Good Morning Reader it's Maria,

I want to tell you about my first big leadership role.

I'd just stepped into it: a new team, loads of responsibility, the kind of job I'd worked hard for and wanted to prove I could do well. My manager was based in another country, and support was thin on the ground. And for twelve months, I walked around feeling like I was carrying a balancing stack of plates, terrified one would slip, and the whole lot would come crashing down around me.

I doubted every decision and at times had huge impostor syndrome. I had no one to brainstorm with or to turn to when a situation with someone on my team left me unsure what to do. I made a few people mistakes that year; those are the ones you don't forget.

This week I contributed to a whitepaper on the future of leadership (I'll drop the link below), and writing my section brought all of this back. It also crystallised something I've been circling for a while.

If podcasts are more your speed, I've got you covered; there's a discussion about this topic available now here.

THE BIG IDEA

Leadership is lonely.

Think about how most people become managers. Usually it's because they were good at their previous job, so they get a promotion, and suddenly they have a team.

Studies have shown that fewer than half of managers ever receive real preparation or training for the part of the job that matters most: managing people. You're expected to coach, be decisive, hold difficult conversations and carry the weight of other people's careers, often with no one checking in on how you're doing it (or if you actually know what you're doing).

That's where the damage happens.

A manager without support doesn't have anyone to say "that call was fair" or "you might want to handle that differently." So you guess. Sometimes you guess well, sometimes you don't. And the people on your team have to live with the result.

Here's where I think AI changes the picture, if you understand its limits and use it correctly.

It will never replace a real human connection or a proper mentor, but it can be your brainstorm buddy. A sounding board at 11 pm before a difficult conversation the next morning. A way to help you think through a decision before you make it.

I wrote in the whitepaper that AI can give leaders something they've rarely had: a partner available whenever they need one.

Used well, it doesn't make managers less human. It makes them more human, because it takes some of the second-guessing off their shoulders and leaves them with more capacity for the part only a person can do. Reading a room and understanding the dynamics, sitting with someone who's struggling, making a judgement call that may go against what is usually done but makes sense in that situation.

I think about the manager I was that year Reader, and I wonder how different some of those decisions I made and regret now could have looked with AI's support...

That's what I want to help fix.

Here's the Whitepaper. It's worth a read if you lead people or you're responsible for those who do.

Don't know where to start?

​Check out my Website to see how I can help!

THE ACTION STEP

Before your next tricky people moment, whether it's a hard conversation, a performance issue or a decision you're not sure about, try this.

Open a chat with Claude or ChatGPT and talk it through before you act. Not to hand over the decision, but to pressure-test your own thinking.

Ask yourself first:

1. What's the situation, stripped of emotion? (focus on the facts)
2. What outcome am I hoping for?
3. What am I unsure about, or worried I'll get wrong?

Then bring that to your AI MADE SIMPLE prompt below.

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AI MADE SIMPLE

Use AI as your brainstorm buddy before a difficult people decision.

Here's the tip that makes this actually work: don't type it in the chat, speak to it. When we write, we edit ourselves before the words even hit the page. We filter.

When you talk instead, using the voice memo or dictation function on your phone, you get your unfiltered thinking out. Every worry, every detail, the bits you'd normally tidy up before typing them, and the exact language you use. That's exactly what you want here. The more real context you give it, the better the answer you'll get back.

Don't worry about it being messy or long. Messy and long is the point.

Paste this prompt into your chat or read it into your voice memo first and then paste the transcript in:

Act as an experienced leadership coach. Here's my situation with someone on my team: [describe the situation, what's led up to it, and what you're unsure about, in as much detail as you can]. Help me think through it. Give me two or three different ways I could approach this conversation or decision, the likely impact of each, and one question I should ask myself before I act. Don't tell me what to do, help me think it through.

A quick note: don't include anything that identifies the person by name, or details that are confidential to your business. Keep it detailed but anonymised.

One thing worth remembering: These tools can get things wrong, and they're built to agree with you more than challenge you. If an answer feels off, push back. Ask it where the information came from, ask it to argue the other side. Treat it like a smart but occasionally overconfident colleague, not an oracle.

Beyond the tough conversations, this same approach works for structuring feedback, preparing for a big meeting, or just getting your own thoughts more concise and clear before you walk into a room.

There are so many ways this can help. This is just one place to start. It won't replace a good mentor or a trusted peer, but if you don't have one right now, it's better than carrying the plates alone.

META Description: Practical advice on strategy, AI, and building a business on your own terms. Ask Maria Kelly is a bi-weekly newsletter for experienced professionals who want clarity, not jargon, from someone who has been in the room.

That's all for today Reader

Have a great weekend!👋🏼

Take Care

Maria

PS: If you want to explore what working together looks like, book a free call

PPS: If you enjoy these emails and want to do something nice, you can buy me a coffee 😉

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