What's that one boundary that somebody will cross with you all day long? But the second that you do the same thing to them, they look at you like you are the one that committed a crime. I know that caught you off guard. It caught me off guard too. And I could not wait to do this episode because I got to tattletale on somebody. I do. I really do. And I am telling. You know, when we were kids, our parents always told, I don't know about your parents, but my parents always said, stay in a child's place, stop tattletelling. Well, today I'm tattletelling. And I believe that you might actually be able to relate to this episode. And if you can, I don't want you to leave me hanging. I want you to chime in. Because I know that I cannot be the only person who's had somebody step all the way into my your own lane. Then they look at you confused, like, what are you doing? And then I look back at you and I'm like, Well, what are you doing? I mean, like, what are we actually doing here? And before somebody gets on here and they're like, well, maybe they're just trying to help. Mm-hmm. We're gonna talk about that too. Because there's a difference between helping somebody and helping yourself to somebody else's responsibilities. Did you get that? I'm not gonna repeat it. I just really don't feel like it. People cross the lines all the time. When you're driving, they crossing the lines. You know what I'm talking about. When they're at work, they end your business, they end, they're out of bounds. In business, you got the same exact thing. In relationships, the same exact thing. And then these same exact people wonder why they don't have supporters. Why is there tension? Why do people stop communicating with them? Why nobody wants to collaborate with them? Well, you keep jumping in somebody else's lane. And eventually you're gonna cause an accident. That's what happens. And what's crazy about this is that the same people, the same person who will drive all the way over in your lane will lose their mind the second somebody crosses the lane that they're in. So, yes, let me tattletell for a minute. But to be honest, this isn't really about somebody doing something that they're not supposed to do. It goes beyond that. It is bigger than that. It's about boundaries, it's about respect, it's about knowing your assignment. And it's also about understanding that just because you can do something doesn't necessarily mean that you should do it. And that is very important, especially right now in today's time, because technology has given us access to things that we didn't have access to before. AI can help you write it, design it, research it, build it, analyze it, code it, everything. And I mean, that is amazing because I use it in everything, and I'm not gonna stop using it. I don't care what nobody says. But access. Access can make a person feel like they're qualified to do something that they really don't understand. Now you're not just doing too much. You could be costing yourself time, you could be costing yourself money, you could be costing trust issues, relationship problems, and you can cost yourself the results. So listen, let me go ahead and start tattletelling, okay? This is what happened. So I have certain things that I do with a specific client. And those things, one of those things is the marketing, right? The flyers and things of that nature. That's normally my ballpark. You know, everybody comes to me and they're like, hey, can you do this? Da-da-da-da. And I'm like, okay, cool. In this specific situation, a coworker decided they they wanted to do their own flyer. They was going to put it together themselves. And I didn't know anything about it until they sent the email showing me that they already sent it out, right? They're waiting for approval. And I mean, to me, it's kind of like, I'm not a gatekeeper. I don't really care if you decide to do something that I normally do. Just make sure that you're doing it right and you don't need my help. But the problem wasn't even the fact that this person may not have been capable of doing the flyer. It was more so that why are you doing something somebody else was already tasked to do? Why are you doing something that someone else was already paid to do? Because I believe when you are tasked to do something specific or when you're paid to do something specific, you do it. That's your job. And when somebody else is tasked to do something, I let them do what they're supposed to do. Now, I can see if we were working together in this situation, but we wasn't. We wasn't working together. We might be working on the same project, but we ain't working together on the same thing. You feel what I'm saying? And if I needed help, I would ask for the help. But I this is something that I didn't even need help with. It was something that I didn't even know nothing about. They created it themselves. And I'm all for teamwork because teamwork makes the dream work. That's what they say, right? But you can't just walk into somebody else's assignment, start doing their work, and then call the teamwork. But here's where the problem started. The person did all of the work, created this whole thing, then came back to me and asked me, could I help them fix it? See, some people, they will cross every boundary that you have. And then they will get upset if you get in their way or if you start doing what they're doing. They want