What happens when we stop outsourcing our power to fear—and start learning from each other?

Here’s the story everyone’s telling right now: AI is coming for your job. And if you’re over 50, the sequel is even darker—AI and the digital natives are coming for your job.

What if both stories are wrong?

The Day I Stopped Outsourcing My Power

For years, I convinced myself that technology and I were sworn enemies. “I’m creative, not technical,” I’d tell myself, neatly placing myself in one box and technology in another. The very idea of tackling newsletter software on my own? Terrifying. So, I did what many of us do—I outsourced it. I let others handle my technology needs, like being handed fish rather than learning to fish for myself.

Then one day, I faced a hard truth: I was letting fear make decisions that belonged to me—handing the keys to someone else because learning felt uncomfortable. So I tried something different. I asked my operations team for help—but not in the usual way. Not “can you do this for me?” but “can you teach me how to do it myself?”

What happened next surprised me. Not only could I learn this technical skill, but mastering it unleashed something unexpected: creative freedom. The very thing I feared would stifle my creativity actually amplified it. And I gained something else—a different kind of relationship with my team. I gave them the gift of being the expert. They gave me the gift of their knowledge. That exchange made us all stronger.

The Stories We Spin

I share this because I see the same dynamic playing out in workplaces everywhere. It’s not just about technology. It’s about the stories we spin about AI, about age, about who belongs at the table.

• The seasoned professional thinks: “My twenty years of experience don’t show up on a skills matrix. Do they even see what I bring?”
• The early-career employee thinks: “They assume I understand AI because I’m under 35. I’m not the IT help desk—I’m a colleague with ideas.”
• The mid-career worker thinks: “I’m exhausted translating between two groups who won’t talk to each other.”
• And everyone is thinking some version of: “What if I’m becoming obsolete?”

Here’s what I’ve learned as a leadership coach: the stories we tell ourselves shape everything. Our confidence. Our choices. Our capacity to grow. The good news? Stories can be reframed.

The Gifts YOU Bring

What if we stopped defending our generational boxes and started naming the skills, knowledge and unique perspectives that each of us offers?

Seasoned professionals bring:

• Pattern recognition that only comes from living through cycles. You’ve seen what works, what fails, and what “urgent priorities” will fade in six months.
• Institutional knowledge—not just what the policy says, but why it exists and what happened when someone tried to change it.
• Relationships built over years. Trust that can’t be fast-tracked.
• The judgment to know when the AI is confidently wrong. Someone has to catch the errors. That requires wisdom no algorithm has.

Early-career professionals bring:

• Fresh eyes. They see inefficiencies that have become invisible to everyone else.
• Fluency with emerging tools—not because they’re smarter, but because they grew up with them.
• Questions that challenge “we’ve always done it this way.” Sometimes those questions are exactly what’s needed.
• Comfort with ambiguity and speed. The willingness to experiment.

And here’s what humans of every generation bring that AI never will:

• The ability to sit with someone who’s frustrated and make them feel genuinely heard.
• The ethical judgment to know when following the rules isn’t the same as doing what’s right.
• The capacity to see potential in a colleague that no algorithm would detect.
• The courage to say, “teach me.” The grace to say, “let me show you.”