TRASCRIZIONE 🔗
WEBVTT
1
00:00:00.580 --> 00:00:03.839
Hi, everybody. It is Alex. Let me ask you something.
2
00:00:04.320 --> 00:00:05.019
Do you know Mike?
3
00:00:05.559 --> 00:00:08.599
You know, the best engineer on the team promoted to
4
00:00:08.660 --> 00:00:14.539
lead and suddenly drowning? Nobody trained him to manage others.
5
00:00:15.820 --> 00:00:20.239
Nobody trained you either. This is exactly why I wrote
6
00:00:20.320 --> 00:00:23.800
From Code to People, the CQ leadership method that transforms
7
00:00:23.960 --> 00:00:27.519
technical experts into leaders teams actually want to work for.
8
00:00:27.980 --> 00:00:31.739
It's not another leadership theory book. It is the practical
9
00:00:32.159 --> 00:00:35.619
system that I use with tech leaders every single day.
10
00:00:36.869 --> 00:00:39.590
Built on three main tools that you can start using
11
00:00:39.969 --> 00:00:45.829
right away. Process communication model, PCM, three-level contracting, and the
12
00:00:45.869 --> 00:00:50.810
will of conflict. Real frameworks for real conversations with real
13
00:00:50.969 --> 00:00:54.869
engineers like Mike. If you're a technical expert who got
14
00:00:54.909 --> 00:00:58.950
promoted into people management and nobody handed you an app,
15
00:00:59.590 --> 00:01:05.390
this book, Grab it at from code2people.
16
00:01:02.950 --> 00:01:08.890
Lemonskills. com. That's from code2people.
17
00:01:06.349 --> 00:01:11.430
Lemonskills. com.
18
00:01:13.189 --> 00:01:18.560
Welcome to the Lemon Tech Leadership Podcast. My name is
19
00:01:18.590 --> 00:01:23.099
Aleksandra Lemanska. I'm a former violinist turned management engineer turned
20
00:01:23.180 --> 00:01:28.390
organizational psychologist, speaker and PCM leadership mentor and facilitator. In
21
00:01:28.430 --> 00:01:31.109
this space, everyone is invited to the table where we
22
00:01:31.170 --> 00:01:38.390
have real eye-opening conversations about tech leadership. Two keywords, utility
23
00:01:38.510 --> 00:01:43.659
and real-life implementation. Knowledge, tools, frameworks, ways of working, do's
24
00:01:43.700 --> 00:01:47.060
and don'ts, taken from my personal experiences as a leader
25
00:01:47.219 --> 00:01:50.040
and the experiences of others, is what you are going
26
00:01:50.079 --> 00:01:54.120
to get from every single episode. This is the Lemon
27
00:01:54.159 --> 00:01:55.379
Tech Leadership Podcast.
28
00:01:55.799 --> 00:01:58.870
Okay, so let's go. and take some action.
29
00:01:58.890 --> 00:02:03.849
Hi, everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Leman
30
00:02:03.870 --> 00:02:07.579
Tech Leadership Podcast. This is Alex, and I would love
31
00:02:07.659 --> 00:02:12.180
to invite you to have another AI discussion because we
32
00:02:12.219 --> 00:02:16.240
don't have enough of them, right? Today, I would love
33
00:02:16.300 --> 00:02:22.060
to have a conversation about value of AI versus value
34
00:02:22.080 --> 00:02:25.219
of people. Because this is a discussion that a lot
35
00:02:25.240 --> 00:02:27.199
of people have right now. And I would love for
36
00:02:27.360 --> 00:02:30.680
us to have this discussion on the show. And before
37
00:02:30.719 --> 00:02:32.919
we go into the subject, I would love to invite
38
00:02:32.960 --> 00:02:36.590
you to something connected to people, actually. So, From Code
39
00:02:36.599 --> 00:02:38.789
to People is my book. And if you don't have
40
00:02:39.069 --> 00:02:40.949
a copy yet, just grab it.
41
00:02:40.969 --> 00:02:43.189
This is an amazing book. And I am super proud
42
00:02:43.229 --> 00:02:43.530
of it.
43
00:02:43.669 --> 00:02:45.969
And I'm not saying it because it's mine, but because
44
00:02:46.090 --> 00:02:50.400
I have so much good feedback from engineering leaders, CTOs,
45
00:02:50.439 --> 00:02:56.310
VPs of different... pieces of technology that's the leads. That's,
46
00:02:56.409 --> 00:02:59.189
this is something that every single tech leader should read
47
00:02:59.509 --> 00:03:02.949
every single leader. Um, and overall, but, I used a
48
00:03:02.990 --> 00:03:05.490
lot of tech examples in there. So this is, this
49
00:03:05.550 --> 00:03:07.289
is for tech people explicitly.
