What employees hear when the CEO talks about AI

A brief warning

CEOs who’ve been at it for a while all know it’s less about what you SAY and more about what people HEAR.

People listen extra closely to the CEO’s words. They know that your decisions affect their livelihood.

Your casual remark can become an omen they stew about at family dinner.

Recent conversations about AI-driven productivity growth got me thinking about this. I know CEOs who talk a great deal about expectations that their team will be 2x as productive in the next two or three years thanks to AI. Maybe even more productive than that.

That’s great. I agree with them.

But as leaders we must consider what the team hears when we say “In two to three years, you will be twice as productive.”

Some personality types (Steadiness DISC types, for example) are probably going to mentally translate that as: “In the next two to three years, you will need to work twice as hard… or else.”

Of course that’s not what you mean. You mean they will be able to create twice the value they did before - while wor…