What AI Can't Replace...
The more I work on this substack, the more I realize I don’t really like writing. I think it’s because it doesn’t come naturally to me. Honestly, it’s always been that way for me. I even had a pen pal once tell me that my letters to her were boring. Oof. She said they didn’t really sound like me. They sounded like I was writing a letter to the governor. (I didn’t write her again after that. I guess I showed her!) But even though what she said stung, I knew she was right. It’s always been a challenge for me to not only translate all my thoughts into text, but also keep my personality in tact while doing it. Which is funny because I literally have an English minor. I guess I’ve always been more focused on sounding correct or polished vs. sounding like me.
Fast forward to today, when I realized AI could write blogs for me, it sounded like a godsend. So, I wrote some pretty detailed prompts for what I wanted to write about and it spit out a bunch of posts. I was amazed! It wasn’t perfect of course, but it was close. I kept the posts, changed a few things (so I could feel like I wrote it) and was ready to post!
But slowly something started to happen. After doing a couple posts with AI, I began to feel like I couldn’t even start writing a new one on my own. I needed to get AI to generate something so I could go in and edit it vs. actually write it. Which got me thinking, were these even my ideas in the first place or were they AI’s? I wasn’t sure...and that wasn’t a good thing.
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I have been thinking about the new direction of Drawn to Lead for quite some time and the more I looked at the 12 principles I plan to focus on, I noticed they all had something in common: they are human attributes that AI won’t be able to replace.
Each of these 12 principles, I believe, are the center of a strong leader and get at something much deeper. Too often leadership content is focused on the things you do, while these principles are centered around who you are. These principles aren’t to do’s, they are the frames by which you will interact with your teams, make decisions and handle yourself in tricky situations. They are the compasses used to navigate the leadership journey. Some would call them ‘soft skills,’ but I don’t think that name does them justice. To me, they are non-negotiables.
Even if Mark Zuckerberg can create an AI Version of himself as a Chief of Staff, he won’t be able to program it with these human principles. Not truly. It really is the human part of leadership.
So, I have made a decision for this and future Drawn to Lead posts: I am not going to use AI to generate my words. I’m not anti-AI. Far from it. But it is something I feel like I need to do to honor the spirit of what Drawn to Lead is all about. And even though my words may not be perfect, and maybe even a little boring, I hope that my humanity will show through enough to encourage you on your leadership journey. (And if not, there are always my sketches and videos).
More to come.
Kacy @ Drawn to Lead