I am now a morning person.

From school to the C-suite, we’re taught that value comes from having the right answer and producing individual results. We reward those who solve problems, not those who build systems that prevent them. Over time, leaders internalize a dangerous belief that their worth lies in what they do alone, not in what they enable. That identity becomes especially brittle in messy, unpredictable environments where past success patterns don’t apply. The very strengths of pattern recognition, decisive action, and personal ownership that helped leaders rise can become liabilities as complexity increases. The real shift is from hero to architect: clarifying intent, codifying principles, and building decision systems others can use without you.

Many leaders are excited about the promise of AI coding tools that can make it easier for novices to write code and, seemingly, make experienced coders less essential. Yet these tools make experience more—not less—important, as AI is not a replacement for real engineers. Companies that want to use these tools should follow common rules. Make sure every change it makes is double-checked—with automatic checks, simple tests that confirm things still work, and at least one human review. Keep access limited: Let AI work only in a safe “practice” environment, never give it the keys to live customer data, and routinely check for basic security mistakes like files or storage left open to the public. Overall, keep experienced engineers in charge of the design, the rules, and the safety checks so AI’s speed doesn’t turn into costly failures.