Latest / Daily Influence / 652. From AI as Tool to AI as Teammate: Why Leadership Must Evolve as Technology Joins the Team

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652. From AI as Tool to AI as Teammate: Why Leadership Must Evolve as Technology Joins the Team · Daily Influence

• 0:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: Welcome to Daily Influence, your daily dose of positive influence.
• 0:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm Brian Smith founder of IA Business Advisors and co-author of the Iain team series.
• 0:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: Each day we share stories and insights to help you find be and build your influence in a positive and responsible way.
• 0:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm Greg Clino, partner at IE Business Advisors, and co-host of Daily Influence.
• 0:32
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• 0:39
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• 0:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: Hey everybody, Brian Smith here with the I&T series and your daily influence, and today I'm going to tackle a kind of a heavy subject for a lot of us.
• 0:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: Most of us have been dealing with this rapid, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy
• 1:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: talked about AI a little bit in the past, but I'm going to talk about it from a different perspective today.
• 1:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: One from thinking of AI is becoming more than a tool, but now it's become almost like a
• 1:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: I go through our organization, I go through our clients' organizations and what I am beginning to see is everybody from talk to bottom is interacting with and using AI in one format or another.
• 1:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: And it's here and you know how we address that as leaders is really important.
• 1:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: And it really does need to be defined how leadership needs to evolve into this as, you know, really what is happening to this really new level technologies joining our team.
• 2:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, we've always treated technology as something we use.
• 2:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: And AI is totally changing this dynamic.
• 2:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: it is just thrown you know a monkey wrench into it.
• 2:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't just execute.
• 2:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: AI doesn't just give us results back like numbers, you know, collective numbers, manipulating numbers.
• 2:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now it's recommending it's prioritizing, it's predicting, it's actually nudging our behavior and how we as humans
• 2:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: for things.
• 2:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that means that it is influencing.
• 2:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's influencing decisions.
• 2:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's influencing our workflows.
• 2:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: And it's influencing outcome.
• 2:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: And it's no longer this question of how do we use AI?
• 2:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's how do we lead when influence is shared with a non-human teammate?
• 3:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: That can be scary.
• 3:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: I know it is for me.
• 3:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: We have created use rules here at IA for AI.
• 3:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: You don't just ask it to write things, you don't just ask it to do wholesale things.
• 3:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: You do the work and you use AI as a tool to help you understand what you've done a little better, maybe better English, better formatting, better context or ask different questions.
• 3:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: But if we don't take that approach as leaders in our own organizations, if we don't consciously
• 3:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: In our areas of influence, AI will silently begin to define its own view.
• 3:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: It will take over and create a lead-based behavior in the humans that are using it the way they are.
• 3:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: So it's really important that we as leaders.
• 3:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: understand how it's being used by ourselves and our teammates and define what limitations we want used for it.
• 4:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: I provide something also that is a challenge for us as leaders and as humans for that matter is there's some psychological safety and we are building trust in a system and the
• 4:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: do I really want to trust AI to do the work for my humans and the other thing is is if it does too much work, how fearful will people be?
• 4:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: The questions that are starting to be asked in our organizations, you know, will I be replaced?
• 4:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, my judgment still matter and you know, who's accountable?
• 4:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: Me or the AI?
• 4:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: And we're going to have to be facing these things.
• 4:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: behavior and the psychological foundation of the humans who are leaning into AI.
• 4:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's why as leaders, we really need to set how that interface is going to happen.
• 5:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: How far do you really want your teams to go?
• 5:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: That means we have to decide, you know, what can AI decide and what humans must decide?
• 5:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: being very specific from a smart management perspective and what that means.
• 5:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: Teaching teams how to actually use and communicate with AI.
• 5:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: So not just blindly take what it says, but challenge what it says, ask it questions that include context, that include background information, that include the things that AI could never know unless it's fed to it.
• 5:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: And then
• 5:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: reinforcing with your team members and with yourself that accountability stays with the human.
• 5:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: Even if insights are machine generated, the human must differentiate and the human must understand what is happening and stay in control of that data.
• 5:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: Because without this guidance, without this accountability in the use of AI, clarity can become clouded.
• 6:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: trust will erode quietly, not only trust from a leadership perspective, but trust down the line through your organization.
• 6:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: And then, you know, performance is going to follow because if people can interact with these tools the right way, the performance, not just the efficiency of getting information, but how our organizations are trusted, how we can be consistent in that continuing work that
• 6:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: different humans interacting with AI differently get different results.
• 6:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: And those different results can create inconsistencies in your own organization either internally or as a delivery to your client base.
• 6:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: This takes us to the core of where we've ended up here at the I&Tem series, which is responsible influence.
• 6:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: And
• 6:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: Responsible influence is one of our defining leadership skills.
• 7:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: So look, AI can amplify what already it means to be a leader.
• 7:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: It can be a tool that helps us move into higher levels of performance better presentation.
• 7:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: asking better questions, challenging ourselves to learn deeper and learn slower, but it needs to be clearly separated from what's clear, what's chaos, what's intention, what's reaction.
• 7:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: And if we don't supply in our interaction with AI,
• 7:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: clear goals, those defined values, and feedback loops that hold us accountable to what we're using AI4, that what AI will do is accelerate chaos, accelerate confusion, and it can also accelerate inconsistency and irresponsibility.
• 7:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: So be sure to apply your smart communication
• 8:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: Ask for those measurements, understand attainability and give clarity and give context to the AI system so that when it gives you something back, it too can understand attainability relevance, make sure that what is being discussed back and forth in these environments and with other humans is relative and relevant to.
• 8:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: whatever the topic is, and challenge timeliness.
• 8:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: Make sure we have these clear objectives also so that we know that we're being intentional to what needs to be done.
• 8:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: We need AI to be a teammate.
• 8:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's still a piece of technology.
• 8:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: A teammate that can be relied on and to be controlled by us.
• 8:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: AI shouldn't be taking over.
• 8:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: So that means that judgment stays what the human can be supported by, but the judgment stays what the human so accountability can feel good for us here.
• 8:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: Look, the future isn't about choosing humans or AI, I think AI is here for good, but it's about leaders who can orchestrate both with responsibility, transparency,
• 9:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: intention, how we will use AI, how we will lean into it, but how it is still a tool and a tool and a teammate, a tool and a teammate for us to use in our areas of influence.
• 9:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: I hope you will think deeper about your use of AI, how your teams use it, and how we will control that use within your
• 9:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: Hope you've enjoyed today's episode of Daily Influence, I look forward to talking to you again.