The topic of artificial intelligence often spurs one question: Will AI replace jobs? For business owners, I believe that’s the wrong question.
The better question is: How do we create more value with the people we already have?
Thriving businesses in the next decade will not necessarily have the largest teams. They will field lean, highly effective teams that leverage AI to eliminate low-value work and focus on profitability.
At Tap the Potential, we’ve long taught this strategy. Payroll is typically their largest expense, yet many businesses keep C players. C players are an expense. A players are an investment.
One A player can outperform multiple mediocre workers. In our work with small-businesses, we’ve found that A players are often 900% to 1,200% more productive than C players. They think strategically, solve problems and create value beyond their job descriptions.
When you hire A players, you need fewer people. That improves profitability immediately.
It also creates a powerful cultural advantage. A players want to work with other A players, and compensating for underperformers be frustrates them. When businesses build teams around excellence, they attract more excellence.
This is where AI comes in.
My team adopted AI early. Contrary to popular fears, we haven’t reduced our team; AI has increased the value of our team members’ contributions.
Knowledge workers spend up to 41% of their time on low-value repetitive activities. These are tedious and often uninteresting. AI can now handle much of that work faster and often more effectively.
When that happens, employees gain valuable mental space. Mental space to think, innovate and solve problems.
They can spend time engaging in what we call “$10,000 an hour activities,” work that uses one’s strengths while making other work easier, more profitable or avoidable.
This is why business owners increasingly ask us to train their teams in our leadership bootcamp. Historically, leadership training was for managers and executives.
Today, every team member needs leadership skills because AI is rapidly eliminating routine work. The employees who thrive will think critically, solve problems, improve systems, communicate well and identify profit opportunities.
In leadership bootcamp, we teach team members how to identify and track their $10,000-an-hour contributions each week. One participant shared that before learning the framework, she focused almost exclusively on completing assigned tasks. Afterward, she began proactively identifying process improvements that saved hours of labor each month.
The company saves money, the work gets better and everyone wins.
Not surprisingly, interest in our $10,000-an-hour framework has exploded recently. Team members are understandably concerned about how AI may affect their careers. What we’ve discovered is that fear decreases when people understand how to increase their value.
Team members who consistently identify opportunities, improve processes, solve meaningful problems and contribute to profitability become indispensable.
Business owners don’t want team members who simply complete tasks. They want team members who think.
The future belongs to organizations that combine exceptional people with powerful technology.
This article originally appeared in our sister publication, Arkansas Business. Sabrina Starling, Ph.D., PCC, BCC, is the bestselling author of “How to Hire the Best” and “The 4 Week Vacation” and founder of tapthepotential.com.
