Hello there, fine CEOs of the world, and CEOs of your own world,
Have you ever wished for a personal coach who's always there, always ready, and never judges you for your questionable coffee habits or that time you cried at The Lion King?
Well, buckle up, because artificial intelligence is about to be your new secret weapon: your personal leadership trainer. Less painful than a regular personal trainer, but just as effective at getting you the results you want.
Let's take a journey through the brave new world of AI-assisted leadership enhancement.
Forget intermittent fasting, protein shakes, and fitness tracking watches—here's a workout plan for your executive skillset.
1. Tone It Up: The AI Communication Audit
Are you a Shakespeare in the boardroom, or do your speeches need a little more... punch?
Here's how you can get AI to be your personal speech coach:
Choose your AI sparring partner (like ChatGPT or IBM’s Watson Tone Analyzer).
Toss it a few samples of your written communication—your emails, speeches, tweets, or interpretive dance descriptions.
Let the AI break a sweat analysing your words for tone, clarity, and effectiveness.
Scrutinise the results, and...
Start flexing those communication muscles!
Tip - Here’s how you can prompt Chat GPT:
Prompt 1. Please analyse the tone of these emails. Include observations for tone, clarity, and effectiveness. [insert email]
Prompt 2. Act as communication and influence expert for CEOs in the Boardroom. Please make suggestions on how I can improve my written communication.
Prompt 3. (If needed). Please re-draft the following email/memo with those suggested improvements.
2. Flex Your Empathy: The AI Emotional Intelligence Check
Who needs a personal trainer when you can have an AI-powered coach showing you your emotional reflexes?
Get ready for some EI sentiment sit-ups:
While ChatGPT doesn't perform sentiment analysis directly, it can help you in self-reflection and mindfulness exercises, which are crucial in emotional intelligence growth.
Start a regular practice of documenting your reactions to different situations in a conversation with ChatGPT.
Ask ChatGPT to remind you to consider other perspectives in these situations.
Regularly review these interactions and self-reflect.
Tip - Here’s how you can prompt Chat GPT:
Prompt 1. Act as an emotional intelligence expert. Please analyse the following situations and my response considering attitude, meaning-making, and deductive process. Situation: [provide details and your thinking and emotional responses].
Prompt 2. What are some other perspectives I could take to make sense of this situation?
Prompt 3. What if I did XXXX? What would I need to consider from an emotional intelligence point of view?
3. Time Management Crunches
Time—a resource even your billion-dollar company can't buy more of.
But what if AI could help you squeeze more juice out of your day?
Start by presenting your task list to ChatGPT.
Let the AI help you with those tough decisions about what takes priority.
Set up reminders with your other AI helpers (Google Assistant, Siri, Alexa) —no more forgetting that important meeting or your lunch!
Review your productivity, make a game plan, and refine as necessary.
Tip - Here’s how you can prompt Chat GPT:
Prompt 1. Act as a productivity expert for CEOs. What information do you need from me to help make a schedule for the next three days/week/month to get my critical work done?
Prompt 2. Answer the questions with your relevant information.
Prompt 3. Ask for revisions. (Chat doesn’t always get it right the first time.)
Prompt 4. Is there anything NOT in this draft schedule from my original list of tasks?
Prompt 5. [Once happy with the outline] Can you make that into a table please?
Copy and paste into an email/document to add into your diary.
4. Decision Lunges: AI Decision-Making Review
Let's do some mental lunges to keep that decision-making muscle flexible:
Lay out your tough decisions before ChatGPT—think of it as your decision dumbbell.
Ask ChatGPT to challenge your biases, acting as a friendly (and relentless) sparring partner.
Use this back-and-forth to explore different angles and factors you may have missed.
Finally, reflect on your decisions, comparing the outcomes to your heated discussions with ChatGPT.
Tip - Here’s how you can prompt Chat GPT:
For decisions yet to be made, start with this.
Prompt 1. Please act as a decision-making expert for [insert your position/role in type of business]. I need to decide on XXX. What factors should I consider?
Prompt 2. Acting as a decision-making expert, what question would you ask me first? [continue the conversation, exploring ideas and options]
Prompt 3. What are some possible consequences, obvious and non-obvious, for making this decision?
For reviewing decisions already made, start with this.
Prompt 1. Please act as a decision-making expert for [insert your position/role in type of business]. I recently decided to [insert the decision you made]. I did so because of the following reasons [list reasons]. Please identify the strengths of my reasoning and any gaps or biases you can see.
Prompt 2. If I was making this decision again from scratch, what questions should I ask before I make the decision?
Prompt 3. What are some possible consequences, obvious and non-obvious, for making this decision?
So there you have it! AI isn't just about making your company more efficient—it's about making you more efficient, empathetic, and effective.
Remember, you're not just a CEO (of your life and/or organisation); you're a pioneer, shaping the future one decision, one communication, one prioritisation at a time.
Live well, lead well.
About Zoë Routh, Canberra leadership futurist
Zoë Routh is a leadership futurist, podcaster, and multiple award-winning author. She works with leaders and teams to explore what's coming and what it means for leadership of the future.
She has worked with individuals and teams internationally and in Australia since 1987. From wild Canadian rivers to the Australian Outback, and the Boardroom jungles, Zoë is an adventurist! She facilitates strategy and culture for the future with audacious teams.
Zoë's fourth leadership book, People Stuff - Beyond Personality Problems: An advanced handbook for leadership, won the Book of the Year at the Australian Business Book Awards in 2020. Her fifth book is a leadership futurist science fiction dystopian novel, The Olympus Project.
Zoë is the producer of the Zoë Routh Leadership Podcast, dedicated to asking “What if…?” and sharing big ideas on the Future of Leadership.
Zoë is an outdoor adventurist and enjoys telemark skiing, has run six marathons, is a one-time belly-dancer, has survived cancer, and loves hiking in the high country. She is married to a gorgeous Aussie and is a self-confessed dark chocolate addict.