Generative AI Isn’t Just for Tech: How Leaders Can Use GenAI to Tackle the Hard Stuff

Let’s bust a myth: Generative AI (GenAI) isn’t just for software developers and data scientists. In fact, functional roles such as managers, supervisors, and team leaders across every department might benefit even more from Large Language Models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT, Copilot, Claude.ai, etc., than their tech colleagues. Why? Because GenAI can help with the truly hard stuff: people management.

Leadership is hard.

Being a supervisor is like juggling while riding a bike. You’re balancing your own workload while supporting the performance and development of a couple other employees or potentially an entire team. It can be a lot. And honestly, some leadership tasks are harder than others, which means they often end up at the bottom of our to-do list. Luckily, with today’s technology, we can make the task of supervising a little easier on ourselves. It can even help with some of the softer, more emotional skills. Yes, even delivering feedback.

Using GenAI to Deliver Constructive Feedback

If “giving constructive feedback” isn’t currently at the bottom of your to-do list, it probably has been at some point in your career. (Why is giving feedback so hard!)

It’s hard because we care, and we don’t want to voluntarily put ourselves into uncomfortable situations. So we avoid it instead. We may tell ourselves it’s ok for that task to live at the bottom of our to-do list because we’ll get to it or they probably already know. But more than likely it’s because you want to maintain a positive relationship with the intended recipient. You hear all the time how employees leave managers not companies, so why would you risk demotivating a team member? Words can be hard and misinterpreted; and if you add in hybrid or distributed teams —that’s added complexity.

Here’s where GenAI can be a game-changer to bring your “giving constructive feedback” to at least half-way up your leadership task list. ChatGPT, Copilot, or Claude can be your writing partner who helps you craft clear, constructive feedback. No more staring at a blank screen or agonizing over every word.

How it works

1. Provide Context: Give the AI tool a brief description of the situation and the specific behaviors or outcomes you observed. This is called a “prompt.”
2. Specify Expectations: Explain what met or didn’t meet expectations.
3. Get a Draft: The AI tool will generate structured feedback that you can then personalize and tailor to a) be accurate and b) be from you.

It’s actually that easy.

Example prompt in practice

Let’s say you have a team member who completes assigned tasks reliably when given the direction, but rarely takes initiative to identify work on their own.

Here’s what you might tell the GenAI tool:

Write feedback for an employee who reliably executes social media posting schedules but needs to take more initiative in content strategy. Include an example of how they maintain consistent posting but haven't proposed new ideas to help reach our engagement goals, even after discussions about the need for fresh approaches. You are their manager. This is constructive feedback. Use an inspiring but direct tone.

The AI tool will generate a draft that:

• Acknowledges their reliable task completion,
• Provides specific examples,
• Suggests areas for development, and
• Maintains a constructive tone.

Here’s the exact results from Claude.ai:

Strengths:

• Consistently executes social media posting schedules with high reliability

• Demonstrates strong technical competence in maintaining posting cadence

Areas for Development: Your technical execution of our social media calendar is precise, but you're missing critical opportunities to drive our engagement strategy forward. During our last two strategy discussions, you acknowledged the need to innovate our content approach, yet you haven't proposed a single new content concept.

Specific Example: In our Q3 planning meeting, we identified a 12% engagement rate plateau. I explicitly requested team members brainstorm fresh content angles. While you continued flawlessly posting our standard content mix, you didn't contribute any innovative ideas to break through our current performance ceiling.

Recommended Action: I want to see you transform from a tactical executor to a strategic contributor. Begin by:

• Analyzing our current engagement metrics

• Researching emerging social media trends in our industry

• Proposing 2-3 experimental content strategies in our next team meeting

Your technical skills are strong. Now, I need you to pair that execution with creative strategic thinking. You have the potential to significantly elevate our social media impact.

You can then take this draft, modify, and personalize the feedback and tone to match your voice and your relationship with the team member. You can send the feedback via email or messenger, or use it as a guide in a face-to-face meeting. Using this GenAI tool can give you the confidence that you are meeting your employee in a considerate, constructive way, minimizing the possibility of demotivating them. It’s a win-win.

Other Ways GenAI Can Help Supervisors

It doesn’t stop there. AI tools can be much more than a feedback starter. Supervisors can leverage AI tools to help with a lot of other leadership challenges as well. To name a few:

1. Writing job descriptions
2. Creating development plans
3. Drafting recognition messages
4. Structuring presentation outlines
5. Theming comments
6. Brainstorm team-building activities
7. The dreaded end-of-term negotiation email to vendors

3 Tips to Get Started

#1 Start with something small

If you’re new to the world of GenAI, start with something specific like drafting feedback for one team member. Maybe consider starting with positive, reinforcing feedback to make it feedback you’re looking forward to delivering. As you get comfortable with the outputs for those related prompts, explore other ways GenAI can help you be a more effective leader.

#2 Keep a human in the loop

Human in the loop, as it’s defined in the tech world is a collaborative approach that combines human input with machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) systems. For those of us not applying this approach to software, it is still a helpful framework. Often ChatGPT or whichever LLM you are using will give you a response that doesn’t sound like something you’d say.

Keeping a human in the loop – inserting your voice – remains an essential step in the world of AI. It’s a tool, not a replacement for true, genuine human leadership. And like many job responsibilities, AI is evolving leadership. You still must review and personalize all AI-generated content, but you don’t have to come up with it all on your own.

#3 Keep feedback face-to-face

It’s still important to deliver feedback face to face when possible. You’ll need to be the one reading body language and non-verbal communication cues to adjust your approach, but you’ll have an outline of what you want to say thanks to GenAI. You must build trust with your employee, and most importantly, you must still make the judgement calls based on your knowledge and relationship.

The Bottom Line

AI isn’t just for development teams – it’s also for people who want to be better leaders. And if it helps you tackle those hard leadership tasks you’ve let slide down to the bottom of your list, that’s a win for everyone.

So, the next time you’re procrastinating writing that constructive feedback, remember: AI can help you get started. Your near-future self (and your team) will thank you.