AI, Tools, and Expectations

Last week was about my kids using ChatGPT and not limiting our thinking. This week is about AI, tools, and expectations.

Let’s say that you needed to assemble something, so you grab a wrench out of your toolbox. You use the wrench to fasten the nuts and bolts. Then, you realize there are screws you need to insert. Your wrench won’t be able to insert the screws. Does this make the wrench bad? Would you throw the wrench away, because it wasn’t good at solving this challenge? I’m guessing you wouldn’t. I hope you’d recognize the value and the limitations of the wrench, and every other tool in your arsenal.

Let’s connect some dots. We should apply this same thinking to AI. I’ve been in conversations exploring different AI tools and heard people say, “It can’t do X, so I don’t know if it’s any good.” Have you ever heard someone say something like that? This would be like saying, “This wrench doesn’t work for every single situation, so that means wrenches are bad.” It’s true that the tool couldn’t do X. However, the tool could do A, B, and C and get you 70% of the way there in minutes vs the weeks it would take you to do this manually. That is powerful. That is valuable.

Whether it’s wrenches and screwdrivers from a toolbox or types of AI applications, it’s important to have the right expectation for each tool. We don’t expect a wrench to be perfect and solve all problems. Instead, we understand we need a variety of tools to be successful. In a similar way, we shouldn’t treat AI as if it is just one tool. AI spans a variety of tools and use cases, each with their own benefits and limitations.

The challenge: How will you properly set expectations for various AI tools?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Impostor Syndrome and Unrealistic Expectations (10-16-24)

Last week was about being an impostor vs making mistakes. This week is about impostor syndrome and unrealistic expectations we set for ourselves.

In my current role, I’m focused on leading innovation for market research. This includes spearheading AI efforts. As I lead those efforts, Impostor Syndrome whispers to me constantly. It says things like, “Andrew, you aren’t fit for this role. You don’t know anything. You can’t name all the different AI technologies out there. You don’t understand how each AI engine tokenizes data differently. You can’t even vectorize a database. If you can’t do those things, how can you lead any AI efforts?” Not gonna lie. Those whispers are strong and make me doubt myself and question my value in a big way.

Here’s the thing. If I zoom out and look at the evidence, no one is expecting me to be able to do those things. Those are unrealistic expectations I’m putting on myself. What do they expect of me? They expect me to be able to understand the needs of the business and our market research community. They expect me to be able to translate those needs into a vision that reshapes our futures. They expect me to connect with internal teammates and external partners to find the AI experts who know how to vectorize databases and can build AI solutions. Sorting through complexity to find needs, translating needs into a vision, partnering with people, and letting my imagination run wild are all things that are MY JAM! I can do those things well, and while I’m not anywhere close to done I’m proud of what I’ve helped make happen in the AI space with the incredible teams I work with.

Let’s connect some dots. Does my story sound familiar to you? Have you ever felt listened to the whispers of Impostor Syndrome? Have you ever been tricked into listening to unrealistic expectations? If so, welcome to the club 😉 This happens to me way more than I’d like.

The solution is always taking a step back to look at the evidence. Are those expectations that Impostor Syndrome keeps whispering to you real? Probably not. Is anyone else holding you to those same expectations? Probably not. If those are false expectations, what are the real expectations? How do your experiences and skillsets stack up to those? I bet you are so much more competent and better than you initially believed.

The challenge: Will you be willing to challenge the expectations Impostor Syndrome whispers to you?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Cleaning Rooms, Clear Expectations, and Feedback (10-18-23)

Last week was about calling people up vs out. This week we will look at cleaning rooms, clear expectations, and feedback.

Thursday is “Clean your room” day at the house. When we first initiated this, the kids had a very different idea of what clean was vs my wife and I (#shocker). Rather than get angry, my wife and I realized we needed to articulate the goal in a clearer and more explicit way. “Clean your room” day means picking up all the trash, taking it out, picking up all the things that are laying about so I can run a vacuum without sucking up your stuff, putting everything in its home, putting up your clean laundry, and ensuring everything is tidy. Those are the expectations. After outlining all of this, we also had to be more hands on initially to model and show them what this meant. Then, we would have them clean their room on their own, and after we inspected the work, we would give them feedback on what they did well and where they needed to improve based on the expectations we set. Today, they know what the standard is and the deliver on that, most of the time 😉

You might be wondering what this has to do with work. Throughout my work experiences, I’ve noticed that one of the biggest issues with feedback is a lack of clear expectations. Similar to my kids and cleaning their rooms, we can’t ASSUME that people will automatically know what the expectation is or how to execute it. Everyone is coming to work with their own experiences and views on things, which likely means that everyone will have a different view of what the minimum expectations are for any given situation. With this in mind, we have to be intentional about establishing clear expectations and we have to be willing to model and coach to those expectations until we are all where we need to be. This might include needing to be even more explicit than we think is necessary in order to deliver the feedback message.

