Will AI Replace You? (How To Become Irreplaceable) | OwlHub

AI is actively wiping out jobs - from accounting and finance, to marketing, to customer service, to medical, etc.

But more recently, management jobs are the main target for elimination.

The trend of restructuring and “unbossing” is picking up steam, and this means mass layoffs, starting with middle managers.

It’s starting in tech (Meta, Google, Salesforce, and others). But blue-chip companies (Amazon, Bayer, Citigroup, Boeing, UPS, Unilever, Starbucks, and others) are slashing and burning management jobs too.

Are Managers Essential?

Managers are essential to employee job satisfaction. According to McKinsey research, summarized here, relationships with managers account for 86% of satisfaction with people’s interpersonal ties at work.

However, research finds that managers only spend ¼ of their time on talent management. No wonder they’re getting eliminated – AI can do the task management parts of their jobs better and faster.

So, if people need other people to be happy and engaged at work, what is the role of leadership?

The key is your ability to bring out the best in people. It’s being a good coaching leader.

Over a decade ago, Google actually tried to eliminate managers – and failed. Their study, Project Oxygen, spanned 10 years. It found 10 factors that predict management effectiveness.

And the #1 predictor of success?

Being a good coach.

So, what goes into being a good coaching leader? All 10 factors can be mapped to the coaching leader’s style (particularly the use of the RESPECT Coaching Styles). 

Are You a Coaching Leader?

Are you able to bring out the best in others?

Can you help people accomplish things they didn’t or couldn’t before?

Are you contributing to their development AND driving greater business outcomes at the same time?

Your ability to coach, particularly in the management context, is key. It’s the only thing that will save middle management today, and all leadership roles tomorrow.

Let the machines manage tasks. Your job is to coach people to be their best, to solve difficult challenges, and to feel connected and engaged by what’s meaningful.

That said, you have to be better at coaching than AI – because AI is trying to learn how to coach too. But the human element of true coaching leadership is present.

The 3 Jobs of the Future

In the future, you will have one of 3 job specialties:

1.   Leading people
2.   Replacing people with tech
3.   Being cheap labor until someone makes the tech that costs less than you do.

So, if coaching is the #1 skill of leading people, you can’t wait. And task management isn’t good enough – since task management is being replaced by tech.

You must be a coaching leader – or face elimination.

This skill isn’t something you just take a course in and you’re done. No, this is an ongoing pursuit of continually upgrading your abilities to coach.

I’ve been honing my coaching skills for the past 27 years, in both the professional coaching and leadership contexts. And I’m learning so much more now than in prior decades.

You have to be a voracious student of your craft.

In the coming weeks and months, I’ll share some of my latest discoveries in being a true coaching leader, based on both research and practical application.

For instance, I’ll share the 10 core capabilities a coaching leader must have. I’ll suggest ways to start or continue developing these core capabilities. I’ll also give you examples of how these core capabilities aren’t just a sum of the parts of studying a bit of leadership and a bit of coaching, but rather a new fusion for the leadership context.

I look forward to helping you become irreplaceable as a coaching leader and engager of talent.