freedom to move however they want to move. But then the minute that you start doing something that is along their line of work, they consider that theirs. They consider that out of bounds. And that's the problem. You can't operate like that. See, I know what you're thinking. You're like, well, who is it? What's going on? Like, I'm not giving you the T like that. This is not that type of podcast. As you already know now, that it's not about somebody else or other people. It's about you. It's about the situations that we go through every day that people are not talking about. Things aren't being addressed because everybody else is focusing on what is trending, what is hot, and who's the expert in this season. But back to my story. You can't operate like that. Eventually, what happens when you start operating like that, you start getting in other people's lane, you're out of bounds. It's going to destroy trust. And once the trust starts disappearing, the loyalty is not going to be far behind that. And I'm not talking about loyalty from your friends, like somebody owes you something. I'm talking about the loyalty that will exist when you have respect. When you respect me, I respect you. I know my responsibilities, you know yours. And neither of us is going to feel like we have to compete with each other. You don't have to prove your value. I don't have to prove my value. Because if we're really a team, I don't have to make you look like you're unworthy and that I'm more valuable. And if the dynamics of your workplace are every man for themselves, my goodness, that's not a team. It's not. That's competition. That's competition wearing a company shirt. And don't get me wrong, I ain't mad at AI about this. AI is great. It is interesting. It's giving us access to almost everything. But it has a lot of y'all out here thinking it's all like the engineer now, the designer now, the marketer now, the strategist. Like you are the grant writer. Everybody can code now until something breaks, like that individual who decided to go from being a manager of teams to a marketer, then needing help to fix the mess that she created with AI. And you know the crazy thing was about that? I knew it was AI because you can tell the little nuances when a person's using AI for the first time, they don't know what they're doing. You can tell because there's certain things that people leave behind that is a clear sign that this was built by a LLM. So thank you for listening to me, Rand. And you know I always gotta leave you with something. There are a few things that I want to talk to you about before we leave. The first thing is you gotta know your own assignment. What are you responsible for? Because some of you are exhausted because you're doing your job, somebody else's job, something that you volunteered yourself to do. Maybe you're even doing something that nobody even asked you to do. Or maybe you out there thinking that you top flight security, Craig, and that you can do it much better than the person who is skilled to do it. And now you're overwhelmed. So I need you to think about that. Know your assignment, look at what you are doing this week and make sure that you're able to identify what you are responsible for and start in that position and execute what you are responsible for. The second thing is we have to stop confusing initiative with interference. Before you go in and step into somebody else's responsibility, you have to ask yourself, did they ask me to do this? Is this something that I get paid to do? Is this a team responsibility? Am I helping this person? Because sometimes what we call helping is really positioning. And with the person that I had mentioned earlier about, I know that this person has a problem with certain things where they feel like they can do it better and that nobody else needs to be working because they can do it all. But before you actually take over something that isn't yours, I challenge you to communicate first. A conversation can prevent a whole lot of unnecessary mess, mistrust, bad vibes. And another thing, speaking of bad vibes, you gotta check your double standards because somebody that you crossed comes and crossed you. You can't get mad about that. If you're constantly out here crossing other people's boundaries, but then you get offended when somebody else crosses yours, you're operating with a double standard. You don't get unlimited access to everybody else's lane while you are out here gatekeeping. As they would say back in the day, you gotta check yourself before you wreck yourself. And respect has to go both ways. I mean, really, think about the last time somebody crossed you, whether you was driving, whether you was at work, or whatever it is, they crossed one of your boundaries. And then when you think about that, ask yourself, were you respecting the same boundary with other people? Yeah, I know. Excuse me. I know I just sat right there in your business. Because nine times out of ten, you are leading with a double standard. You're not thinking about anybody but yourself. And like I told you in the last episode, use AI in your own lane. Everybody should have an assistant. Everybody should. And AI can be that assistant, but you gotta have an assistant that works in your lane, not somebody else's. So that means if you're in operation in operations, strengthen your operations. If you're in marketing, strengthen