The challenges

As a leader, are you clear about the minimum expectations for a role, project, and/or situation? Are you providing feedback when people aren’t meeting those expectations?
As an individual contributor, do you know what the minimum expectations are from your supervisor AND teammates? Do you know whether or not you’re meeting those expectations?

Bonus thought- It’s important to understand that expectations evolve over time. When my kids were much younger my expectations for them cleaning up after themselves was much lower. Now the context has changed, and my expectations are higher. In a similar way, our world is continuing to evolve and what might have been acceptable performance a few years ago, might not even come close to meeting the new bar. We must be willing to have those conversations with people to reset where the minimum expectation is, so they are able to know what they are shooting for.

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

First Grade Spelling, Setting Expectations, and Offering Grace (8-25-21)

Last week was about school and creating the right environment. This week is about expectations and grace. It’s inspired by Alice’s first grade teacher from public school.

Alice hasn’t ever been the best speller. My wife and I talked about this with her first grade teacher during a parent teacher conference. The teacher told us that Alice was the middle of the pack, that we shouldn’t be too alarmed, and that we could keep working with her to help her sound out words. After that, the teacher dropped this nugget. “I always tell my students that when we are writing our stories there is no such thing as perfect spelling in first grade. They are going to misspell words, and that’s okay. As long as they start a sentence with a capital letter and end it with punctuation, it’s a beautiful sentence.”

You might be wondering what that has to do with expectations and grace. With that one nugget about misspelling words and making a beautiful sentence that teacher did two things. First, she set the expectation for what was important. She was trying to teach the kids about sentence structure, more specifically about capital letters and punctuation at the end of the sentence. The misspelled words didn’t matter, as long as they did the other parts right. Second, she taught the children about grace and mistakes. She told the kids that they were going to mess up and that was okay. Can you imagine the burden she took off the children’s shoulders when she gave them permission to not be perfect?

Overall, what the teacher did was great leadership. Reflect on your own leadership for a moment. How often do you communicate a clear vision about what is important and what we need to focus on (capital letters and punctuation)? How often do you give people grace to make mistakes along the way (it’s okay to misspell words)? I know I could do better in these areas.

The challenge: Can you set clear expectations while also extending grace?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Parenting and the Art of Setting Expectations (4-7-21)

Last week was about recognizing progress. This week is about parenting and the art of setting expectations.

One of my biggest struggles as a parent is setting the right expectations for my kids. My intent is to set high expectations that will stretch my kids to grow AND still be achievable and grounded in reality. My wife and I talk and calibrate expectations a lot, and often my expectations are too unrealistic. I find ways to justify my thinking. I say, “My wife’s expectations are too low” or “I know what they are capable of” or “They know I love them so pushing them so hard is okay.” There might be truth in all of these explanations. At the same time, these unrealistic expectations often fail to look at them as individuals and are often set based on my needs, not theirs. If my expectations are so unrealistic that my girls can’t ever meet them, then they will always experience failure. That won’t motivate them to reach their full potential, it will crush them.

How does this connect to work? The challenge I have as a parent is the exact same challenge that leaders face. How many times have you been handed totally unrealistic expectations at work? How did those unrealistic expectations make you feel? I consider myself an optimist, but I also know I have to embrace the reality of situations (Stockdale paradox). Expectations that aren’t grounded in reality hinder my motivation, because it feels futile to go after something that can’t be reached while knowing I’ll be somehow negatively impacted in the process. Have you ever felt that way?

There is an art to setting expectations. Make the goals too easy, and there is no pride in attaining them. Set unrealistic expectations not grounded in reality, and motivation is negatively impacted. If you set expectations that are a stretch, meaningful, and attainable, then you will motivate people to achieve great things. This is not easy and requires constant calibration.

The challenge: As a leader, how are you calibrating and setting the right expectations?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry