Shawn Andrews is an international keynote speaker, organizational consultant, and author of the bestselling book, The Power of Perception: Leadership, Emotional Intelligence, and the Gender Divide, and her newest book, The 5 Levels of Male Allyship: A Guide to Building Better Teams Through Real Inclusion. She has shared her ideas on the TEDx stage, worked with over 100 companies across multiple industries, been a Forbes contributor, and interviewed on dozens of podcast and radio shows, including NPR. She serves as a professor at UC Irvine business school, teaching courses on Diversity & Inclusion at Work and Organizational Behavior. She is the founder and CEO of Andrews Research International.
AI vs. EQ: What You Should Know
AI vs EQLast month, I published a newsletter titled "Women are Strong at the Things AI Can't Do". It received a strong response with lots of positive feedback -- thank you! As I mentioned before, given the rapid transformation of AI into our work and lives, I find myself thinking more about gender and AI these days. In that newsletter, I talked about how women are especially strong at the things AI can’t do -- and many of these skills are grounded in emotional intelligence (EQ). I've written a lot about IQ vs. EQ and how our intellectual ability (IQ) only gets us so far in life. No matter what we do, our IQ is fixed by our late teenage years. But our EQ is a life skill that keeps growing as we gain more life experiences. Data has shown that EQ is what differentiates good from great, unsuccessful from successful, and even surviving from thriving. That's powerful. So, emotional intelligence, not IQ, is our vehicle for success. But AI is another kettle of fish altogether. Now it's about AI vs EQ. How can we use our EQ skills/abilities in tandem with AI tools? And do these skills create conflicts with AI recommendations? Here's the good news, we can use them effectively together, in fact we MUST use them together. AI + EQ = SUCCESS. The EQ AdvantageUsing AI can make life much easier. Rewriting drafts, performing analysis, summarizing ideas, and providing recommendations. But it can’t do the deeply human things that drive culture, engagement, and performance at work. These include communication, empathy, creativity, wisdom, judgement, intuition, and ethical decision making. But it also involves the ability to create mutually satisfying relationships and transformational leadership. These are capacities AI does not do very well and may NEVER master. Today on LinkedIn, Daniel Pink, bestselling author of 7 books, wrote the following: "In an age of artificial intelligence, taste will be your killer app." He cites research from Cornell and the University of Minnesota that found that between 2022 (when ChatGPT launched) and 2025, the number of new book releases tripled. By "taste", Dan refers to discernment or judgement. Large language models are astonishing at generating options. Which means over the long haul, they need you a lot more than you need them. AI + EQI think we can all agree that AI has limitations, but the real issue isn't AI vs. EQ. It's much more nuanced than that. The future isn’t about competing with AI; it’s about doubling down on the things that make us uniquely human. In fact, the qualities that build trust, empathy, and meaningful relationships become even more valuable as AI becomes more capable. Companies are looking for ways to "future-proof" their workforce amid this digital transformation, and emotional intelligence training and education are one of the best things you can provide for your employees. As a reminder, I'm a licensed practitioner in emotional intelligence, specifically the EQ-i 2.0 and EQ 360 models through Multi-Health Systems. If you're booking keynote speakers for your organization, or you'd like to talk more about a corporate training program, please feel free to get in touch! Next StepsI would encourage both men and women to use AI more to get familiar with the tools and everything that the technology offers. This will not only help you but could help close the gap between the things AI can't do or doesn't do very well. Question for you: If you had to choose just one human capability that will become dramatically more valuable over the next 5 years because of AI, which one would you pick, and why? I welcome your responses. Dr. Shawn A Word from Our SponsorsFor the first time, I am including a sponsorship in my newsletter. Given this AI topic, I thought you might be interested in checking out Superhuman, a platform to help you build your AI skills. I hope you find it useful! |
Dr. Shawn Andrews
Shawn Andrews is an international keynote speaker, organizational consultant, and author of the bestselling book, The Power of Perception: Leadership, Emotional Intelligence, and the Gender Divide, and her newest book, The 5 Levels of Male Allyship: A Guide to Building Better Teams Through Real Inclusion. She has shared her ideas on the TEDx stage, worked with over 100 companies across multiple industries, been a Forbes contributor, and interviewed on dozens of podcast and radio shows, including NPR. She serves as a professor at UC Irvine business school, teaching courses on Diversity & Inclusion at Work and Organizational Behavior. She is the founder and CEO of Andrews Research International.
Why an Audiobook? I recorded the narration for my first book The Power of Perception: Leadership, Emotional Intelligence, and the Gender Divide in 2019. It took me 3 long months to record it in a professional music studio (that includes recording, editing, processing, and uploading files to Audible) and it cost more than I anticipated. I was waffling about whether to record an audiobook for our new book The 5 Levels of Male Allyship: A Guide to Building Better Teams Through Real Inclusion...
Credit: EtiAmmos What Employees Really Want I was recently interviewed on a podcast and was asked to comment on organizational and talent trends now and in the future. As usual, I dove into the research, including a visit to ChatGPT. I wanted to see what it came up with and see how AI is impacting what we want and need at work. I found that what employees want now, and in their future workplace, doesn't change very much. What surprised me is the overwhelming desire for more people-focused...
Insights Want to Better Understand Your Colleagues? Look no further than the Insights Discovery workshop! Affectionately called "Colors". I'm a licenced practitioner in the Insights Discovery model and have been teaching it for 15 years. I have had the opportunity of participating in other major personality-based learning programs (Myers-Briggs, Social Styles, and DiSC) and have found Insights Discovery Colors to be the most practical, applicable, and easy to use on a daily basis. I've led...