Leveraging Technology In Leadership

The new consulting edge isn't AI. It's knowing when your AI is wrong. Every consultant has been there: You ask AI to analyze documents and generate insights. During review, you spot a questionable stat that doesn't exist in the source! AI hallucinations are a problem. The solution? Implementing "prompt evals". → Prompt evals: directions that force AI to verify its own work before responding. A formula for effective evals: 1. Assign a verification role → "Act as a critical fact-checker whose reputation depends on accuracy" 2. Specify what to verify → "Check all revenue projections against the quarterly reports in the appendix" 3. Define success criteria → "Include specific page references for every statistic" 4. Establish clear terminology → "Rate confidence as High/Medium/Low next to each insight" Here is how your prompt will change: OLD: "Analyze these reports and identify opportunities." NEW: "You are a senior analyst known for accuracy. List growth opportunities from the reports. For each insight, match financials to appendix B, match market claims to bibliography sources, add page ref + High/Med/Low confidence, otherwise write REQUIRES VERIFICATION.” Mastering this takes practice, but the results are worth it. What AI leaders know that most don't: "If there is one thing we can teach people, it's that writing evals is probably the most important thing." Mike Krieger, Anthropic CPO By the time most learn basic prompting, leaders will have turned verification into their competitive advantage. Steps to level-up your eval skills: → Log hallucinations in a "failure library" → Create industry-specific eval templates → Test evals with known error examples → Compare verification with competitors Next time you're presented with AI-generated analysis, the most valuable question isn't about the findings themselves, but: 'What evals did you run to verify this?' This simple inquiry will elevate your teams approach to AI & signal that in your organization, accuracy isn't optional.

GenAI won't kill critical thinking. Comfortable leaders will. AMLE 's "Critical Thinking in the Age of Generative AI," a 2025 systematic review, and Microsoft's survey all point to the same tension ➤ AI can sharpen your thinking—or slowly dull it. Here are 9 ways to stay sharp: 1️⃣ "Treat AI as a first draft, never a final say"  ↳ GenAI's confident tone tricks your brain into skipping evaluation. ✅ Act on it: Ban "copy–paste" from AI into decision-critical docs. Require one human edit plus rationale before anything AI-generated moves upward. 2️⃣ "Ask AI to argue against itself"  ↳ Questioning and comparison strengthen critical thinking. ✅ Act on it: Always follow one answer with: "Now, give me the strongest counterargument." Share that practice with your team as a standard operating rule. 3️⃣ "Separate speed from wisdom"  ↳ Fast answers feel good; wise answers feel uncomfortable first. ✅ Act on it: For decisions that feel "too easy" after AI, pause and ask: "What are we not seeing?" Use AI to surface opposing viewpoints and edge cases—not just best practices. 4️⃣ "Build 'social critical thinking,' not just solo analysis"  ↳ Challenge assumptions together. ✅ Act on it: In key meetings, assign one person "AI skeptic" and another "AI translator." End with: "What assumptions are we accepting because AI made them sound reasonable?" 5️⃣ "Use AI to find blind spots, not excuses"  ↳ Confidence in AI can reduce scrutiny; leaders can reverse that. ✅ Act on it: Ask, "Whose perspective is missing?" and use AI to simulate that viewpoint. Include ethical, cultural, or stakeholder perspectives as separate prompts. 6️⃣ "Turn AI mistakes into a leadership curriculum"  ↳ Reflective use of AI strengthens thinking. ✅ Act on it: Collect "AI near-miss" stories and discuss them in leadership meetings. Ask: "What almost went wrong? What saved us? What changes next time?" 7️⃣ "Make your own thinking visible"  ↳ Leadership thinking is contagious. ✅ Act on it: Narrate your process: "Here's what AI suggested. Here's how I challenged it. Here's the decision." Encourage your direct reports to model the same. 8️⃣ "Audit where you've gone on AI autopilot"  ↳ Over-reliance creeps in quietly. ✅ Act on it: List 3 areas where you now "trust" AI outputs without checking. For each, design one review step that reintroduces human judgment. 9️⃣ "Upgrade your questions, not just your tools"  ↳ Tools are only as powerful as the questions behind them. ✅ Act on it: Replace "What should we do?" with "Given A, B, C constraints, what are 3 non-obvious options?" Evaluate question quality in team retros, not just answer quality. The question to keep asking: "Is AI helping me think better—or just faster?" Your leadership edge depends on the difference. Coaching can help; let's chat. ♻️ Repost it to your network and follow Joshua Miller for more tips on coaching, AI-era leadership, career + mindset. ⸻ #ai #leadership #executivecoaching #careeradvice #manager #mindset

