Exploring AI Anxiety With A Leader In Charge Of AI Transformation with Lee Gonzales

The Anxious Achiever

Morra Aarons-Mele

Business, Careers, Management, Health & Fitness, Mental Health

4.7 • 599 Ratings

🗓️ 2 December 2025

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What if your AI anxiety isn’t a flaw, but a signal to evolve how you work? In this episode, I sit down with Lee Gonzales, engineering leader and creator of BetterUp’s AI Flight School, to talk about why AI feels existential, why it threatens your craft and identity, and how you can move from fear to agency. We dive into how psychological safety, values, and collective sensemaking help people shift from “AI will replace me” to “AI can expand me.” Tune in if you’re ready to move from avoidance to informed action and become the pilot of your AI future, not the passenger. Check out our sponsors: Northwest Registered Agent - Protect your privacy, build your brand and get your complete business identity in just 10 clicks and 10 minutes! Visit https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/achieverfree In this Episode, You Will Learn 00:00 Why AI anxiety pushed Lee to reinvent his entire career. 04:45 How AI differs from every prior technological leap. 08:00 What distinguishes an “AI passenger” from an “AI pilot”? 10:00 Is the agency real or a helpful illusion? 14:45 Why psychological safety is the first requirement for AI learning. 18:03 How to reframe anxiety into possibility using values and task design. 22:15 Why AI can weaken your cognitive muscles if you’re not careful. 25:15 The values-based exercise that helps you understand your resistance. 28:45 Why engineers struggle with AI’s impact on the craft they love.30:30 What AlphaGo teaches us about self-learning systems and exponential change. 32:00 How prompting helps people reflect on values and reclaim agency. 34:15 Lee’s “aha” moment from Flight School participants. 36:00 Why AI can feel like an “infinite agency machine” when used well. Resources + Links Get a copy of my book - The Anxious Achiever Watch the podcast on YouTube Find more resources on our website morraam.com Follow Follow me: on LinkedIn @morraaronsmele + Instagram @morraam Follow Lee on LinkedIn: @leegonzales

Transcript

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0:00.0	Why would an engineer who's in charge of AI transformation at their company say that they are so anxious about the potential of what AI means for all of us, that they radically changed how they work to help people get in touch with their feelings about AI.
0:23.1	I'm Maura Erin Smealy, and this is the anxious achiever,
0:26.6	the show that looks at the intersection of mental health and leadership and work
0:31.0	and asks, how can we do it all better?
0:35.1	Today, my conversation with Lee Gonzalez, who is the director of AI transformation
0:40.4	at Better Up, the coaching and leadership platform. Lee is excited about AI. Like a lot of us,
0:48.0	he uses it in a pretty transformative way every day. And yet, he says that if we aren't in touch with how we feel about AI,
0:58.5	our values around what AI transformation means, it could lead to really bad outcomes. And that's
1:05.9	why he created something called Flight School in which better up employees go through an intense, intimate program
1:14.7	about implementing AI transformation in their work. And it starts with feelings. As you know,
1:22.1	if you've been reading my work, AI anxiety is top of mind for me. And I was thrilled to find Lee, who's very open about his
1:29.5	own AI anxiety, the excitement he also feels about the potential of this technology, and why we all
1:37.2	have to start with how we feel about AI to implement it and build a great future.
1:43.7	So my conversation with Lee Gonzalez.
1:50.4	Lee, I'm really excited to have you on the show. Thanks for having me. Totally. Well, we did an
1:55.9	interview for my Harvard Business Review article on AI anxiety and leadership.
2:01.9	And I was so struck by our conversation,
2:03.8	I wanted to bring you live to our listeners, not just on print.
2:09.2	How's your AI anxiety right now?
2:11.6	That's a great question.
2:13.3	I would describe my AI anxiety as simultaneously off the charts and well under control because I've
2:23.5	moved proverbial heaven and earth and reinvented my whole career around what I feel I need
	...

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