"If you piss off one of our salespeople, I will take you out."

That was the suddenly deadly serious warning from Snowflake CMO Denise Persson during a conversation I had with her and former Snowflake CRO Chris Degnan in front of 32 entranced CMOs. It was a mic-drop moment that prompted an immediate question in my mind:

What are your leadership redlines?

We had been discussing how marketing teams should work with sales and what behaviors cross the line. Denise didn’t hesitate. As she explained it, upsetting a salesperson isn’t just a minor offense. It threatens one of the most important relationships inside the company.

A clear redline.

A New Leadership Redline

Great leaders tend to have a clear redline. They know the behaviors they simply won’t tolerate because those behaviors undermine the company. Lately, however, I’ve been wrestling with a different kind of redline.

AI adoption.

After giving employees access to the tools and providing training, how long should leaders tolerate non-usage?

One leadership perspective I heard recently reframed the issue this way: imagine a job candidate saying, “I’m excited about this role, but I should mention that I don’t use electricity or the internet.”

That would sound absurd.

In many ways, AI is quickly becoming the same kind of foundational capability.

During a recent Huddle, one CMO shared that every employee was now being rated on a scale of 1 to 5 for AI proficiency. A one meant non-usage. A five meant someone operating almost like an AI engineer. The goal was to get most of the organization to at least a three. After training, however, staying at a one was a ticket out the door.

When the Redline Gets Complicated

At our Strategy Labs, several CMOs raised a more complicated challenge: employees who object to AI for moral reasons, whether due to energy and water consumption or copyright concerns. Some leaders had tried to present comparative data showing that LLM queries use similar energy to Google searches. But most agreed that if someone holds a deeply principled objection, data alone probably won’t change their mind.

This is where leadership gets uncomfortable. Time for some radical candor?

I love having employees who challenge themselves to use AI in increasingly creative and productive ways. The best marketers I know are experimenting constantly. They are curious. They are learning in public. They are pushing the tools further every week.

My Redline?

Would I hire someone who refuses to use AI at all?

Not a chance.

Leadership requires empathy. But it also requires clarity about the standards that move the company forward. For Denise Persson, one redline is protecting the relationship between marketing and sales.

For many CMOs right now, another redline may be emerging.

Refusing to engage with AI.

So I’m curious. What are your leadership redlines?

Written by Drew Neisser