Hi there,

Sometimes I can crack my videos and these newsletters out easily. This one has been a real labour of love, and I've learned so much along the way.

Ever since I’ve been experimenting with AI I’ve been thinking about how I could create an assistant for team management that would help you all lead better.

You know a personal assistant who knew everything about every person on your team, could spot opportunities to match the right people to the right work, and helped you prep for every one-to-one in under 5 minutes?

I've cracked this challenge by building a simple AI team assistant in Claude, although you could build the same in Gemini or ChatGPT, and today I'm sharing exactly how you can do it too.

Your AI Team Management Assistant Addresses Your Big Problem: Time

Back in my corporate days managing large teams, I spent way too much time on admin - appraisals, one-on-one prep, trying to remember who was good at what. I often missed opportunities to give people work they'd actually find fulfilling. Sound familiar?

You know what good team leadership looks like, but you just don't have the time to connect all the dots between people's aspirations, their strengths, and the work that needs doing.

Imagine having an AI assistant who could help with all this. Not replacing the human conversations (that's your job!), but giving you the insights so you can quickly see and match opportunities for delegation and development. That can hope you write up quarterly and annual reviews in minutes.

The system I'm sharing isn't new management principles - it's based on systems I developed over 20 years, refined through mistakes and successes. AI just makes them faster and sharper, allowing you to spend more time on the quality bit - the talking, coaching, and leading.

The Three Pillars That Make It Work

The foundation of this system rests on three pillars:

1. Know Your People - their strengths, gaps, and aspirations
2. Set Clear Goals and Objectives - both for the work that needs doing and their personal growth
3. Have Consistent Check-ins - regular progress reviews and support where you guide, coach and unblock

The key insight? The best managers don't separate "getting work done" from "developing people." They match work and experiences to give people fulfilling assignments that achieve objectives AND grow their capabilities.

Most managers fail because they try to keep all this in their head. Your brain isn't designed to be a filing cabinet for six different people's career journeys, current projects, and how to connect the two.

How It Works: Creating Your Filter

What makes this approach powerful is creating a knowledge base that acts as a filter - helping AI understand your specific context instead of giving generic advice.

You'll need two key pieces of information:

• A Team Leader Guidebook about you as a leader and what you're working to achieve
• Individual profiles for each team member

This transforms Claude from a generic assistant into YOUR team management assistant that understands your world.

Real-World Applications

Once set up, your AI assistant can help with:

• Coaching Prep: "I'm meeting with Ben tomorrow. Based on his recent progress, career goals, and current challenges, suggest five coaching questions that will help him reflect on his leadership development."
• Delegation Decisions: "We have a new brand strategy project coming up that needs someone with good stakeholder skills and strategic thinking potential. Who would be the best fit, and how could this serve as a development opportunity?"
• Pattern Recognition: "Looking at my team's recent one-to-one notes and development progress, what patterns am I missing?"
• Performance Reviews: Quickly generate thoughtful, balanced reviews based on all the data you've collected throughout the quarter.

The beauty is that these are the same management principles I've always used, but AI helps me apply them faster, more creatively, and with better insights across my whole team.

Start Today

The admin that used to take hours now takes minutes. The creative thinking that happened occasionally now happens consistently. That means more time for the real leadership work, having meaningful conversations, coaching people to grow, and creating opportunities that excite your team while delivering results.

If this sounds like something that will make a big difference to your workload, watch my full video where I walk through the entire process step-by-step, including exactly what to put in your knowledge base, the prompts that work best, and how to integrate this into your weekly routine. Plus I’ve updated my AI powered Leadership Guide with all the instructions, its linked to the video.

​Click here to watch the video and discover how to build your own AI team assistant in an hour.

What's one leadership challenge you're facing that an AI assistant might help with? Reply and let me know! Plus if you do this do let me know how you get on, I'd love to know.

Have a great week.

Helen

​ Want to work together? ​Manager OS Course - Reclaim Your Time & Accelerate Your Career with Manager OS - A Proven System to Help Managers Lead with Confidence & Ease Work with me 1:1 - Book a coaching session​ ​The Leadership Vault: Your private access to every issue of my Newsletter. Every strategy, tip, and lesson shared in past newsletters—now available in one place. Stay ahead, stay informed, and lead smarter. ​Visit my website to find out more. ​

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