Meet Your *Ethical* Thought Partner: Generative AI

I’ve been immersed in management and leadership development for decades, and yet – when I was managing a team myself, I could still get tripped up preparing for a difficult conversation with one of my staff. I’d sometimes feel blocked, stuck on finding the right words to start the conversation productively. It can happen to anyone—especially when emotions like frustration are involved, or when we’re simply tired or overloaded.

That’s when I’d lean on trusted colleagues or mentors—people who listen without judgment, keep things confidential, and offer ideas that help me get unstuck. But those people aren’t always available in the moment we need them. That’s where an AI thought partner can be surprisingly helpful—when you know how to prompt it effectively.

Handle With Care & Be a Good Human

Security: When using AI at work, always follow your company’s AI policies. Full stop. 

Don’t Outsource Your Brain: Start with your own thinking, then use generative AI to help refine it, for ex, asking for ways to phrase a feedback message.

Confidentiality: Never include a person’s or company’s name in your prompts. Even if your AI tool offers private data handling, it’s best practice to keep all names out of it. 

Ethics: When using AI to prepare for feedback or performance conversations, keep the goal focused on supporting someone’s growth and your team’s success—not on manipulation, control or belittling others.

Prompt, Prompt and Prompt Again

AI is not a replacement for a human sounding board, but it can help you think things through when time or people aren’t available.  To get useful answers, give your AI plenty of context in your initial prompt. Instead of something like “I have an employee who’s struggling with attention to detail. What should I say to start a discussion about it?”, share something like this:  

I run a Talent Development team of 4 for a medical device manufacturer.  I have one employee who is struggling with attention to detail.  One part of his job requires managing enrollment of participants in various in-person and live online sessions, like New Hire Orientation, Manager Foundations and other programs.  He is new to the workforce, only a few years out of school. While he is strong in other areas of his job, he is not meeting expectations in tracking who is enrolled in what and following up on people who have not replied to various session invitations, etc.  I’ve given him ideas on how to organize and track but nothing has improved.  I’m frustrated as is the rest of the team.  Our company functions in various time zones and moves at a very fast pace.  His poor performance is creating “fire drills” that the rest of us have to address and impacts our reputation with our internal partners.  I want to share how serious this performance issue is without causing him to shut down or get defensive.  What can I say to communicate the importance of improving his performance while also setting up the conversation for success?

Here's a completely different example of a detailed prompt:

I work for a video game company which has $900 million in revenue and 1100 employees in 4 countries. [share whatever specifics are relevant] My R&D team (7 people) has been working on a number of exploratory projects. The C-Suite has decided that funding and resources will now be focused on advancing only two of our projects. My manager has asked me to redirect the team’s efforts toward specific milestones supporting only those projects, while scaling down work on others.  No one is losing their job, though some don’t believe that.  Plus, some team members feel discouraged that their exploratory work is being shelved, while others are unhappy about the sudden deadlines. I need to clarify expectations, co-create a plan for our new deliverables, and keep the team engaged during this time of disruption.  We are a dispersed team with 5 in California and 2 in the UK.  Our work model is hybrid with 3 days in the office and 2 at home.  What are some suggestions for things I should say and do to get started to deal with this situation?

Plug these in to your AI tool to see what you get. You’ll be impressed by how useful the suggestions are. The responses will be far from perfect, but you can refine them by adding more context in follow-up prompts. Of course, in the end, you’ll still need to apply your own judgment on how best to proceed.

Keep Humans in the Loop

Nothing replaces human insight—so lean on your trusted colleagues and mentors whenever you can.  They know you – your strengths, your blind spots, your values, your good days, your bad days – in a way that an AI tool never could.

Don’t outsource your brain. Start with your own thinking and then use AI to refine it or to give you a jumpstart when you get stuck.

AI is here to stay.  Use it – ethically – to accelerate your ability to manage your team and your work.  I’ve developed a one hour webinar on this topic of prompts for effective management and leadership, and I’ve integrated a prompts segment into almost every module of my management and leadership training.  Interested?  Reach out anytime.