AI may not replace your job — but someone who knows AI probably will. Ralph and Terry break down how to measure and articulate the ROI of AI in your career, share the pro tip that reveals how your role generates revenue, and explain why transparency about using AI makes you more valuable — not less.
The Leadership Sovereignty Podcast, hosted by Ralph E. Owens II and co-hosted by Terry Baylor, is a career acceleration platform
Leadership isn’t just a skill — it’s a career strategy for professionals seeking growth, influence, and promotion.
Hosted by Ralph Owens, Chief Information Officer, and Terry Baylor, CEO of a healthcare technology startup, the podcast delivers practical, real-world leadership strategies you can apply immediately. Each episode focuses on increasing visibility, navigating corporate dynamics, preparing for promotion, and leading beyond your title.
Expect short, high-impact conversations designed to help you think, act, and position yourself like a senior leader before you’re given the title.
You’re not just an employee. You’re the CEO of your career.
New episodes are released bi-weekly.
I have friends across all
industries and at some level,
every organization is embracing
AI.
And if you can partner with your
IT department, if you can
partner with, you know whomever
in your organization is leading
the way, right?
Because here's what we do know.
Not all departments are going to
be moving at the same pace,
right?
So you may have to partner with
a department that's, you know,
moving at a little faster pace
and then, you know, you learn
how to socialize how your your
team can best use it right.
Yeah, that's, yeah, that's
really good.
That's really good.
All right, so, so let's move on
to the to the next topic,
measuring the ROI of GNAI in
your career, right?
So tracking time save you don't
routine task and using that as a
metric for productivity gains.
I mean, I, I, I, I, I get
excited when we talk about this
because this, this goes back to
something that's near and dear
to me and Terry's heart metrics.
You know what?
Hey, I told someone the other
day.
I said, look, I got a friend and
we say this all the time.
If you're cat, if you're not
measuring it, you can't manage
it.
Impossible.
Yeah.
It's.
Impossible.
It's impossible.
It's impossible to do it right.
You know, being able to if you
just start tracking what you're
doing right and putting it in
the tool and saying, you know,
how can I make this better,
right?
You'll start, it'll start giving
you ideas and creating, you
know, these, these these
opportunities for you to get
efficiency and productivity
gains that you can take back to
your ball.
Everybody has a annual review
season.
Imagine being able to sit down
in your annual review season and
say, hey, these are the things
that I did differently this year
and how it produced this result
as different to the previous
year.
And these are these are this is
the value that I've created for
the organization.
What do you think they're going
to say to you versus the person
who just does the minimum,
right?
This, this again, this is your,
this is your career superpower.
This is your career advantage if
you choose to use it.
Another thing you can do is note
any improvements in your work
quality or speed that lead to
positive feedback from managers,
right?
Being able to track these things
so that you can see the ROI, the
return on investment of using
Gen.
AI, right?
You want to be able to track
these things so that you can see
what it's actually doing.
All right, So moving on, moving
a little bit forward,
identifying any career
advancements or new
opportunities that came from
using the Gen.
AI tools, right?
You know, as a result of you
growing, right?
And, and this is, this is a
really important point as a
result of you growing, using
this tool to grow in your
capacity in your current roles,
you're going to learn more,
you're going to learn faster and
bigger and better opportunities
are going to come for you.
Because again, again, you have
to compare yourself to the
person who's not using this
tool, right?
They're going to be doing the
very bare minimum.
And you're going to be given
such a high level quality that
is going to open up doors and
opportunities for you.
Any thoughts?
On that anything, any tool that
you're using that's allowing you
to produce right better quality
of let's just use emails, right.
Let's say you're only using it
for e-mail and your ability to
write an e-mail better is going
to it's, it's, it's, it's, it's
there, right?
It's by default because you are
reading the content, you are
interacting with the tool
saying, Hey, you know, you know,
make, make the emails shorter,
right?
So it'll, it'll teach you how to
write more concise, stronger
emails.
Let's say that you tend to only
focus on yourself in the e-mail,
but you want to write emails
that focus more on the, on the
person you're writing to, right?