50
00:03:08.069 --> 00:03:10.620
So go grab it. It's all over Amazon, all around
51
00:03:10.639 --> 00:03:11.080
the globe.
52
00:03:11.159 --> 00:03:14.240
So from code to people, it's also from cold to
53
00:03:14.259 --> 00:03:16.300
people to that lemma skills.com.
54
00:03:16.360 --> 00:03:17.979
So go grab your copy.
55
00:03:18.020 --> 00:03:20.689
There's ebook. There is, um, audio book. There is, uh,
56
00:03:22.000 --> 00:03:24.340
There is a paper copy if you want to have
57
00:03:24.360 --> 00:03:24.900
it in your hand.
58
00:03:24.960 --> 00:03:29.939
So go and check it out. So AI conversation. We
59
00:03:29.979 --> 00:03:32.219
are having it all the time.
60
00:03:33.490 --> 00:03:37.050
For about two years now or so, we are talking
61
00:03:37.129 --> 00:03:40.810
about different tools, different pieces of technology, etc.
62
00:03:41.710 --> 00:03:44.150
And I think.
63
00:03:45.490 --> 00:03:47.870
And this is not my thoughts only, but this is
64
00:03:48.310 --> 00:03:50.710
from what I see, that a lot of leaders are
65
00:03:50.849 --> 00:03:56.210
quietly feeling, and not many are saying it out loud,
66
00:03:56.750 --> 00:04:03.159
that companies right now are overvaluing AI and undervaluing their people.
67
00:04:04.819 --> 00:04:08.400
Not AI itself. I'm not anti-tool. I'm using AI all
68
00:04:08.419 --> 00:04:11.719
the time. And I think you know it if you
69
00:04:11.750 --> 00:04:14.469
listened to the show before. What I mean is the
70
00:04:14.590 --> 00:04:18.389
imbalance in where the attention, the budget, and the genuine
71
00:04:18.480 --> 00:04:24.379
curiosity are going. And I see training budgets frozen while
72
00:04:24.500 --> 00:04:27.240
tooling budgets growing without much security.
73
00:04:28.600 -->
Load full transcript
00:04:29.439
This is interesting.
74
00:04:30.399 --> 00:04:33.399
And I see leaders who can describe their AI roadmap
75
00:04:33.439 --> 00:04:37.310
in detail and cannot describe their people development plan at all.
76
00:04:38.769 --> 00:04:43.920
And this gap is today's episode. Here's the pattern that
77
00:04:43.980 --> 00:04:49.139
I keep seeing in organizations of very different sizes and sectors.
78
00:04:49.639 --> 00:04:53.600
And I wanted to share it with you today. A
79
00:04:55.259 --> 00:04:59.910
new tool, AI tool, gets adopted with real energy. Our
80
00:04:59.949 --> 00:05:07.910
load plan, training sessions, leadership attention. Meanwhile, the manager development
81
00:05:07.949 --> 00:05:12.550
program that was supposed to launch this year quietly slips. Again,
82
00:05:12.850 --> 00:05:17.529
because there's always something more urgent and nobody frames the
83
00:05:17.569 --> 00:05:20.329
slip as a real decision, it just.
84
00:05:20.250 --> 00:05:21.230
Happens by default.
85
00:05:23.129 --> 00:05:26.449
And the uncomfortable truth is that investing in a tool
86
00:05:26.550 --> 00:05:30.610
is easier than investing in a person. A tool has
87
00:05:30.649 --> 00:05:34.750
a clear price tag, a clear rollout timeline, a clear demo,
88
00:05:35.800 --> 00:05:40.139
and developing people is slower. messier and harder to measure
89
00:05:40.199 --> 00:05:43.990
not impossible but harder to measure and the return shows
90
00:05:44.069 --> 00:05:47.569
up gradually rather in a single number in a slide
91
00:05:48.870 --> 00:05:53.360
so under time pressure the easier investment quietly wins over
92
00:05:53.420 --> 00:05:58.600
and over again even when everyone will agree if asked
93
00:05:58.660 --> 00:06:04.930
directly that people are the actual asset and This shows
94
00:06:05.050 --> 00:06:10.480
up downstream as a specific kind of quiet dysfunction. Teams
95
00:06:10.819 --> 00:06:17.490
with excellent tools and underdeveloped leaders. Fast systems run by
96
00:06:17.550 --> 00:06:21.050
people who are never actually taught how to meet them well.