your marketing. If you're in sales, use it for research. AI should multiply your expertise, it should not manufacture arrogance, it should not allow you to break rules and overstep boundaries. And don't think that just because you got access to Chat GPT, that you don't need nobody anymore. And that's what a lot of people do. And it was so funny. Like, I gotta go back to this story because I could like read through the text. It's kind of like you know how when somebody sends an email and you can kind of hear their tone through the email, all I could do was just laugh. Because when I looked at the delivery that she sent, I was just like, oh MG. So you went and got Chat GPT and you thought that you was the stuff and that y'all don't need anybody anymore. Like, what would it, what are we uh paying her for? We could just do it ourselves. But yet you got stock photos on there, you got stock logos that ain't even the company's logos. You got so much stuff on there that is blatantly disrespectful to any person that has a creative bone. So, yes, AI can save you money, it can help you with things, it can help you save time, but sometimes the smartest thing that you can do is to get out of other people's way and stay in your lane. Let the experts do what the experts do, okay? And lastly, this one is important though, for real. Like, seriously, leaders, you gotta paint the lines. When I mean paint the lines, you have to make sure that people stay within their own bounds, right? Like within your own fence that you may have put around you, within your own office, right? You gotta protect who owns what, who approves what, who has the final say. Like you have to make it very clear because what I see a lot of people do is that they think that because they have their have access to certain things that they can do other people's jobs, and then they come up with these ideas and they don't know how to back it up because you're waiting for an AI computer to give you all of the steps, and then it becomes confusion. Then the next thing you know, people are having bad feelings when they go to work or in the same space, they don't want to be in the same breathing space, like they just is it becomes a huge problem. So you have to paint the lines, you have to draw the lines so that people know where they stand and what they are supposed to be doing. So if you lead a team, identify the responsibilities for every person. If the ownership isn't clear, then you have to assign it because if not, you're gonna have a whole problem. And then the people who are experts in something, they are going to fall back and just be like, you know what? Well, let them have it. Let them do it. Because that's exactly what I was thinking about. I was like, okay, I'm on to something else. When I got that email and the person said, Hey, can you help me fix this? I looked at it and was like, absolutely not. And the reason why I cannot help you fix it is because you took it upon yourself to do something that I am doing or that I'm always tasked to do. That's what I'm paid to do. So stay in your lane and get out my way. Point blank period, right? The most important thing is that I want to reiterate is that you don't have to know everything. You don't have to be everything to everybody. You don't have to prove that everybody around you is replaceable for you to shine and be valuable. You just have to know who you are. Know what you bring to the table, know your assignment, and get good at what you do, right? Use AI. Use it to your advantage. Put that thing in the passenger seat. Let it help you think, let it help you learn, let it help you move faster, let it help you execute. But don't mistake having an AI assistant puts you in a place above everybody else who's an expert in their own industry or their own field. Because eventually something is going to break. And if you don't know what you're doing, you won't be on the outside looking in. Real silly, too. Somebody has to actually know what they're doing. And that's the difference between being capable and being qualified. That's the difference between being helpful and being out of bounds. I told you that I was coming to tattletale. So don't leave me out here by myself. Who are you tattletaling on? If you ever had somebody step into your lane and do something that had you looking at them like, yo, what are you doing? Why are you even doing this? I want to hear from you, okay? Chime in, tell me what happened. And if you are listening to this and you realize, dang it, I might be that one that's doing too much. I applaud you for acknowledging that. Now I'm challenging you to pay it forward and send this episode to somebody who needs it, okay? But don't send it like a petty shout out. Don't be petty. Don't be starting no mess over there. And then telling them that Juanita with mid-hour chat told you to do it. Don't be blaming it on me because I plead the fifth. I ain't got nothing to do with that. My name is Bennett and I ain't in it. But send it because somebody genuinely needs this reminder. Respect people's expertise. Know your assignment. Use AI to enhance what you bring to the table, but don't try to erase somebody else's existence or value. Because connecting the dots between who you are and how you move means knowing when it's time to move. And knowing when it's time or when something is just out of touch, when you're out of bounds.