It will help you learn the words
that frame you're important,
more important, your needs are
more important than my needs,
right?
So essentially anything that you
are practicing and you are
those, those, those I've been,
I've been kind of going through
this, this, this, this, this
training about neuroplasticity
in the brain, right?
And so we have these pathways
that we've been operating on for
such a long time.
Well, when you introduce another
train of thought, right, and you
start, you know, practicing that
over time, you create these new
pathways.
So you were again, the new
pathway is how do I frame what
I'm trying to say where it's not
centered around me, right.
I remember one of the books I
read and it was been, it was a
struggle when I first started
doing this to actually, I think
it was how to win friends and
influence people.
I went through a stage where I'm
not writing an e-mail that
starts off I, you know, how much
work that was.
That was a lot of work, man, to
write those emails, right?
And now you get into the prompt,
Hey, write this e-mail about
whatever this new widget that's
coming and don't make it about
how great we are at implementing
it, but talk about how if you
know it's going to be a benefit
to them and we just want to
partner with you on it.
When you start seeing that
language right now, it becomes a
part of your language if you
start practicing that over and
over and over and over again,
right?
I mean, you know that.
So again, right, those of you,
you know, I, I did something
today I normally don't, I
haven't done in a while, but
Tarance wanted to wanted me to
go out and practice with him
this morning.
Bro, I was out at 5:00 AM this
morning getting up buckets.
I hadn't done this in a long
time with Tarance, but he had
still been putting in the work
and it's probably been a few
months.
I'm like, bro, I see the work.
When you put in the work, the
results and they will be seen.
So all we're saying is just put
in the work, put in the time
with it and over time you will
get better.
And the person that had seen you
in a couple, you know, you, you
haven't seen that person to
e-mail in a couple months,
they're going to read that
e-mail.
They're going to be like, whoa.
But that was a strong e-mail.
Because here's the thing, right?
You're not just letting it write
the e-mail and you just take,
you know, there are times I'll
get an e-mail and then I'll
frame it after I get it.
But I still want to have some
influence and some I'm I'm
influence it, influencing it by
talking about the tone and the
and the direction of it.
But even after that, I'm still
adding new ones, right?
I'm adding my.
Creativity to it.
And so again, as you do that, it
becomes a part of it becomes a
part of you, your props become
stronger, right?
Yes, yes, yes.
That's good.
Man, that is so good.
I think Here, here.
Here's a pro tip for you.
If you've never asked yourself
the question, and I kind of
touched on this in a in a a
previous episode, if you never
ask yourself the question, how
does my role help the
organization that I work for
generate revenue?
Ask ask chat chat ChatGPT that
tell it what you do and ask it
to break down how what you do
what you do specifically creates
revenue.
It's going to open your mind up
to something, some things that
you probably never even thought
about.
That's.
A great question.
By doing this, you, you enable
your company to do that.
And because your company's able
to do that, it now is able to
make revenue.
Do you understand the power of
you being able to explain wow in
a meeting, right?
Pro, I'm telling you this, the
pro tip you got to take this
down.
It's the pro tip you if you just
if you don't do anything else,
but just use it to understand
how you and what you do create
revenue for the organization.
You'll be able to Terrace point
because you've been, you know,
using the tool, understanding
what it's teaching you.
Your vocabulary will begin to
change.
How you articulate what you do
will begin to change.
And leaders notice that they
again, compared to the person
who's just doing the minimum,
you're going to move right by
them.
Like they said, like they said,
Steve, right.
So this is this is good.
Stuff, yeah, you can't let it
pass you by, man.
There there are, there are, you
know, and I'm going to I'm going
to challenge those out there.
And this is something that, you
know, actually it's, it's not a
it's something that I've
adopted.
It's actually something that I
took from my wife.
And you know, sometimes, you
know, we as individuals who have
strong resolve, we can be so
locked in on the method or a
way.
And I'm I'm talking about
myself, to be honest here.
We you know, Ralph was work with
me media.
He knows my resolve is it's
resolute.
It's resolute.
But it took years and I finally
just said, you know what, she's
right.
She says it doesn't have to be
either or it can be both.
