the group's program is a good fit for your specific situation. go to ch ministries dot org slash entree or call one eight hundred join chm. Now? Let's get back to the episode. So when you say the dream is there.

9:02 Wh where is there? Well, with my team we're both um in person and remote. I have Team members all over the United States, which is awesome. I love it. But I'm in Tulsa and we have an office there of about 15 to 20. And so When I talk to my folks, I'm usually talking to my C suite. And then they go out and they're in different

9:20 departments, right? And so I know that I've got folks who talk about the dream a lot and I've got Folks who probably don't talk about it as much and that's okay. Yeah. It's just different. Ind individuals, different personalities. Um I do feel like my in office people they get it more often. Yeah. You know, they they're just around more. We collaborate a lot more in person. It's easier. Um for the remote team members, like I said, we try to host the training events. So we'll do um

9:46 We'll do our remote events. We have a lunch and learn where everybody gets on Zoom and we have somebody go over a project they're working on and um How often are they hearing directly from you. From me? Yes. I would say Once a quarter. We always send out the quarterly newsletter and I'm the one that voices that. I'm the author on that. Okay. If we have any other big uh company updates, I'll be the one to to kinda give it and send it out to everybody. Right. Um and so

10:11 They would know me, you know, I would be a voice that was heard. Sure. But not as much as their project manager. Not as much as their direct manager. Yeah. I think you know In times of of accelerated change or or volatility or whatever The value of communication from you as the leader goes up. Mm. So I hear what you're saying about the quarterlies and the you know, hearing about projects

10:35 But just hearing your heart. on a regular basis because How often are they hearing about AI? Every day, every second, yeah. Right. So you think about the level of noise that is out there.

10:49 And then the level of your voice. I think we want to bring the level of you your voice up. Okay. So that they hear your heart. Uh you know, we're not we don't want to lay people off. Right, right. You know, you can you can win in this new world with AI but you have to be willing to grow with it and whatever I'm not trying to that's good, yeah. Write that down. I'm not trying to put those words in your mouth, but whatever

11:14 You have to say about this. Every week. Wow, that's amazing. Yes. And I mean that's a thousand people and a lot of payroll. And it's a big investment. Yes. But it it's worth it. Okay. You know?

11:30 And not every week is it the the exact same thing, right? Sometimes it's the kind of stuff that you talked about. The updates about projects or whatever, but I'm just thinking In this And this reality that we're in, the world that we're living in.

11:46 With the acceleration of technology Hearing from you. Hearing Being reminded of what our mission really is and what What the vision is, which is just the mental picture of what it looks like. To be winning at our mission five years from today. Three to five years from today. That's good. You can't overdo that. Okay. You can't overdo that.

12:04 You hear yourself. And you really get sick of hearing yourself. You are starting to say it enough. Okay. Gotta get sick of hearing yourself say it, got it. And then the other thing And let me just say I haven't always gotten this right. Fact, I recently got this wrong. So wh while it's fresh on my mind I'll and I'll uh I'll bring it up. When we think of change

12:26 You're gonna have Three groups of people. You're gonna kinda have a bell curve. Yeah. You're gonna have a small group of people on the front end of the bell curve. that are just on fire for where you wanna go. Then you're gonna have the bulk of people in the middle. And the people in the middle, they're a little unsure. They're not they're not hard poor, they're not hard against.

12:49 And then you're gonna have the r resistors, the laggers. Mm-hmm. And if you're like most leaders, and this is your first question, how do you lead through this? If you're like most leaders, those people that aren't getting the message, That are kind of digging their heels in. They bother you the most. Sure. That's what you think about. You're like why can't they see it? It could be so much better. We could all be using the same approach. Yeah. We could all go so faster. We could work on the fun stuff. All the things you said, right. Sure. Don't you feel that way when you get in these conversations? Sure, sure.

13:21 The problem is As leaders we tend to Put so much energy. Yeah. All these people that are in the middle, they're watching where you put your energy. That's good.

13:33 Yeah. So don't forget the people That are easy. Right. That are that are with you.

13:41 Yeah. They need your attention and your recognition and your celebration. As much or more now than ever before. Because this massive people in the middle of the bell curve. Yes. That's where their eyes will go. That's good. They'll see your attention and their attention will follow it.

13:59 And that's you you want to pull them with those nerves. Uh that's kind of if you think about this whole thing, think about that framework and on these calls, uh the emails uh that that you're gonna increase the frequency on. Thank you. Celebrate those folks. Okay call them out. Catch people doing the right thing. Yep. And and show the rest of the team like this is what winning looks like. Where we're all right, I like it. That's great, yeah. This is who we are. Yes. You think you could do that? I think so. That sounds excellent. I think you could do that. Can absolutely do that. Thanks for hanging out with us today. Thank you for having me, I so appreciate it.

14:39 When there's a lot of change going on, your team will look to you. for how to respond. If you're not out front communicating what's going on, they're going to freak out. They're going to jump to the worst possible conclusions. You need to be sharing your vision. Sharing your values.

14:56 As loudly and often As possible. over communication. is an oxymoron, there's no such thing. But like Emily, you might be struggling with changes in your business. You might have as many questions as your team.

15:10 And It's just as important to have people speaking into your life too. And that's why we have an entire team of entree leadership coaches to talk through. what's happening in your business and figure out the next right step. Just like John did for Emily.

15:27 Just click the link in the description to schedule a free 30-minute consultation call. And since we're on the subject, let's talk AI. This is a big topic of conversation in business right now. We sat down with AI expert James Poulter at our leadership summit conference and what he had to say about the future of business and AI was a lot more hopeful. than most people think.

15:51 You can watch that conversation. by clicking this next video. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to share and subscribe for more real world leadership content. I'm your host Dave Ramsey. And this is entree leadership.