Framing AI in the right light

Check out the new DirectorPlus edition for smart takes on leading AI rollouts.

How do you introduce AI to programmers without causing unrest or fear of lost jobs? It's all about framing it in a positive light, says GitLab's CTO, Sabrina Farmer. I interviewed her for the latest edition of DirectorPlus for LeadDev, which is out today.

"Leadership is all about framing," says Farmer. "I think AI will change jobs and force evolution. From a leader’s perspective, we need to talk in a way that makes people want to embrace it."

She also recommends sharing success stories internally, encouraging leadership to use it, and a 'bring-your-own model' flexibility. In general, she advocates viewing change as an opportunity rather than viewing it as a dystopic blocker. Check out the full story for some great insights.

Reviewing the year of DirectorPlus

In 2024, I synced with some of today's top engineering directors and CTOs at companies like Netlify, Slack, Intuit Mailchimp, GitLab, Bloomberg, GitHub, DivBrands, and beyond. We dove into themes like continuous learning, developer productivity, AI-driven development, building customer-first, rolling out AI initiatives, and leading microservices migrations.

My takeaway: engineering leadership is about leading people

We're starting to assemble quite a corpus of knowledge to help guide engineering directors. Having done these interviews, what I'm realizing is that for leaders at this level, you really need a keen sense of the technology at the core. But, a lot of the problems you're dealing with are cultural or inter-personal. 

And that's a wrap of DirectorPlus newsletters for 2024.  I've really enjoyed putting these together each month. More is lined up for next year that I'm excited to share. Stay tuned!

Featured image credit: Pat Krupa on Unsplash.