So meaning that those of you who
are still on the fence about,
you know, AI and you know, it's,
it's it's diabolicalness, you
know, yeah, just give it a try,
doesn't it?
You don't have to do either.
You don't have to be so pro or
you don't have to be so against
it.
It can, it can be both.
And, and we're going to talk
about this.
There's a balance with it.
There is a balance with it.
And, you know, just don't let it
pass you by.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Good, good point.
Great point.
Great point, great point.
So let's let's get into the the
next topic, which is ethical
considerations when using Gen.
AI, right?
Ensuring transparency when AI is
used in decision making
processes, right?
So you, you can't, you can't go
use AI to do all your work for
you, right?
And just say, Oh yeah, I'm so
wonderful.
I came up with all this on my
own, right?
You know, it's, it's good to be
to have integrity and to make
sure that you are transparent,
you know, when you use these
tools, right?
There's nothing wrong with
saying, you know, I used a Gen.
AI tool to help me think through
the process and come up with,
you know, the frameworks and
things of that nature, right?
In my opinion, it makes you more
valuable when you can articulate
that because it shows that you
understand how to use generative
AI tools to make you better,
which makes the organization
better.
But you don't want to try to,
you know, come across as though,
yeah, I came up with everything
on my own and I'm just the
greatest thing in the world
because somebody will ask you a
question about something that
you don't understand, and it'll
surface your inefficiencies
quickly right there in front of
you.
Right.
But I mean, what?
What are your thoughts on that
here?
Here's the thing, right, Most
companies today are embracing it
and to be seen as a leader in
the in the in, in that area are
are are in that space.
I think I think it's great.
Yeah.
I, I, you know, I think
transparency is good.
I think it's also relevant
because you want to ensure that
you are in alignment with the,
with the, with the, with the,
with the, the acceptable use
policy is what I'm job thinking
about of how your company is
saying, you know, they want you
to leverage it, right?
I have friends across all
industries and at some level
every organization is embracing
AI.
And if you can partner with your
IT department, if you can
partner with, you know, whomever
in your organization is leading
the way, right?
Because here's what we do know,
not all departments are going to
be moving at the same pace,
right?
So you may have to partner with
a department that's, you know,
moving at a little faster pace.
And then, you know, you learn
how to socialize how your your
team can best use it, right?
Yeah, that's, yeah, that's
really good.
That's really good.
Yeah, it's yeah, yeah.
You summed it up well, Terry.
It's something that you want to
get in alignment with.
I, I, I posted something on
LinkedIn this week and I don't
take credit for it.
The CEO of NVIDIA actually said
this.
I don't remember his name, but
he said AI may not replace your
job, but somebody who knows AI
probably.
Will, I saw that post?
Yeah.
I saw that's, that's the reality
that we live in today, right?
When you if you were to look at
the investments that these
companies are making into AI,
you have to ask yourself the
question, they're not doing this
just because it's cool, right?
They're doing this because it's
going to make them money.
And those who align, you know,
you, you have a definitely a
great opportunity in history
right now for me as I talk to
young people who are getting
into technology.
If you had asked me five years
ago when to get into, I would
have said it's higher security,
But now 101 hundred percent is
AI for sure, right?
And I know that's that's a very
general and broad term, but you
need to Start learning how to
use AI to fix business problems
that will get that will take you
the next 15 to 20 years.
And I think that's the key,
Ralph.
Here's the thing, right?
Here's what we know.
Ford solve what business problem
I need to get from A to B
faster?
Yeah, that's right.
Yeah.
Right the at the end of the day,
it's the same.
Every organization has the same
problem.
How do I get from A to B faster?
Now, what is A and what is B?
You got to feel that in.
A and AI can help you with that.
It can help you define the A and
the B.
That's right, that's right.
On so many levels, it can help
you.
Thank you for listening to the
Leadership Sovereignty Podcast.
If this content blessed or
helped you in any kind of way,
support us today by subscribing
to our YouTube channel, clicking
the like button for this
episode, and sharing this
content with others that you
think it will help.
Until next time, stay safe,
peace and blessings.