Latest / Chatting with The Experts with Paula Okonneh / AI, The Leadership Advantage

Transcript

AI, The Leadership Advantage · Chatting with The Experts with Paula Okonneh

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  Hello, and welcome to another episode of Chatting With the Experts where I speak
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  with women experts from Africa, from the Caribbean, and in the diaspora who
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  share my mission, which is to educate, empower, and encourage women globally.
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  Today's topic is
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  From Fear to Fluency: Why Learning AI Is the New Leadership Advantage.
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  My guest, who will join me in a minute, says AI is no
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  longer a future conversation.
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  She says it's already shaping how we work, lead communication, and grow.
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  And she's gonna explore why the fear of AI is understandable
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  but no longer sustainable.
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  She's a business transformation strategist.
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  She's an executive coach, speaker, author, and the founder of VWH Consulting, and
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  she's had over 35 years of experience in technology, leadership, organizational
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  change, where she helps executives and organizations lead through disruption,
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  strengthen performance, and prepare their people for the future of work.
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  There's so much more I can say about her, but what I'll do
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  is let her do that herself.
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  And with that, I want to welcome Dr. Vicki Wright Hamilton to the show.
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  Welcome to the show.
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  Welcome.
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  Thank you so much.
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  It's my pleasure to be here.
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  Thank you for saying yes.
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  I don't take that for granted.
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  Wow.
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  You said-
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  No, I'm the one, I'm the one that's honored.
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  Thank you.
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  Oh, thank you, Dr. Vicki.
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  You say that the fear of AI is real, but avoidance-… is risky.
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  Let's delve…
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  yeah
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  … into that because, yes, AI is here, and we hear about it every day, and there's
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  so many people whose heart, whose hearts are in their hand when they hear about AI.
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  So let's talk about that.
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  One of the things I like to bring as an analogy to put all of your
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  audience at ease, because it's something we all can relate to.
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  Decades ago, hundreds of years ago, how do we get transportation?
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  Through wagons and horses.
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  Today, we have electric cars.
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  Today, we have cars that drive themselves.
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  So what has happened is technology has evolved.
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  I think we all can agree to that.
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  When technology evolved from the wagons and the horses to the cars that drive
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  themselves, it changed the behavior of how we operate, how we work,
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  how we get around, and what we do.
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  AI is no different.
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  AI is a technology tool enabler.
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  It is to help you.
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  So what we have to do is, we can ignore it, but it's gonna impact our lives,
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  and we can take it as simple as I wanna call my bank and get an answer.
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  You get a chatbot.
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  What's a chatbot?
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  That recording that comes on that says, "Oh, I'm intelligent enough to help you.
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  What do you have a question with?
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  Oh, I can direct your call.
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  I can answer this.
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  I can answer that." The evolution of technology. You interface with it
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  whether you like it or not. Now, we can keep our head underneath the covers
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  and say, "I don't wanna know about AI.
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  Don't talk to me about AI." "I don't like technology.
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  I don't embrace technology.
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  I hate technology." But if you don't embrace it, technology's gonna do it
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  to you rather than you understanding how to use it and leverage it.
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  So I think it's important that no matter where we are in our life, no
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  matter how young we may be or how older and wise and matured we may be, we're
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  going to touch it every single day.
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  And so we need to understand it because it's not gospel.
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  It's not like this thing that's oh my God, it's gonna control everything.
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  It's an enabler to help you.
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  The hype around AI is all because of the excitement of the capability.
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  No different than the hype of a car driving itself or
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  going to an electric car.
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  From a wagon to a horse was, "Oh my gosh, we don't have
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  to take 15 days to get there.
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  We can get there in an hour."
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  So it's no different in terms of the hype and excitement.
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  The challenge is we've allowed that hype and excitement to set the biggest thing
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  that can be against us, which is fear.
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  I'm going to let it scare me, not embrace it.
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  I love that.
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  I love that.
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  We're going to let it scare us and not embrace us.
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  Because, fear is so easy to replicate.
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  You start with one person.
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  Remember, there was a game we used to play.
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  you tell somebody something, and you whisper it, and by the time it comes
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  around to you, it's completely different.
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  Telephone Game.
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  Yep.
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  Yes, Telephone Game.
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  Yeah.
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  Yes.
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  And so that's why another thing you spoke about was that AI fluency's
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  actually a leadership advantage, right?
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  Yes.
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  So AI fluency is a leadership advantage because AI is affecting every single
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  individual that you lead, that you guide, every organization you try
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  to embrace their business strategy to take them to the next level
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  and to reach the goals they have.
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  So the deal is leadership is no longer absent of that AI.
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  We have to recognize that AI is disrupting.