97
00:06:22.230 --> 00:06:31.000
High performance on paper and high attrition underneath. And I
98
00:06:31.040 --> 00:06:33.720
know it can be boring, especially for those of you
99
00:06:33.740 --> 00:06:37.509
who are listening episode after episode, but I want to
100
00:06:37.670 --> 00:06:41.410
very much use the will of conflict here because this
101
00:06:41.550 --> 00:06:45.730
almost always gets discussed as a budget or efficiency question,
102
00:06:46.310 --> 00:06:51.149
the structure, the conflict of structure, when it's actually underneath
103
00:06:51.189 --> 00:06:54.839
the value of conflict, the conflict of values. So the
104
00:06:54.879 --> 00:06:57.920
real question isn't, what is the ROI of this training
105
00:06:57.959 --> 00:07:02.850
versus the tool? It is, do we actually believe people
106
00:07:02.889 --> 00:07:07.370
development is a genuine priority? Or do we just say
107
00:07:07.430 --> 00:07:14.079
that while our actual spending says something else? Most organizations
108
00:07:14.120 --> 00:07:17.199
that I see and observe from the inside or from
109
00:07:17.240 --> 00:07:24.970
the outside never ever had this conversation directly. They've just
110
00:07:25.009 --> 00:07:28.449
let the budget answer it by default and just put
111
00:07:28.490 --> 00:07:33.370
the budget freeze on Include four is we don't have money.
112
00:07:33.389 --> 00:07:39.439
We need to cut somewhere. And this is exactly, again, boring,
113
00:07:39.540 --> 00:07:41.399
but you don't need more knowledge.
114
00:07:41.439 --> 00:07:42.500
You need more repetition.
115
00:07:42.639 --> 00:07:47.699
So contracting matters, but it matters at the organizational level,
116
00:07:47.860 --> 00:07:52.079
not just an individual one. Because the status contract with
117
00:07:52.100 --> 00:07:55.079
employees is often something like we invest in your growth.
118
00:07:56.560 --> 00:08:00.019
The real lift contract and visible in where the money
119
00:08:00.160 --> 00:08:03.620
and attention actually go can be something closer to we
120
00:08:04.259 --> 00:08:07.680
invest in tools that make you more productive and hope
121
00:08:07.699 --> 00:08:12.519
your growth happens on its own. Nobody signs up for that.
122
00:08:13.079 --> 00:08:17.980
The second, contracts on purpose. It's just accumulates from 100
123
00:08:17.980 --> 00:08:21.990
small budget decisions, each one individual responsible for the outcome.
124
00:08:23.839 --> 00:08:24.519
So if you're a.
125
00:08:24.519 --> 00:08:29.290
Leader in a dynamic environment like that, even if you
126
00:08:29.310 --> 00:08:32.730
don't control the whole budget, you can still make this
127
00:08:33.830 --> 00:08:37.990
explicit inside of your own team. Name what you're actually
128
00:08:38.080 --> 00:08:42.399
investing in this quarter, tools or people or both, and
129
00:08:42.440 --> 00:08:45.799
be honest with your team about the real balance instead
130
00:08:45.840 --> 00:08:50.830
of letting the gap between values and actual spending go unnamed.
131
00:08:50.990 --> 00:08:53.210
And people just have this.
132
00:08:54.720 --> 00:08:56.860
This thought or this feeling.
133
00:08:56.539 --> 00:09:00.799
That, hey, they're putting all the money in the tools
134
00:09:00.960 --> 00:09:04.340
or integration or something, and we don't get raises of
135
00:09:04.480 --> 00:09:05.139
our salaries.
136
00:09:06.659 --> 00:09:09.450
So this is the same case. People don't understand it.
137
00:09:12.330 --> 00:09:15.429
We know that there is a different budget line, but
138
00:09:15.470 --> 00:09:19.460
for people, money is money. At the end of the day,
139
00:09:19.980 --> 00:09:26.899
the whole budget is just one big spreadsheet. So we
140
00:09:26.919 --> 00:09:30.090
just need to be smarter.
141
00:09:30.409 --> 00:09:30.799
About it.
142
00:09:30.850 -->
00:09:34.049
I'm not saying to not invest in AI, in tech,
143
00:09:34.090 --> 00:09:36.549
in overall at all, because this is not what I'm saying.
