Hello everyone,

First off, thank you for your feedback from my last email. I received more emails than I’ve ever had on the impact that AI is making to your role as a manager and leader. Which makes me confident that many of you are wrestling with these challenges and I can help.

What became clear was that there were three groups:

• Those that hadn’t really started and were finding it a bit un-nerving
• Those that were dabbling, but knew that they were not there yet
• Those that had really embraced AI into their work and were experimenting at pace

For the first two groups, there were questions about where to start and what to do so that it doesn’t become even more work. I keep hearing something similar from the senior leaders I work with. The question they ask me is usually about tools. Which one’s best? Which one should they use? What makes a perfect prompt?

However the question underneath is, where does this belong in the way I actually work and lead?

I tend to draw this picture to explain it. I call it The AI Bullseye, and it has three rings.

The outer ring is the admin time-savers. This is AI doing the jobs that take up your week, or that you run out of time doing even though you know they would help you.

My favourites are an automated weekly research scan that checks what has been going on in the leadership and AI world. My clients usually build a competitor or market research scan that does the same thing. I also turn messy notes from a catch-up into a clear set of actions before the next meeting, so I don't forget, and I get rid of the mental load of trying to remember three days later. And I sort my email before I get to my inbox so it is really clear what needs doing, then draft replies I can edit so I don't need to start from scratch.

The middle ring is the thinking partner. This is where AI becomes so useful, and also where I find most people have not got there yet.

A quick question into a chatbot gives you a quick, general answer, and will do the job for most time savers. A real thinking partner needs to understand your world. Your function, your people, the politics in the room, the decision you actually have to make. That only works if two things are in place. You have protected time to think, even 60 minutes a week. And you have given it proper context, not a one-line prompt.

The centre is the Human Zone, and it is the part I care about most. It is the moment you decide, deliberately, that even though AI could probably do this, you are not going to let it. Because leadership, when you strip it right back, is human, in fact it is a series of conversations.

It is all about having the right conversation with the right person at the right time, whether that is someone on your team, a key stakeholder, or your own boss. That means standing back, thinking about who they are and what they need, and then having a conversation that actually connects. No tool does that for you.

I think the key for many leaders is spotting that using AI in the time saver ring frees up time for the thinking and the human conversations.

If you recognise yourself in this, try this:
Start with the time savers. Think about the last task that took far longer than it should have, perhaps sorting your email, researching a topic or turning meeting notes into actions. Before you do it again, ask AI how it can help you do this and then let it take the first pass. You might need to iterate bit but each time Ive done this I can see how much time it could save me to reinvest in higher value activities. Hit reply and tell me which task you chose. I read every one.

Have a great week,

Helen

P.S. I am going to be exploring all of this properly over on YouTube and LinkedIn over the coming months, so if these ideas are resonating, come and find me there.