Unlock Leadership Efficiency: Four GenAI Use Cases

Time is a leader's most precious resource. Generative AI (GenAI) is already making some support tasks 90% more efficient and allowing select workers to multiply their productivity. What if you, as a leader, could capture even 10-20% of these kinds of efficiencies to focus more on essentials like coaching, stakeholder engagement, and strategy governance??

Below, I will share four practical use cases that can help you today using ChatGPT or ChatGPT Plus, though these approaches apply universally across all Large Language Models (LLMs). Treat this article as food for thought, a starting point to create your own productivity hacks as a leader as you build your competence with GenAI. Increased familiarity will also serve as an anchor for wider organizational GenAI strategies. To that end, I’ve also provided some resources that I found useful at the end of the article.?

Use Case 1: Simplifying Email Overload

Lengthy email chains where key points and action items get lost are a common problem. Here is a personal example where I used ChatGPT to quickly parse through an email discussion on creating a strategy workshop. Seeking a quick summary of the ongoing email exchanges, I prompted ChatGPT with the following:

It provided a list of twelve key ideas with concise descriptions alongside six follow-up actions.? ? To ensure no information slipped through the cracks, I posed a follow-up:

ChatGPT extracted my specific actions and provided some useful context around time constraints, while autonomously adopting a suitable, easy to read format. For instance:

This is a common scenario, but you can experiment with variations for your own application.?

Use Case 2: Summarizing Updates

Imagine you're a division leader handling both sales and product, overseeing multiple direct reports providing monthly email updates on key accomplishments and challenges, coupled with financial status documents. Here's an efficient way to draft an organization- wide communication in three prompts:

Prompt 1: Email Status Updates

Note: For free ChatGPT users, consider breaking down this prompt due to input size limitations.

Prompt 2: Financial Document Analysis

Prompt 3: Crafting the Communication:

This prompt takes the output of the last two prompts and creates the draft communication.

In just 5 to 10 minutes, you'll have a starting draft that would likely take a few hours manually. While some editing may be needed, this approach can be expanded to multiple use cases, especially with ChatGPT Plus, enabling you to generate PowerPoint slides and other formatted documents in significantly less time.?

Use Case 3: Alternate Perspective and Feedback

As a validation step in creating an executive coaching proposal, I used the “persona” prompt pattern for simulating a customer’s evaluation of the draft version. The prompt was straightforward:

ChatGPT, assuming the role of a CEO, delivered an insightful evaluation, highlighting strengths and revealing a critical weakness in our proposal – the absence of a baseline diagnostic for assessing team performance. In addition, ChatGPT suggested a range of team and individual diagnostic tools that could be integrated into the proposal. This use case demonstrates how leveraging an alternate perspective through ChatGPT can identify blind spots and offer constructive solutions, improving work output and reducing the time spent in review.

Use Case 4: Accelerating Learning

As industries get more dynamic, leaders often grapple with the challenge of assimilating new information or adapting to new trends. A simple use case might be using ChatGPT to summarize a new market study. A more interesting use case for me was learning how to develop Excel macros to speed up data analysis. I used ChatGPT to generate some real-world examples of VBA code, such as a simple two variable discounted cash flow model. My prompt was clumsy, as you can see below, but I prioritized speed of input over precision.??

Despite the poorly written prompt, the response provided exactly what I wanted.?

ChatGPT generated functional macro code tailored to the specified task and provided clear, step-by-step instructions on how to incorporate the code into Excel. Furthermore, no clarifications on how to calculate discounted cash flow were needed, and I could quickly read through the macro code to understand the basics of the program. This proficiency in synthesizing complex instructions into a well-documented, practical implementation guide allowed me to learn in a tactical, hands-on, efficient manner.?

If this article resonates with you, there are many more use cases that could further improve your leadership efficiency. Examples include helping create a multi-day off-site workshop agenda, being a thought partner on how to handle difficult conversations, offering a perspective on process optimization, or drafting policy documents. The use cases are limited by your imagination and your context. ?

I am sharing a few resources below that I found useful:

1. The "Prompt Engineering for ChatGPT" course on Coursera. Dr. Jules White provides a systematic and insightful primer on prompt patterns, empowering you to structure interactions with large language models effectively. Prompt Engineering Course
2. If you prefer accelerated learning and don't mind wading into academic articles, explore the piece “A Prompt Pattern Catalog to Enhance Prompt Engineering with ChatGPT”, which covers most of the prompt patterns taught in the “Prompt Engineering for ChatGPT” course as well as example use cases. Prompt Patterns Article
3. The “Generative AI for Leaders” course on Coursera. Bob Higgins, CEO of Barge Design Solutions, joins Dr. White on this course and shares real-world applications from his experience. Generative AI for Leaders Course

As you embark on this trial-and-error journey, remember that experimentation is key. Share your discoveries, tips, and tricks with the community. If you're already a practitioner, feel free to contribute your thoughts and insights in the comments.

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