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Be So Good They Can’t AI You

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Steve Martin once said, “Be so good they can’t ignore you.” Cal Newport subsequently borrowed this phrase – minus the “be” – for the title of his terrific 2012 book.

It’s wise advice, and especially apt now. AI is increasingly good at a lot of things. It is not, however, astoundingly fantastic at a lot of things. It can’t be, given that anyone running the same prompt will come up with substantially the same output you get. And even the best LLM can never come up with something wholly, brilliantly new; that’s just not how they work.

The best job security I know in these increasingly uncertain times is to be great – legitimately, uniquely great – at what you do. If you are able to pull that off, and if what you do provides genuine value, you will always be able to stay afloat in even the most turbulent of technological seas.

I’m not saying this is easy, not by a longshot. It’s hard to take a clear-eyed, honest look at the value you bring, where you fall short, and what it will take to get better (similar to stepping on the scale after a weeklong food-and-drink bender on the Feast of the Seas cruise ship). It’s even harder to actually do the work to get there – especially if you’re cowering in fear and wondering when Hal is coming for your job.

It’s difficult, sobering work, but it’s worthwhile work. Your unique genius can never be stolen by a machine, not even a really sophisticated one. So it’s worth the time to hone your gifts to a level that is un-ignorable and irreplaceable.

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When Work Gets Hard…

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It can be helpful to step back and remember what you’re creating together with your team:

  • A service people need
  • A product that delights
  • An unforgettable experience
  • Value for your shareholders
  • A place (physical or virtual) to come together and make stuff happen
  • A shared and utterly unique workplace experience

If you stop and think about it, an organization – even the most dysfunctional one – is kind of magical. Strangers who may have nothing in common but their work come together and create something brand-new from their skills, talents, and knowledge. That particular combination of people has never existed before, and will never exist again.

You become colleagues. Sometimes friends. Sometimes more (and, it must be said, sometimes less – far less). But you are all in it together, working toward a common purpose. You become more than the sum of your parts as individuals.

The next time you get frustrated by a credit-grabber or back-stabber or lunchtime-sandwich-stealer, take a step back. You’re in a singular experience. And you take from it what you put into it.

Now, none of this means you should stay in a bad work situation longer than you absolutely have to. But it’s important to remember that work always offers us the opportunity to learn, grow, and excel, sometimes even despite ourselves.

Remember the magic…even as you keep an eye out for sandwich-snatchers.

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Don’t Put Employee Recognition on Autopilot

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I recently attended a webinar sponsored by an employee recognition company.

There was some good information on the call. The speaker mentioned that “stuff” like tricked-out offices and company merch doesn’t really engage employees (true), and that effective recognition doesn’t only come from the top down but flows in all directions throughout the company (very true).

But they lost me at the product demo. Apparently you are able to pre-schedule things like recurring birthday greetings and anniversary posts, so you don’t need to worry about forgetting them on the actual days. Once you get them scheduled, in fact, you never have to think about them again.

This is terrible. Expressions of employee appreciation should be real and authentic. They need to come from the giver’s heart and mind in the actual moment.

As a manager, if I’m pre-scheduling appreciation posts to get them out of the way, I’m robbing my employee of a sincere, timely expression of congratulations or thanks. I’m also robbing myself of the joy of giving that gift (not to mention an important reminder to myself that my employee is valuable and awesome. This can slip the mind of even the best managers every now and again).

Employees aren’t stupid. If you electronically pre-schedule your mom’s birthday greetings for the next 10 years out, she’ll know it. Bob in accounting will figure it out, too.

No one is saying you need to pen an original sonnet every time someone goes above and beyond at work, but the bottom line is that employee recognition efforts should take a little time, effort, and thought. If they don’t, what’s the point?

At that point, you’re just checking a box. And in the entire history of the world, box-checking has never impressed anyone worth impressing.

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