When Jill and I sat down with Michelle Duval, founder and CEO of Marlee, an AI coaching platform, we knew we were in for an inspiring conversation. Much to our delight, her insights resonated deeply with everything we believe about seeing the workplace as more human.
Michelle shared her expertise in AI and coaching, her personal journey of survival, and her vision for democratizing human potential. Here are five takeaways from our conversation that stayed with us.
1. Coaching Isn’t About Having All the Answers. It’s About Potential
Here’s a distinction that really hit home: traditional management has been about authority and leaders having all the answers. But coaching operates from a different philosophy entirely. As Michelle put it, coaching says, "You as a human being have potential. You have ideas and creativity. You have things that this workplace may never have even thought of."
This shift from telling people how to be to helping them discover how they want to show up isn't semantics. It's transformative. It creates an operating system within organizations that empowers people to contribute their uniqueness rather than simply conforming to rigid processes.
2. External Motivation Only Gets You So Far
Jill and I both train in the gym, so when Michelle talked about motivation science we were all ears. Marlee has the largest dataset in the world on human motivation — 16 billion data points to be exact. So what have they learned? People don't burn out from hard work; they burn out from working without meaning.
Cool perks, monetary bonuses, even hybrid work options: these external motivators don't tap into the root of what actually drives us. When people understand their intrinsic motivations and can align them with their daily work, that's when magic happens. That's when work fuels you instead of draining you.
3. Gen Z Has Mixed Feelings About AI (And We Should Listen)
Headlines suggest Gen Z loves AI, but Michelle's research tells a more nuanced story. Yes, they embrace AI as a personal confidant and support tool. But they're also scared about what AI means for future job opportunities and how to start building their careers in this rapidly changing landscape.
Meanwhile, millennials are the deepest embracers of AI, learning to collaborate with it personally and as leaders. And baby boomers? They’re early adopters, but they’re often copying and pasting AI’s work verbatim, without seeing it as an opportunity for true collaboration. Understanding these generational differences matters as we build workplaces that work for everyone.
4. Leadership Needs To Earn Trust
This one stung a little, but it's important. Michelle explained that people sometimes prefer AI to their boss because they can be vulnerable and open without fear of judgment or hidden agendas. With AI, there's a sense that it's there to meet your needs, not manipulate you toward an organization's agenda.
What does this tell us about human leadership? That we need to shift away from autocratic, organization-only approaches and work toward genuine collaboration. The future of work requires leaders who respect that employees bring values, lives, and unique perspectives that deserve to be met in the middle.
5. We All Have The Ability to Create
Michelle's personal stories with multiple near-death experiences — and one brain-eating autoimmune disease with no cure – were extraordinary because she essentially coached herself through survival and healing. But what struck us most was her stance that this capability isn't special to her. Every human has this ability to go to the edge of their potential and create solutions.
That's what coaching does. It doesn't promise to have the next step figured out. It says, "Let's figure it out together using the resources we have." And that's exactly the mindset we need as we navigate being humans in the workplace.
The Future of Work is Compassionate (And We’re Ready For It)
What gives Michelle hope about the future of work? It’s the younger generation coming through. After studying Gen Z in depth, she knows their deep empathy and compassion for a sustainable future will reshape work in ways no generation has before.
After this conversation, Jill and I share that hope, too. Because if there’s one thing Michelle taught us, it’s that when we embrace our humanity — when we coach instead of command, when we tap into internal motivations, when we collaborate authentically — we’re not just surviving work anymore. We’re reinventing the future for the better.
Listen to the full episode of Work Made Human to hear more from Michelle Duval about AI, coaching culture, and why she wanted to be a race car driver as a kid (spoiler: so did Jill).
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