Artificial Intelligence & Leadership

Artificial Intelligence has come a long way over the decades. I have a deep technology background and even though that is not my current purpose, I can definitely relate to AI’s impacts. There is tremendous power, usefulness and impacts and we are likely at the very tip of the iceberg. We should use it to our advantage.

Here I want to speak to a use of AI tools (examples: ChatGPT or Google) to provide you a competitive edge a leader. I also want to speak to where you need to consider how to apply with caution and good situational judgement.

Putting in a AI engine request to determine how you might handle a leadership situation can provide you some very useful tips. Tips is the operative word. Getting a list of optional considerations on how to handle a situation can provide you a leg up on proactively thinking it through. There is value in doing that, especially when we seem stuck or lack experiential understand (when maybe it’s a first time experience). There is clear application value.

However, we need to consider the following. Life is not linear and neither is leading. The dynamics of leadership, team and organizational circumstances are often multi-factor and multi-variate oriented, especially the more conflicting and major change management oriented ones. Simply proceeding with a bulleted or linear “list” of tips might work for basic or routine conditions, but the more challenging ones demand enhanced mental agility and adaptability. Experiential knowledge comes into play. There are emotional IQ aspects that surround decisions and motivation. You need to apply your own “if-then-else” logic, not just the AI engines and it’s data source . And finally, we must also integrate our own and others belief (mindset) systems, which ultimately determine our own and others attitudes and behaviors.

The point here is when and where you can, certainly use AI platforms to your leadership and team advantage. There is value in doing so. Leadership tips and shortcuts can be very useful. But also know they limits and recognize that as society, business, athletics, law enforcement and education get more and more and more complex, so will the need to increasingly integrate more and more experiential factors into our leadership decisions. And this is where, in our current world and state of AI, you have a tremendous mental advantage through your own experiences, which need to objectively inform and guide you and others.