Good Morning Reader it's Maria,

I've been prepping for a webinar I'm giving next week, and it's stirred up something I discovered early on in my career: How lonely leadership can be.

I had a few brilliant bosses along the way, people who backed me and taught me things I still use today. But in between them, there were long stretches with no one to test a decision on before I made it or to tell me when I was about to get something wrong.

I was managing people with zero formal training, figuring it out as I went, and not always getting it right.

The mistakes I still think about aren't the strategic ones, it's the people ones: A conversation handled badly or a decision made too fast, without stepping back to think about how it would affect the other person. Nothing dramatic, but they're moments where, looking back now, I know I could have done better.

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

THE BIG IDEA

Turns out I wasn't imagining the loneliness. Research from Harvard Business Review found that half of CEOs experience feelings of loneliness in their careers, and 61% believe that feeling affects their performance. to top it up, Gallup's latest study has found leaders now report more stress, loneliness and negative emotion than their own teams.

When I think back on it today Reader, I realise that AI could have been a huge game changer for me.

As an assistant, a brainstorming partner, somewhere I could go with my questions when I didn't know who else to ask. I could have used it to prepare for difficult conversations or practice giving feedback. I could also have had it take the admin grind off my plate so I had time to think about strategy, and about the people on my team, instead of just surviving the week.

These days, I use an AI note taker in client sessions so I can be fully present instead of scribbling notes.

The impact is real. Research on managers already using AI at work shows it cuts down the administrative load enough to free up time for coaching and strategic planning, with more than a third of managers saying AI is already making them more effective at their jobs.

That's an actual shift. It means, less time buried in reports nobody reads, and more time on the part of the job only a human can do. I believe that, used properly, AI could have made me a better, more confident and human leader.

That's exactly why I'm doing next week's webinar.

Being a leader has always been tough: More responsibility, more stress, less time to do it all. I spent over 20 years leading teams inside a large organisation, and even then, change didn't move at this pace. Today, companies are struggling to keep up, and the people leading them are under pressure to make sure everyone else keeps up too.

AI is amplifying all of it.

Today I use it every day in my business and as a very sharp and eager intern. I'll ask it to help me prepare, research, draft, think something through out loud. I will never ask it to make the actual decision; that part is mine.

I can't go back and undo the years I led alone and the people mistakes that came out of it. That's why I do what I do to help others avoid those mistakes, and now with AI, nobody has to lead alone anymore.

Don't know where to start?

​Book a free consultation and let's chat!

THE ACTION STEP

If you're a leader feeling the squeeze right now, this one's for you.

On 3 September at 2 pm CET, I'm joining Rhiannon Stroud, Co-Founder and leadership expert at TruthWorks, and Antoine Brossard, Senior Director of Talent, Leadership and Culture at Philips, for a free webinar: "What It Takes to Lead Now."

We'll get into the skills leaders need today, what's shifted from the old models, and how organisations can help the leaders they already have adapt.

This week's action step is simple Reader: register for free here and put it in your calendar.

Have you just signed up? See all previous newsletters here.​

AI MADE SIMPLE

Here's the practical bit, and it ties in perfectly with the webinar.

While I was preparing for it, I used Claude to interview me. I gave it the topics and the kind of questions I expected to get asked, then I spoke my answers back to it out loud (I use WisprFlow, which is so much faster than typing, and your answers come out unfiltered). I basically said everything that came through my mind at that moment about that topic.

It then cleaned up my answers and organised them into notes so that I could look back at them. After that, I asked it to do the part that's hard to do for yourself: challenge my assumptions, point out any blind spots, and check for mistakes in my thinking.

It didn't write my answers for me. It allowed me to think out loud before the real thing, and it caught a couple of things I'd have missed on my own.

If you've got an interview, a panel, a webinar or a podcast coming up, try this with Claude or ChatGPT:

Here’s the updated version with that branch built in:

I’m preparing for a podcast, panel, or webinar appearance and want you to interview me so I end up with clear, ready answers.

Here’s how to run it:

1. First, ask me whether I already have discussion questions from a host, or need you to come up with them.

2a. If I have questions: ask me to paste or upload them. Then ask one more thing: do I want to go through them one question at a time exactly as listed, or grouped by section. Wait for my answer before starting.

2b. If I don’t have questions: ask me a few quick things first — the topic or theme of the appearance, who the audience is, the format (solo interview, panel, webinar), and roughly how long it runs. Then draft a sensible set of discussion questions yourself: organise them into a few clear sections with a handful of questions each, the way a real host’s discussion guide would look. Show me the questions and check I’m happy with them, or want anything changed, before starting the interview.

1. Whichever version we’re using, ask the questions exactly as they ended up (the host’s original wording, or the ones you drafted and I approved), in order. Don’t paraphrase, don’t skip any, don’t improvise new ones once we’ve started. One question (or one section’s worth, based on what I chose) at a time. Wait for my actual answer before moving to the next one.
2. My answers might be rough, rambling, or dictated out loud. That’s fine — just acknowledge briefly (“got it,” “noted,” varying it) and move to the next question. Don’t critique, challenge, or comment on my answers as we go. Just capture them.
3. Once every question is answered, give me the whole thing back as a clean, organised list right here in the chat, matching the question structure we used (same sections, same order). Tidy up filler and false starts, but keep every real point, story, and opinion I actually gave — don’t rewrite my positions or add your own. Then ask if I’d like it as a downloadable document too.
4. After that, offer me these optional follow-up passes, and only run the ones I ask for:
   • Different perspectives: act as a genuine expert in whatever this topic is, and suggest angles, evidence, or research I’m missing. Search the web for anything current where it would help, and keep it to short bullet points.
   • Could this be misread: check my answers for anything that current evidence contradicts, anything I’ve stated too broadly, or anything that could get challenged live.
   • Reveal: the deeper pass. Look across all my answers together for blind spots, assumptions I haven’t questioned, contradictions between two of my own answers, and anything I might be avoiding saying outright.

[If you have a discussion guide, paste it here. If not, just say so and answer the questions in step 2.]

Reminder: don't paste in anything confidential, client details or sensitive company information when you try this. Keep it to your own thinking and public material.

You'll walk in more prepared, and more like yourself.😉

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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