6 Ideas to Use ChatGPT for Leadership

You should be excited. A hot trend in leadership training is emerging.

Mar 23, 2023

Don’t try to fight it. Jump on the bandwagon.

ChatGPT is here!

Most people use it to write poems and cheeky hip-hop songs. But what if you could use it for leadership? For developing others? For your job? Even an HR strategy?

This AI can potentially help you and your team communicate more effectively. Set realistic plans. You do not need money for an expensive coach or course. With a bit of creativity, you get free food for thought.

Yummy!

ChatGPT: What is the hype about?

If you are a fan of Isaac Asimov, you will welcome this recent effort to build AI. ChatGPT is an AI chatbot developed by OpenAI and launched in November 2022.

A fun part of the software is that it's trained to speak quite naturally. ChatGPT can respond to questions and help with, for instance:

Check your text and correct mistakes
Analyzing the sentiment(s) of a text
Create social media posts
Product descriptions
Prepare the codes
Write articles
Plans & goals
Summaries
How-to
Emails
Poems

Limitations

Consider these before copying everything:

Human language & bias: While it is continually learning and improving, it can’t fully understand what you say. Plus, it can include some biases since the software was trained based on text humans have produced over time.
Accuracy: Not all information AI has is up to date.
Machine text: ChatGPT gives you text but always checks it to make it sound human-like
No source of information: AI summarizes well and answers questions, but where? It can give you statistics but without context or proper commentary.
Sarcasm and irony: The software is not far away from being your mate!
Place easy questions: The less is more because AI might focus on only one part of the question instead of the second.

But now, let's see how you can take advantage of ChatGPT for your leadership and management. Let it roll!

“Robot" is a machine that makes the functions of a man.” ― Karel Čapek, R.U.R.

1. Where to start brainstorming

When you have no idea where to start, ChatGPT might be a resource to kick off your thoughts.

See this example question:

You get some ideas. When you focus on keywords, you can make a list of things to explore further. Like communication, problem-solving, delegation, or a growth mindset.

Let’s say you wonder how you can cultivate a growth mindset.

Some of these points might make you think. Do you do negative self-talk? Are you lazy and don’t look for challenges? It is like giving yourself a coaching session with a ChatGPT tool.

Lastly, you can end up with a list of resources to start with.

As you can see, you don’t have to wait for a 1-on-1 meeting to find out what to do. A bit of curiosity and a focus on keywords can help you explore new horizons. Even start thinking about your leadership development.

Similar tactics could be used on any topic. You can ask about how to deliver practical feedback and what to prepare for it. You can ask for a piece of advice when you receive a nasty email. Ask how to prepare for a firing meeting.

This tool is great for bouncing initial ideas.

When you feel stuck, you don’t feel supported. You have a CHOICE to do something yourself. ChatGPT is just one of the tools you can use to move on.

2. Training outlines and schedules

Imagine you are asked to deliver one-day training to your team about leadership. Many would freak out! What to include? How to schedule a session?

No need for stress. ChatGPT can help you with that. Look at the schedule and outline the software just generated for you:

It is definitely a challenging timeline. It covers a lot of communication, and you may wonder if you will have enough time to practice. Instead of copying this schedule, you take it and change it based on the goals of the session and priorities.

What I like about it is the generic idea of how one-day training can work. So, even someone who has no prior experience can imagine how it looks and what is included.

It can significantly reduce the amount of time spent on preparing plans based on learning and developmental needs. An example of one-year planning using ChatGPT looks like this:

Sweet! You have a plan for the whole year. Something to apply to yourself and to your team too. Again it is flexible. You can play with it as it suits your needs.

3. Engagement

Leaders often struggle with disengaged and demotivated people. But they fear discussing it with their colleagues. They don’t want to look incapable. In such situations, you can use ChatGPT to seek suggestions.

The AI will give you a list, like:

Run a satisfaction survey to understand why
Organize outside-office activities
Implement a better reward system
Improve your communication
Set clear expectations
Etc.

The machine's ability to help you solve some problems may impress you. To determine what is relevant to your culture, you need to analyze what the answer is and what isn't.

Yet, in general, ChatGPT can be a helpful venting tool for managers who deal with a lot of stress and overload. #selfhelp without relying on the time management of your boss to support you.

4. (HR) guidelines and processes

Leading a team requires a hand in creating knowledge and people processes. Especially when you might not have an HR department to do it for

Things like hiring, onboarding, developmental plans, handovers, and exit interviews take ages to draft. They are needed to keep some consistency between teams. Since ChatGPT can write articles, it can write guidelines too.

You will have to check and edit the articles into the final version but you can use its suggestions to formulate the key points and have a starting point.

Don’t waste time where you don’t have to.

5. Team/performance management

ChatGPT can help you with team and performance management. Despite the fact that ChatGPT might not be accurate and not reflect the situation, you can test it for team management.

Quite sensible suggestions from a machine, huh?

6. Reflect on your human touch

ChatGPT gives you an opportunity to reflect on your leadership skills. It gives you bones, but what meat you put on is completely up to you.

People and software say “be more empathetic” or “listen better” but without any conscious action, these are just words.

AI will NOT replace humans – leaders uniquely human attributes are needed to ‘partner’ with AI in order to create positive outcomes. - nextmapping.com

It is up to you to use it or lose it. Chris Croft would say to learn as many things as possible since you never know where you end up.

Exploring ChatGPT is one of these things.

TL;DR

These are areas you may find ChatGPT useful:

Brainstorming
Outlines and schedules
Engagement ideas
Guidelines and process
Team management
Reflection

Are you buzzing with questions?

➡️ Join a monthly 1-h session for leadink members on the 28th of March at 5 pm (CET): Share your questions and participation