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

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey guys, I really need your help with something. I want you to shape what comes next for the Entree Leadership Show by participating in our 2026 audience study. Text survey to 33789 to get the link or go to ramsysolutions.com slash survey. Once you've completed the survey, you can enter for a chance to win a standard ticket to Entree Leadership Summit 2027. The survey closes September 30th. If there's one thing you can count on in business, it's change, especially with things

Starting point is 00:00:44 like AI on the rise. That's what Emily Garner was facing when she sat down with Entree Leadership's head coach, John Falcons, 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, 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 to keep their teams from spiraling.

Starting point is 00:01:23 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 y'all are doing. Sure. So my company is Fivepack and we create apps. We're a software company.

Starting point is 00:01:36 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 been going on? Like, what's the biggest challenge that you're trying to tackle? What do you want to talk about?

Starting point is 00:01:47 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 blanket statement, an entire industry change. Of course, we're in software, so we're seeing a ton of change with AI that's going in with the software development side, which I still. Which I still think is exciting, but a lot of folks are finding scary. Yeah. You know, Dave, Dave likes to say people don't dislike change when it's better. That's a good way to say it.

Starting point is 00:02:16 You know, like, I'm going to get a new car. That's change. That's great change. That's great. 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 how it seems like it can do some people's jobs. Right.

Starting point is 00:02:33 What vision are you casting for the team about the future and it being better than today's reality? Definitely turning more into a product company. And so we've been serviced for so long where folks walk through the door, we finished that product for them, and then they're back out the door, right? And so instead we're looking at partnering with clients, having more of a revenue service that continues licensing software. That would be a big change for the company. And then, of course, for our team members, just the, the business. knowledge that they're not going to be replaced. Our big thing is that you are an expert.

Starting point is 00:03:07 You're good at what you do. AI can only make you that much better. 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.

Starting point is 00:03:28 Yeah, we talked to our team. We say, hey, AI is not going to take your job. Right. but somebody that learns how to use it. Yes, you must be open to change. You've got to be open to change, right? So what specifically is it about leading through this change that you want to do better or you feel like,

Starting point is 00:03:46 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, 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 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 do need to be motivated to go see what's around the corner and you should probably be educating. I can only do that to some extent.

Starting point is 00:04:22 We do have workshops that we do or, you know, we'll have every other quarter. or we'll do some training events, but would love for the team to be motivated that way themselves. And that's only something I can preach so long, right? It still has to happen. But like I said, I do think that they can be irreplaceable if they're, like you mentioned, motivated themselves to change and to learn.

Starting point is 00:04:47 Yeah. You know, I think about the advancements in AI and the rate at which it's happening. It's so fast. A lot changes every other quarter. Absolutely. That's every six months. It's literally a different training session.

Starting point is 00:05:02 Every quarter. It's changed again, yes. 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. I have some teams that can be all out AI.

Starting point is 00:05:20 They're able to be on the forefront of everything. I have teams that are on projects that are very old school, very traditional. It's very much client-based. And at that point, I can motivate them to, you know, why don't you go look at it at some point. But if they have a project that's been so traditional and so ingrained in that, you know, old way of doing software,

Starting point is 00:05:44 that's concerning to me, right? You know, 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. But that's, 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, we would love to see everybody come up to speed, be more on the forefront. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:06:06 That may not be realistic, but I would like it. That would be my dream. And how are you talking about that to the team? Let's just use that word dream, right? Or vision. Yes. You have this mental image of the whole team. Yes.

Starting point is 00:06:20 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 going to move a lot faster. We're interchangeable. 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,

Starting point is 00:06:43 we can spend more times on the things that are polish-oriented or the fun stuff, you know, things that are more user-friendly. We have the user experience. We talk about our devs are creative, and they have. 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. Right. And so as we're seeing AI with its capabilities and they're speeding up those processes,

Starting point is 00:07:09 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 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, again, the dream is there, right?

Starting point is 00:07:36 It's all good. It sounds good. But they're also watching LinkedIn layoffs, and that's always, you know, it's on the 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, health care is one of the biggest expenses that business, have. That's why I want to tell you about Christian Health Care Ministries Groups program.

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Starting point is 00:08:50 Go to CHministries.org slash entree or call 1-800 join CHM. Now let's get back to the episode. So when you say the dream is there, where is there? Well, with my team, we're both 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.