🚀 Engineering time is expensive, but the right hardware can be a game-changer! 🖥️ Sometimes, a big upfront cost on tech seems hard to justify—but when you factor in the long-term productivity gains, it becomes clear. Improving dev velocity can have an astonishing impact. Take this real-world example: Upgrading a team of 9 to 2021 M1 MacBooks cost $32k, but it cut Android build times in half. The result? A $100k productivity boost, with the break-even point reached in just 3 months! 📈 TL;DR: Investing in top-tier hardware isn't just an expense—it's a strategic move to unlock serious efficiency. Engineering hours are far more valuable than hardware. #EngineeringProductivity #DevVelocity #TechROI #InvestInTech

Old-school recruiting is dead. Today, people join leaders, not companies.  With their unique blend of qualities, attractive leaders have a compelling story to tell. It's not just about the company they represent but the value they bring to the recruit and to their team. Recruits move toward clear ideas, not abstract ideas. A leader must understand that they are the product they are selling. Then, they must understand how to communicate their leadership. In the end, not all leaders are attractive. Many need to be equipped to lead in an era when millennials (they will make up 75% of the workforce next year) and Gen Z desire more from their company than just benefits and a paycheck. The business world is transitioning into a new era of recruiting and leadership. Change is happening faster than ever, and recruits understand that having a great leader is essential to success. Here are the three areas I have found to be ingredients for top recruiting leaders pursuing sales talent.  They have been top salespeople in their industry and can coach/advise their teams to grow their businesses.  They are running a "Social ID" playbook. They identify and document what they are doing as leaders. They then turn that into external content for their personal brands on social media. Essentially, they showcase who they are as leaders before anyone joins their team.  They focus on something other than the company's value proposition when recruiting. They focus on the recruit's dream. Where does that recruit want to go professionally and personally? They then pursue them with the idea that they will help them accomplish that dream. A leader's ability to bring tangible value to the recruit's life makes them attractive. That value can come through work or outside of work. Here is an excellent exercise if you struggle or need help identifying where you add value. 1) Name the three areas where you bring value to your team. You have likely identified areas where you can add value to a recruit. 2) Name a story in each area where you recently worked alongside a current team member and added value. Recruiting done right means showing candidates what it's like to be a part of your team while they are not. 3) Document that value and turn it into social media content. This strategy is simple but complex, requiring effort in areas where leaders have not historically invested. The leaders who do will win and retain the best talent in their markets.

Fashion Finally Gets Serious About AI Leadership The fashion industry is making a clear statement going by the latest article in Vogue Business. Recent C-level appointments at lululemon, Ralph Lauren, The Estée Lauder Companies Inc., and LVMH show fashion brands are hardwiring AI accountability at the very top. The convergence of several factors is driving this shift.  ▪️ Macro pressure on growth and margins are pushing brands to seek efficiency and new product velocity and AI is the lever. ▪️ Creative supply-chain explosion. AI content ops, 3D/virtual sampling, and design copilots now materially compress calendars; brands need an owner to industrialize these flows. ▪️ Omnichannel personalization is table stakes. Retailers are re-platforming data/CDP and pushing AI into CRM, clienteling, and site/app experiences. ▪️ Vendor sprawl + governance risk. With dozens of tools, image generators and copilots, someone must set standards for the organization across various factors. What makes fashion different from other industries: Having worked in AI within the fashion space for several years, I find the creative + operational duality fascinating. AI leaders must respect brand DNA while accelerating speed-to-market. Visual and IP risk is uniquely high, and fashion's store networks create unique opportunities that pure e-commerce doesn't have. It's exciting to see the industry evolving. For fashion brands, the message is clear: AI leadership isn't just about technology but it's about reimagining how brands create, move, and sell. PS: Seemed apt to post an AI-generated image that had the prompt of an AI leader in the fashion industry 😉

The best social media pros aren’t just good at social. They understand positioning. Audience segmentation. Funnel stages. Paid media. Product drops. They know how creative and strategy work together to drive actual business outcomes — not just likes. Because when leadership’s asking for results, they’re not asking for engagement rate. They’re asking how social content moved people toward the sale. Social is one of the most powerful marketing tools we’ve got — but to really earn that seat at the table, you have to speak the language of marketing, not just content. So read the brand deck. Ask to sit in on the product meeting. Learn how to write a brief. Don’t just know what to post — understand why it matters.

