The real challenge is leaders not acknowledging effective communications as THE issue to be addressed. We did a recent Google search asking, “What is the biggest leadership challenge in business today?” The Pacific Institute stated the top 10 leadership challenges and, to their credit, did mention communications as #3. A featured LinkedIn article from last month did not mention communications as did a Forbes article that only mentioned that leaders are overwhelmed. A featured Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) article listed 20 issues, 5 for each level of leadership and did not once directly mention effective communications as a key issue. What is important to this conversation is that none of the issues listed by any of the sources can be resolved or mitigated without effective communications!
So, is it any wonder that in an AI infused business environment, leaders struggle to effectively communicate? Not if communications is viewed as an assumed skill and attitude and not actively viewed as THE skill and attitude for sustainable success. When coaching clients, we use the metaphor of a carpenter. A good carpenter knows how to use power tools to their advantage. A lousy carpenter will use power tools to just screw up the project faster. The same is true of AI and communications.
The big pitch in using AI is how effective the user prompts are when engaging with any of the AI tools on the market. A poorly crafted prompt will generate a poorly aligned answer resulting in multiple prompts for the user to get the desired result. The same is true of communications. We communicate to generate a behavioral response from the other party. When leaders communicate to their teams in poorly crafted or vague language, they will get confusion and likely result in the wrong behavior initially. They then have to go through multiple iterations (prompts) to get the desired results. The more specific the leader’s ask, the more specific the follower’s results!
The other challenge we see is the trade-off of quality and time. As frequent AI users, we recognize the advantage of speed in using the many AI tools on the market. We also recognize the lack of quality in the many generic, non-contextual replies generated, even with great prompts. As we’ve written so many times on the challenges the lack of critical thinking presents to leaders, AI can compound those challenges. Leaders who fall prey to confirmation bias, for instance, are looking for answers that confirm their preconceived ideas of what should happen in a given situation. The same lack of critical thinking from an AI user merely confirms a false premise sooner in the absence of critical thinking! Confirmation bias is just one of many examples of this trade-off of something that sounds right (but may not be) for the sake of speed of response.
In a recent
LinkedIn article, Dave Ulrich, noted speaker, author, and professor at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, presented a unique formula effectively combining AI with what he calls HI (Human Ingenuity). He suggests that Talent Advantage = AI * HI where the real value exists in a multiplicative fashion rather than an additive fashion. As he said, “Either AI or HI without the other severely limits overall talent.” This combination manifests itself when leaders communicate to their teams in a way that optimizes talent (HI) and tools (AI) to achieve desired results and sustainable success.
How are you leveraging AI in your leadership communication? If you’re not sure,
we can help.
Lead Well!
