AI isn’t a tech problem for leaders, it is a change management problem
How to lead AI change, what 10x (actually) means, the 6 archetypes you will lead (and how to manage them), and your 30-day AI leadership sprint plan (start now)
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AI isn’t a tech problem for leaders, it is a change management problem.
Welcome to this special issue of the Level Up Newsletter based on new bonus material from the Stuck at Senior Manager - How to Break Through to Executive live online course. This is the first release of this bonus content outside of the course. If you are interested in the full version of this content in lecture form, as well as the rest of the insights from my 4.7-star rated course, sign up for the July or October cohort here.
While the original course content is as relevant as ever, I wanted to add a more timely element into the material as well. While I never faced AI as a challenge in my leadership career, my career now is teaching leaders how to thrive. I cannot do this without considering how drastically leadership will change as a result of AI, and what will stay the same despite that change.
I have spent the last few months learning about AI from courses, articles, and experts in my network so that I could develop guidance for my readers on how they can continue (or begin) to lead in 2025 and beyond.
The guidance that I have put together is in the newsletter below.
AI Adoption is Easy, Useful AI Adoption is Hard
The easy part of AI is adopting to be more productive or efficient. This includes the basics, with which many of us are familiar: summarizing documents and meetings, writing code, drafting emails, researching questions, etc.
At this point, using AI for these purposes is baseline.
Anyone not doing this is severely behind.
However, this is only level one. While efficiency is a prerequisite for leadership today, it is not the same as impact. Impact is the key metric, and leaders will need to use AI to create significant, novel impact in order to stand out.
The real challenge for leaders won’t simply be getting their teams to “use AI,” it will be getting their teams to find useful, strategic, and transformational applications of AI. In other words, the defining factor for a good leader will be the ability to use AI to build net-new offerings, reduce previously inevitable costs, or significantly improve profit margins in some way.
The successful leader in the age of AI will use it to 10x leverage, not just 10x productivity.
To be successful, you must become the leader who says, "We are going to adopt AI in ways that drive meaningful change in the business."
And you must become that leader now.
Try out Ethan Evans AI (EthanGPT) to get 24/7 on-demand personalized executive coaching. We also created a getting started document to help you maximize usage.
Lead the Change or Lose Control