AI upskilling isn't just about technical training. Are you allocating budget for the leadership challenges it creates? I'm seeing a concerning trend across organisations investing heavily in AI: All focus on technical training. Almost zero attention on the leadership capabilities needed to navigate the human side of this transformation. After delivering numerous transformation initiatives throughout my career, I know this imbalance is a pattern that undermines potential success. Here's what's missing from your AI budget allocation: ❌ Your leaders aren't equipped to handle the fear and resistance that emerges when teams believe AI threatens their relevance ❌ Your executives haven't developed the skills to identify which decisions should remain human-led versus AI-augmented ❌ Your leadership pipeline isn't being prepared for the new competencies required in an AI-integrated workplace The research is clear - organizations that fail to invest in leadership development alongside technical implementation see significantly lower ROI on their investments. The organisations succeeding with AI are investing equally in: ✅ Technical capability building ✅ Leadership development focused on human-AI collaboration ✅ Change management expertise specifically for AI adoption ✅ Executive coaching to navigate complex ethical considerations What percentage of your AI transformation budget is dedicated to leadership capability building? If it's under 30%, you're likely setting yourself up for costly setbacks. Are you preparing your leaders, or just your systems? #OutcomesOverHours #AILeadership #ChangeManagement #FutureOfWork

“Blame it on AI” is not leadership—it’s fear management. In BCG’s 2025 AI at Work survey, 41% of employees fear losing their jobs to AI. And who can blame them? Just look at the headlines: • Salesforce: “AI now does 50% of our work.” • Microsoft: “30% of code is AI-generated.” • Google: “AI writes a third of our code.” • Ford: “AI will replace half of all white-collar jobs.” • JPMorgan: “We’ll cut 10% of operations roles.” These stats aren’t just about tech efficiency. They send a message—not just to investors or clients, but to employees: “AI is coming for your job. Better keep up—or you’re out.” Many companies who made statements on productivity like Salesforce have not given any further details on the productivity improvements claimed. Are we counting hours saved? Tasks completed? Outcomes influenced? Weaponizing AI progress to pressure staff is not transformation. This kind of messaging tells employees to “watch their backs”—not how to move forward. It’s a signal of lacking leadership, not visionary strategy. Real AI transformation doesn’t happen to your workforce—it happens with them. It’s built on: • Structural empathy, not scare tactics • Transparent frameworks, not headline flexing • Empowered adoption, not fear-driven compliance AI isn’t the villain—misleading narratives are. In other words: Don’t manage by fear. Bring people into the future of work, don’t shove them out of it. Source: https://lnkd.in/edsKqv4i https://lnkd.in/e7xBTvj8

Too many AI strategies are being built around the technology instead of the business challenges they should solve. The real value of AI comes when it is directly tied to your goals. I have arrived at seven lessons on how to align your AI strategy directly with your business goals: 1. Start with the "why," not the "what." Before discussing models or tools, ask what business problem you need to solve. It could be speeding up product development, or cutting operational costs. Let that answer be your guide. 2. Think in terms of business outcomes. Measure AI success by its impact on metrics like revenue growth or employee productivity not by technical accuracy. 3. Build a cross-functional team. AI can't live solely in the IT department. Include leaders from all relevant departments from day one to ensure the strategy serves the entire business. 4. Prioritize quick wins to build momentum. Identify a few small, high-impact projects that can deliver results quickly. This builds organizational confidence and makes people ready to take on larger initiatives. 5. Invest in data foundations. The best AI strategy will fail without clean and well-governed data. A disciplined approach to data quality is non-negotiable. 6. Focus on change management. Technology is the easy part. Prepare your people for new workflows and equip them with the skills to work alongside AI effectively. 7. Create a feedback loop. An AI strategy is not a one-time plan. Continuously gather feedback from users and analyze performance data to adapt and refine your approach. The goal is to make AI a part of how you achieve your objectives, not a separate project. #AIStrategy #BusinessGoals #DigitalTransformation #Leadership #ArtificialIntelligence

Not enough people working in Social Media are taking the HUGE advantage they can bring to their roles right now. Help your founder or manager think about how to share content online. Most leaders know they should be investing time in sharing their ideas and opinions, but they usually struggle with two things: lack of time and knowing what is worth sharing. If your manager isn’t already posting, this is where you can step in. Thought leadership content can help businesses reach audiences they’d never connect with through brand pages and I’m sure your manager had been thinking about doing it. As a Social Media Manager/Head of Social, you’ll be tuned into the social trending topics, you’ll likely have a close relationship with your manager and you already understand the goals your company is trying to achieve on social. Obviously, the scale of your impact varies depending on the size/nature of the company you work for and working on brand socials vs. personal brand socials are very different. But, this is a great way to learn something new and prove your value. Even if it’s just saying “You should post about that” after an interesting conversation in the office or adding an extra half an hour to marketing meetings to brainstorm your manager's content, this can make a huge impact. This isn’t a long-term solution, but it’s a great first step before the company considers outsourcing thought leadership content or hiring someone dedicated to this - and you’ll be the one who leads the change. I guarantee your founder or manager has thought about posting online in the past week, and most people will appreciate having someone they can talk through it with. BE the person who goes that extra mile and spots opportunities to add value 👏🏻