Here's Why AI WON'T Change How We Lead.

Andy Jones, High-Performance Leadership and Culture Consultant. Helping leaders and their organisations maximise their performance and impact through high-performance cultures.

Is this the future of leadership?

I have had some amazing conversations recently about the power of AI and how it will change the face of leadership, but I don't believe it will.

After a great conversation last week with Carol Glover (who has some amazing ideas on the future of humans and leading AI) it inspired me to think about how people will interact with AI. This got me to think a bit deeper about how I have been prompting AI.

The big thing that came out of it is that I believe It will change what we lead, but won't change how we lead.

Here's why.

With the talk now of 'AI Agents', treating our AI tools in a way that is aligned with how we treat our human employees starts to make more sense.

This has had me exploring more and more about how we can truly lead AI.

When we lead the people in our business, especially if we do it in an effective way, we provide our teams with a shared purpose, a vision, a guide to make decisions and most importantly the context they need to make decisions.

How is AI different?

Well, it isn't. Leading an AI system calls for the same level of care you give your team.

You would not assign a project to a human colleague without explaining the goal and the resources at hand. The same approach applies when you work with AI.

You want your AI to mirror your organisation’s values, purpose, and mission. Take the time to document your core beliefs in clear terms.

The reason this is so important is that it helps any AI tools you use generate outcomes that fit your brand’s identity. In the same way we need to communicate our core values to our human employees, we need to 'onboard' our AI tools and bring them into our culture and ensure that it understands what it means to be part of your organisation.

In short, it is setting guidelines that define what you stand for and why you exist.

Establish your Values, Mission and Vision (VMV)

When we work with clients, the first thing we do, is ensure they have a high-quality set of values, a clear mission for the organisation and a compelling vision to create a true purpose for the business and its people, and if not we help them create one.

The reason we do this is that it establishes your culture, the reason your business exists in the first place, and paints a clear picture of what your future looks like, all built around those core values.

Having clarity on these makes motivating your people easier, but also acts as a north star when it comes to making decisions, which is especially important in smaller family businesses.

If you want to clarify your organisation's core values and purpose, let's connect.

Onboarding your AI tools is very similar.

We want it to understand, think and produce work that is fully aligned with the business and its culture, much like a model employee would do. We don't want to produce any work that doesn't align with our organisation's personality. But how can we enhance it further?

Again, a new approach that we have developed and used for human employees is to develop behaviour statements - short statements for each core value which provide an example of what it looks like to embody that core value in the workplace.

Again, this is something that is very useful when developing our AI tools in our business - you are teaching them what the expected behaviours are in your organisation.

Communicating Expectations is Key!

When you provide instructions, avoid one-word prompts or generic commands, in the same way that you would avoid them with a human team member. Be precise in your language and share the reasons behind each request. For example, if you want marketing copy to reflect a friendly, conversational tone, say so. If you want research results on a particular area, give exact keywords and reference points. This reduces guesswork and prevents the AI from missing key details.

This is no different when communicating with your employees already, although this is one of the biggest challenges facing people leaders, so there is some work still to do on this generally.

You should also onboard your AI tools with your company-wide policies and procedures.

For example, data privacy and security will no doubt factor into your AI tools use. If you share sensitive details with your AI, set strict boundaries on what can and can't be processed. One slip in this area could lead to a breach.

This is where clarity comes in once more. You define your rules and expectations and confirm that your AI understands and adheres to them.

The world of leadership has change because of AI, but the fundamentals about how you lead, whether human or AI, have not.

Remember, ensure you define the mission, outline the purpose, and set the tone for how your AI performs.

Your role is to frame the conversation so the tool knows what’s at stake and guide it.

Much like human team members, it depends on your guidance to reach the right outcome.

If you want to discuss how AI and humans integrate in leadership, DM me and let's find some time to connect.