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  No different than the covered wagon to the electric, we had
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  disruption when we got the cars.
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  So as an example, I live in Atlanta, Georgia.
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  They have a lot of the cars for Uber that have no driver
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  that come by and pick you up.
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  There are a number of people like, "You bring one of those cars to
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  my house, I'm not getting in it.
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  I don't trust it.
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  I don't like it.
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  I'm not getting in it.
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  Don't ask me to get in that car.
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  I do need transportation.
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  I do need somebody to get me from point A to point B, but I don't trust
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  that car." And what's happened is that leadership, that's a disruption.
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  So leadership has disruption in the workforce just like we have disruption
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  when I wanted transportation.
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  So because of that, the people that we are guiding and that we are leading,
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  technology as a tool is not human.
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  It's not emotions.
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  It's not human.
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  It's not that human interaction.
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  It's not building that relationship with a human So when people are
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  involved, they still are human.
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  They need the hugs.
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  They need the love.
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  They need the reinforcement.
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  They need the conversations.
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  They need to embrace each other of being able to talk to one another.
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  That's not what this machine is gonna do.
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  Now, you can create a agent to be your friend, to have conversations with you.
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  You can do all that, but it's not the feeling.
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  It's not the humanistic, scientific feeling.
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  It is a thing feeling.
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  It is a machine feeling.
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  So as long as you are leading people, and people are worried about these
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  machines taking over their lives, you now as a leader have to understand
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  it so that you can counter it.
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  You have to embrace it so that you can leverage it, and so you have to understand
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  it so you can help others to know this machine is not human like you are.
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  This machine is only as good as we train it.
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  If I train it to be crooked, it's gonna be crooked.
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  If I train it to be bad, it's gonna be bad.
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  But I can only train it to do certain task, the mundane things to take off of
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  your plate Now let the truth be told, humans would like that mundane thing I
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  have to do every single day to go away.
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  But I don't want you to replace my job of the parts I think about, the brains
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  I have to use, the strategies I have to think about, the ways I have to invent.
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  I don't want you to take that away from me because now you're taking away my ability
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  to think and to grow and to be a person.
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  So leadership means I have to help you see things differently so that
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  I can help you learn and grow, still grow on the trajectory of moving
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  forward, but embracing some of these things that are gonna help you do it
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  quicker, faster, easier, and cheaper while you're growing so that you begin
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  to embrace it and not be afraid of it because you don't understand it.
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  Got you.
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  So you, in other words, are saying that leaders need to be able to lead their
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  people in a way that they understand.
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  There's a big difference between embracing AI to help in productivity
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  and knowing that AI is there to help, not to replace you, but to enable you.
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  That's correct.
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  It's an enabler.
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  It is here to enable you.
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  It is here to help you.
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  It is not a replacement.
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  replacement It replace task, not people.
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  And so what happens is, here's why it gets disconnected.
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  If I am a person that does a repetitive task and AI comes in to replace that
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  task, we automatically associate it with replacing that person.
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  'Cause now I don't need that person to do that task.
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  But leadership that truly embraces this says, "Hey, wait a minute. You have
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  graduated." Just like we do in school, from grade school to middle school
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  to high school to college to trade school to military, whatever we do.
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  We graduate.
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  So you have graduated from doing this mundane task that now this
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  tool's gonna come in to do.
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  We're going to help you graduate to the next class and enable skill sets for the
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  next thing you're gonna be enabled to do.
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  Here's where we go wrong.
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  They go, "Oh, I got that AI.
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  It's gonna do that task.
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  I don't need that person doing that mundane thi- the maintenance and
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  doing the monotonous thing anymore.
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  I'm gonna cut that person."
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  " Bye.
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  I don't have to pay for you anymore." They're not thinking about intellectual
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  property walking out that door.
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  Yes.
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  They're not thinking about the asset walking out that door.
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  They're not thinking about how when that person was doing that, they
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  learned information nobody else knows.
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  Knows.
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  Let me take that person and now graduate them from that- task
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  and enable them for the next one.
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  So let me train them on the next one.
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  That is what I call the leadership gap.
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  And I wrote a tool, a process, about this leadership gap, because we're not doing
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  ourself justice, because we're not willing to train and enable the next capability.
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  Instead, we're willing to say, "That saved me a dollar. Let's go. Bye."
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  Got you.
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  So you wrote a tool, but that's part of what, I think that's
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  called change management.
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  How do we…
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  how is that put across the organization?
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  Because a lot of businesses are in business to make money, to improve
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  that bottom line, to make a profit.
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  How many of them are really willing to sit down and look at the individual
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  and say, "I see you as a person.
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  I know that AI has come in.