Starting point is 00:09:18 and then they go out and they're in different 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. It's just different individuals, different personalities. I do feel like my in-office people, they get it more often. You know, they're just around more. We collaborate a lot more in person. It's easier for the remote team members.

Starting point is 00:09:42 Like I said, we try to host the training events, so 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. How often are they hearing directly from you? For me, 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. If we have any other big company updates, I'll be the one to kind of give it and send it out to everybody. Right.

Starting point is 00:10:10 And so they would know me. I would be a voice that was heard. Sure. But not as much as their project manager, not as much as their job. not as much as their direct manager. Yeah. I think, you know, in times of accelerated change or volatility or whatever, the value of communication from you as the leader goes up.

Starting point is 00:10:30 So I hear what you're saying about the courtlies and, you know, hearing about projects, 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 it. the level of noise that is out there, and then the level of your voice. I think we want to bring the level of your voice up. Okay.

Starting point is 00:10:56 So that they hear your heart, 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. No, that's good, that's good, yeah, right there, down. I'm not trying to put those words in your mouth, but whatever you have to say about this, You know, we do an all-company meeting every week. Wow, that's amazing.

Starting point is 00:11:21 Yes. And I mean, that's a thousand people and a lot of payroll. And it's a big investment. Yes. But it's worth it. Okay. You know? And not every week is it the exact same thing.

Starting point is 00:11:33 Sure, sure, sure, sure. Sometimes it's the kind of stuff that you talked about, the updates about projects or whatever. But I'm just thinking in this reality that we're in, the world that we're living in, with the acceleration of technology, hearing from you, hearing, being reminded of what our mission really is and what the vision is,

Starting point is 00:11:53 which is just the mental picture of what it looks like to be winning at our mission five years from three to five years from today. That's good. You can't overdo that. Okay. You can't overdo that. You hear yourself and you really get sick of hearing yourself, you are starting to say it enough.

Starting point is 00:12:10 Okay. Got to get sick of hearing yourself say it. Yes. And then the other thing, And let me just say, I haven't always gotten this right. In fact, I recently got this wrong. So why it's fresh on my mind and I'll bring it up. When we think of change, you're going to have three groups of people.

Starting point is 00:12:30 You're going to kind of have a bell curve. You're going to have a small group of people on the front end of the bell curve that are just on fire for where you want to go. Then you're going to have the bulk of people in the middle. And the people in the middle, they're a little, sure, they're not hard poor, they're not hard against. And then you're going to have the resistors, the laggers. And if you're like most leaders, and this is your first question, how do you lead through

Starting point is 00:12:56 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.

Starting point is 00:13:13 We could all go so faster. we can work on the fun stuff. All the things you said, right? Don't you feel that way when you get in his coverage? Oh, sure, sure. The problem is, as leaders, we tend to put so much energy towards them. All these people that are in the middle, they're watching where you put your energy. That's good.

Starting point is 00:13:33 Yeah. So don't forget the people that are easy. Right. That are with you. Yeah. They need your attention and your recognition. and your celebration as much or more now than ever. Than ever before.

Starting point is 00:13:49 Because this massive people in the middle of the bell curve, that's where their eyes will go. That's good. They'll see your attention. Yep. And their attention will follow it. And that's, you want to pull them with those leaders. That's right, right, yep.

Starting point is 00:14:04 So that's kind of, if you think about this whole thing, think about that framework and on these calls, the emails that you're to increase the frequency on. Thank you. Celebrate those folks. Call them out. Catch people doing the right thing. Yep.

Starting point is 00:14:23 And show the rest of the team, like, this is what winning looks like. All right. I like it. That's great. This is who we are. Yes. You think you could do that? I think so.

Starting point is 00:14:31 That sounds excellent. I think you could do it too. Can absolutely do that. Thanks for hanging out with us today. Thank you for having me. I so appreciate it. When there's a lot of change going on, your team will look to you for how to respond.

Starting point is 00:14:43 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 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. And it's just as important to have people speaking into your business.

Starting point is 00:15:13 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. 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 Polter 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. 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.

Starting point is 00:16:01 I'm your host Dave Ramsey, and this is Entree Leadership.

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

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