144
00:09:37.610 --> 00:09:45.860
I'm saying to find balance between those two. Investing and
145
00:09:46.360 --> 00:09:51.179
improving your tech stock and investing in people and if
146
00:09:51.200 --> 00:09:55.990
you're cutting budgets, be smart about it and be equal
147
00:09:56.019 --> 00:10:01.009
about it. I know that some cuts are easier and
148
00:10:01.070 --> 00:10:04.649
some cuts are harder, quote unquote, but it is because
149
00:10:04.690 --> 00:10:07.960
we've always done it that way. We never thought about
150
00:10:07.980 --> 00:10:14.059
the real risk of cutting from this or that part
151
00:10:14.100 --> 00:10:18.039
of the spreadsheet. And it has real consequences in real
152
00:10:18.080 --> 00:10:19.600
life of real people.
153
00:10:22.580 --> 00:10:24.200
So, do the audit.
154
00:10:27.519 --> 00:10:30.340
Look at your last two quarters of spending and attention.
155
00:10:31.059 --> 00:10:35.179
Not just budget lines. Not just items in your budget.
156
00:10:36.000 --> 00:10:46.250
Your own calendar too. See what it tells you. Most
157
00:10:46.269 --> 00:10:51.169
leaders are surprised by the ratio of spending time on
158
00:10:52.360 --> 00:10:57.940
on those things. Second thing that we can do is
159
00:10:58.000 --> 00:11:01.419
actually name the gap out loud with your own team
160
00:11:01.539 --> 00:11:05.500
or your own leadership, rather than letting it sit as
161
00:11:05.539 --> 00:11:10.879
an unspoken discomfort. It might go with something like, I
162
00:11:10.980 --> 00:11:19.120
think we've been having, investing really heavily in tools and
163
00:11:19.179 --> 00:11:22.980
politely in people development. And I want to change that
164
00:11:23.120 --> 00:11:28.360
ratio this quarter. It is genuinely useful, specific sentence to
165
00:11:28.419 --> 00:11:35.370
say in the leadership page. And number three, protect one
166
00:11:35.450 --> 00:11:40.820
concrete people investment on your own calendar this quarter. A
167
00:11:40.960 --> 00:11:45.059
real mentoring block, a skills development budget line, or a
168
00:11:45.139 --> 00:11:49.419
structured feedback process. Something that survives the next round of
169
00:11:49.639 --> 00:11:53.480
more urgent pressure because you've made it a stated commitment,
170
00:11:54.340 --> 00:11:58.419
not just a good intention. Because the calendar is for you,
171
00:11:58.570 --> 00:12:01.029
not you for the calendar. So the question is who
172
00:12:01.070 --> 00:12:07.029
has control over whom. So do the audit, say it
173
00:12:07.070 --> 00:12:11.809
out loud and plan and do not negotiate with yourself.
174
00:12:12.509 --> 00:12:14.549
And we are negotiating with ourselves all the time.
175
00:12:14.570 --> 00:12:15.299
So don't do it.
176
00:12:15.309 --> 00:12:16.049
Okay.
177
00:12:16.850 --> 00:12:19.549
This is what we can do here. And this is it.
178
00:12:20.590 --> 00:12:25.100
This is it for this episode because tools can make people,
179
00:12:25.679 --> 00:12:31.000
good people, faster. They cannot make undeveloped people good. So
180
00:12:31.679 --> 00:12:34.039
if you only invest in one side of the equation,
181
00:12:34.080 --> 00:12:37.899
you're building on a foundation that isn't actually there. So
182
00:12:37.940 --> 00:12:42.230
this is why I've recorded this episode, just to create another,
183
00:12:42.250 --> 00:12:43.809
to propose you to another wake-up call.
184
00:12:45.669 --> 00:12:50.299
So This is it. This is it.
185
00:12:50.470 --> 00:12:54.340
And if you are more interested in more, if you
186
00:12:54.360 --> 00:12:58.240
are super open to do things smarter, to not waste
187
00:12:58.419 --> 00:13:01.679
any more time, just grab a book. From Code to People,
188
00:13:02.259 --> 00:13:06.480
all over the internet, all over Amazon. Because in the book,
189
00:13:06.519 --> 00:13:08.649
there is a blueprint that you can actually use later.
190
00:13:09.169 --> 00:13:11.830
So use it because it's written already. You don't need
191
00:13:11.850 --> 00:13:13.909
to look at somewhere else.
192
00:13:14.169 --> 00:13:17.870
Everything is one place. So go grab it. Be smarter.
193
00:13:17.929 --> 00:13:18.850
Be better as a leader.
194
00:13:19.429 --> 00:13:23.590
Until next time, lead without burnout. I'll see you very
195
00:13:23.629 --> 00:13:27.549
soon in the next episode of the Lemon Tech Leadership Podcast.
196
00:13:28.129 --> 00:13:28.590
Bye, everybody.