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  I know that your task is being, replaced by this AI that's doing that
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  repetitive task, but I see you, and I see what else you have been doing
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  apart from this repetitive task.
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  And I can, as you say, graduate you.
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  I can move you up into something else." How many people, how
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  many organizations see that?
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  Let me say this to you and mark my words, whether I'm living here to
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  see it one day or not, those that are successful are the ones that will do it.
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  Those that don't, they're gonna pay a heavy price for it.
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  Period.
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  And that is why there's so much conversation about this,
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  'cause we don't have a lot of companies who are doing that.
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  We don't.
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  We have a lot of companies saying, you say we're in business to make money.
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  I have my own business too.
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  But I would rather have AI go and do my repetitive task on my calendar and ask
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  my executive assistant that's working for me, "I need you to go write a proposal.
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  I need you to go attend this meeting.
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  I need you to go build these relationships with these individuals
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  that's gonna bring some money in here." "That's what I need you to go
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  do." That's relationship building.
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  So I'd rather train you to go do that than to go do this on my calendar.
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  But I have to see the value, and companies are not looking at
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  the total spectrum of the value.
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  Now, why did that happen?
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  And that's not all their fault.
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  And here's what I mean by not being all their fault.
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  The hype and the words that have been spread about AI.
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  Oh, it's gonna do that repetitive task and it's gonna save you $100 a month.
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  And they go, "Oh, I could save expenses, save $100 a month. I
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  wanna do that." Any business owner is trying to reduce expenses.
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  But because they gave you the hype of the savings, what they did not do is
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  tell you what's gonna happen if you lose.
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  If you don't leverage it and you just do this side, and you don't
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  think about the growth and you don't think about the opportunities,
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  this is where you're gonna end up.
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  So right now, we have major corporations that are not thinking like this.
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  And then the CEOs and the CIOs and the SVPs sitting around, "How come
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  we didn't get all the value we said we were gonna get out of this?"
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  Duh, you're not leveraging the assets that were there to help you
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  so that you can maintain that value.
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  Instead, you heard the hype that AI can reduce this.
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  True fact, it does.
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  Can it reduce those mundane tasks where you can reduce money?
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  Absolutely.
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  But does that mean that you're not looking at the next thing
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  for where that growth is coming?
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  You're upskilling your people.
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  You're giving them capabilities so that they can move to the next thing so that
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  you're not having to start from scratch.
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  'Cause here's what we do know, Paula
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  Every time we replace a position, it costs us mega dollars.
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  I don't care.
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  Talk to anybody who's gonna be honest.
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  You have all the knowledge, you walk out the door.
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  You've been here five years, you know how we work, you know the culture, you
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  know the insides, you know the outs, you know everything we do, right?
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  And you could be the mail handler.
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  You could be the person that comes in and does certain tasks that are repetitive.
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  You could be that person.
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  But you learn about the business along the way as you were involved, right?
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  So what happens is you leave.
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  I still need a task done, but I gotta go hire somebody.
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  So the time between somebody comes in- Yes … that work isn't getting done.
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  Yes.
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  Then to hire somebody in, now they come in, they gotta get up to speed.
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  There's a time period they're gonna be here.
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  They're still not giving any, they're not giving up to speed
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  because they gotta learn.
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  All of that's a price tag.
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  I want you to take that price tag and compare it to the price tag of what you
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  save because you did that repetitive task.
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  Yes.
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  We don't do comparisons like that.
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  Don't you-
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  So who is talking to the CEOs?
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  Who is talking to the CFOs?
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  Who is conveying those crucial methods that saying yes.
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  It's a balance.
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  It's a scale, so what you lose on one side, you haven't made up on
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  the other side, so you've lost.
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  Who is having that conversation?
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  I'll tell any company who wants to have that conversation,
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  here's my contact number.
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  Call me.
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  Thank you.
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  You know, we can have that conversation.
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  How about that?
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  But what I will say is that you have a lot of reputable research firms.
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  You've got the big six firms.
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  You got a lot of people who are starting to have these engaging
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  conversations and talking to leaders to try to help them to understand some
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  of the things that need to be done.
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  What I will say is there's not enough of the conversations happening,
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  and it has to be at all levels.
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  we have companies at every level.
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  We got small size companies.
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  We got medium size companies.
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  We got enterprise-wide companies.
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  Everybody needs, I don't care how small you are or how big you are,
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  everybody needs it on a sliding scale.
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  There's not one who's exempt from it, that should not be having
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  these kinds of conversations.
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  And so what I will say is there are businesses out
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  there to support all levels.
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  Now, I work with some big companies, some big corporations.
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  I work with mini size companies.
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  I work with small size companies.
