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As a leader, your job is to know what matters. You must use your sound judgment and good taste. AI responds to what you give it. The quality of what you get back depends on:
- how you formulate your task
- what context you provide
- how clearly you have thought things through.
Your prompt and the number of iterations you use to reach the right result are crucial to the quality you get. That means you must use your ability to make sound judgements just as much as you usually do and perhaps a bit more.
It can be helpful to think of AI as a very competent, but new, inexperienced, and untested colleague. It can help with:
• structuring
• formulating
• challenging
• providing perspective
But it does not know what matters unless you make it clear. So if you feed it junk, you’ll get junk. If you give it structured, precise, and prioritized information, it will give you an intelligent response.
AI in leadership is therefore not about technology. It is about how you as a leader think and communicate. Many people do not gain value from AI because they ask vague or imprecise questions. For example:
“Can you help me prepare my employee conversations?”
Here, AI could simply respond: yes.
Not because it is unintelligent. But AI works best when you are clear about three things:
• Your role
• The situation
• The desired output.
A good prompt therefore sounds more like an instruction than a question, and it contains commands.
When learning to code, one of the first things you do is learn how to give commands. You can do this even without a computer. It is about how you give instructions. A concrete instruction could be: move 10 pixels to the left, or find three Indian restaurants with good reviews in Copenhagen that are open now. This is very similar to the logic you should use when communicating with AI. As a leader, you should pay attention to providing the right context and writing good prompts.
Below, you’ll get 10 go-to prompt for leaders.
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10 Go-To Prompts for Leaders
This is a simple structure you can always use:
Role + Situation + Task
Here are 10 prompts you can take and use right away:
1. Structure a complex issue
“I am a leader of [type of team/organization]. I am facing the following challenge: [description]. Help me structure the issue into 3–4 key perspectives.”
2. Prepare an important conversation
“I am going to have a conversation with [role/person] about [situation]. My goal is [goal]. Help me structure the conversation so that it becomes clear and respectful.”
3. Get sparring on a decision
“I am considering the following options: [A and B]. My context is [brief description]. Help me analyze advantages, risks, and what I might be overlooking.”
4. Challenge your own thinking
“Here is my current assessment: [description]. Challenge my thinking and point out possible blind spots.”
5. Prepare communication
“I need to communicate the following message to [target audience]. The tone should be [e.g., clear, direct, respectful]. Help me formulate a short and clear message.”
6. Structure a meeting
“I am going to hold a meeting about [topic]. The goal is [goal]. Help me create a clear agenda focused on progress and decisions.”
7. Analyze material quickly
“Summarize the key points in this document and highlight what is most relevant for a leader.”
8. Reflect on a leadership situation
“I am experiencing the following situation in my team: [description]. Ask me 3 questions that can help me better understand the situation as a leader.”
9. Prepare feedback
“I need to give feedback to [person] about [situation]. Help me formulate the message so that it is clear and developmental.”
10. Create overview before a decision
“I need to make a decision about [topic]. Help me structure the key factors I should consider.”
You do not need to use these prompts perfectly. But if you:
- add context
- are clear about your goal
- adjust and try again.
…the quality will quickly improve significantly. The AI agent only becomes valuable when you use it to:
- think
- prepare
- reflect.
Not only to produce text. Because using AI as a leader is not about technology. It is about learning to think together with AI. Once you begin working with AI in this way, it stops being just a tool. It becomes part of how you lead.
If you would like to work more systematically with AI in leadership, you can read more about how to get ready in just three sessions here: The AI-Competent Leader.
I work with leaders in international organizations and help them use AI in their leadership work. My focus is not on the technology itself, but on how AI changes the way leaders think, decide, and work. In my company, we believe that leadership expertise is the perfect starting point for understanding how you as a leader should work with AI.
