Greetings Leaders,
I recently received an email from a company rep advising me how their AI bots could craft tailored emails and personalize my messaging for our upcoming workshops, like the one, “Our Brains and Change, on March 26th. Wow, how cool… except for the fact that we are not offering, nor have ever offered this workshop, assuming it is even real.
And thus the dilemma with AI. This email message did contain other content lifted right off our website. Unfortunately, it also lifted (or made up) content from someplace else and erroneously connected non-connectable dots. Like many other messages we all receive these days, I am assuming this one was entirely bot-generated … and in this case vastly inaccurate.
Technology is intended to be a tool, not life-support. Should you become totally dependent upon it, it will come back and bite you. Kind of ironic that the one thing AI shares most in common with humans is that neither are perfect. As smart or advanced as AI may appear to be, it can still make some dumb mistakes. Therefore, attention must be paid to it.
Great leaders know they have to “pay attention,” not only to processes and new technology, but even more so to people. You cannot simply look over a spread sheet of monthly results and think you know how your people are really doing. Nor can you expect to know, if you merely auto-ask them if they are doing OK while your focus is far, far away. You have to be present and pay attention when you are with others. You have to observe, listen, and poke around a little bit. They may need you to help them accomplish something great, and you will never know if you are not paying attention. BTW, some may even need your help in alleviating their growing fears about AI itself. Are you even aware of who those people might be?
Never forget how vital those human heart muscle characteristics – like passion, commitment, and love – are to achieving extraordinary results. Inattention to your bot-generated marketing messages may result in you looking foolish with potential new customers.(as in my example above). Inattention to your people will leave you with a lousy workplace, a lousy reputation, and lousier than should be results.
PS: Be reminded how hard it is to pay attention to others (family included) if your head is in a screen all day.
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