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  Because the framework of the conversation is the same.
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  It may be different in terms of the application of certain steps
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  that are applicable to their size, but the framework is the same.
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  So we have to begin not to be afraid as leaders in companies to bring this up.
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  If you are an executive or a leader or someone who's working with people
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  in your organization, you need to be in an environment where you can
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  bring these conversations up, to at least begin to talk about them.
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  And what that means is the people in the organizations that have the power
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  of influence, and let me tell you, the power of influence is not just by a title.
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  You do not have to have a title to have a power of influence.
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  But it's the ability to be able to talk in terms that the company, the
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  board, everybody can understand.
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  So we're not having the conversation as much as we need to.
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  There's a lot of publications out there.
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  There's a lot of firms out there doing research, et cetera.
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  So what I would say is not so much how many of us are having the
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  conversation, as I would say how many of us in that conversation on the
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  receiving end are willing to listen?
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  Key point.
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  Key point.
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  So it's not a lack of conversation, this is more the listening problem.
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  Application.
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  Because after then you listen, then you gotta apply it, right?
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  So there are steps to follow.
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  Oh my gosh.
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  Dr. Vicki, I could continue talking with you, but I'm looking at time.
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  Now, for those, as you said earlier on, you are willing to have a conversation
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  with those who need to have it.
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  Can you tell them how to get in touch with you, Dr. Vicki?
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  The one beautiful thing is all my socials are by the same
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  @Vicki, V-I-C-K-I, WHamilton.
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  Every single one of them, whether you're on LinkedIn, whether you're
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  on Facebook, Instagram, whether you're on Twitter, whether you're
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  on YouTube, it doesn't matter.
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  It's just the same you can also reach out to me, on my website at Vicki,
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  V-I-C-K-I, Wright, W-R-I-G-H-T, Hamilton, H-A-M-I-L-T-O-N.com.
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  Set up a discovery call with me.
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  You can book it right there on the site.
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  Let's have a conversation.
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  Let's talk because I believe that the more we talk about this and have
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  the right conversations with the right people, and they're willing
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  to listen, we'll change the world.
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  But right now, we're going through a lot of chaos.
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  We are going through that storming period of something disruptive and new
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  because people don't understand it, but more importantly because some people
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  are not willing to listen and hear it.
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  As we get more leaders in organizations, I don't care whether it's private,
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  public, non-profit, it doesn't matter.
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  Everybody needs to be willing to have a conversation to listen, to understand,
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  so that therefore they have the knowledge to make the appropriate decisions rather
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  than making these decisions and then now we're reading articles and saying, "Why
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  are CEOs saying they're losing money on AI?" I can answer that question for you.
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  Why you were losing it years ago and why you losing it now.
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  We've got to be willing to have the hard conversations.
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  Because disruption means growth, but growth can come with chaos if
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  you don't approach it correctly.
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  So please reach out.
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  I'd love to have a conversation with anybody who wants to talk about
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  the trajectory of this, 'cause one thing's a- sure, AI's not going away,
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  just like a car, from a, a wagon and a horse to a car didn't go away.
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  It just continued to evolve.
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  As she said, AI is not going away, just like
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  the internet didn't go away.
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  Here we are.
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  Here we are.
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  Remember, everybody remembers, you and me.
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  Yep,
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  the internet boom.
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  Yep.
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  So here we are.
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  And as I promised you, I said, my guests empower, educate, and empower
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  women and, encourage women globally.
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  So if you'd like to be a guest just like Dr. Vicki Hamilton has been on this show,
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  please reach out to me on my website, which is chattingwiththeexperts.com.
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  I'm also on LinkedIn as Paula Okonneh or on my business page,
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  which is Chatting With Experts.
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  I'm also on Instagram.
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  My handle there is
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  @chat_experts_podcast.
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  And we have a YouTube channel.
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  Please subscribe to that channel to hear more conversations like this.
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  Dr. Vicki Hamilton's episode will be out there very soon, and
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  there'll be others similar to her.
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  And now, Dr. Vicki Hamilton, let's open up the floor to all who joined
• 22:39
  us so that we can continue with this very engaging conversation, because
• 22:44
  as you said, disruptions are here to stay, but it's how we handle it.
• 22:49
  Because human beings, AI may be here to stay, but human beings are also,
• 22:54
  they've been here since way before time, and we're not going anywhere.
• 22:58
  Or are we?
• 22:59
  No, we aren't.
• 23:01
  I thought as much.
• 23:02
  Thank you so much for being a guest on Chatting With The Experts.
• 23:06
  Thank you, and I'm looking forward to having conversations with your audience.
• 23:10
  They're here.
• 23:11
  Thank you.