A managing partner in private equity recently shared this after a board meeting:
“I used AI to prep for that conversation. Not for the data… my team had that covered. I used it to get clear on my tone, my intention, and where my frustration might leak out. It helped me show up completely differently.”
Leaders in healthcare systems, scaling tech companies, and professional services firms are already exploring AI, but too many are still using it like a digital Swiss Army knife: fast, efficient, and tactical.
The smartest leaders are doing something different. They’re using AI not to do more—but to become more.
They’re using it to coach themselves.
From Efficiency to Awareness: The Next Evolution of Leadership
You already know how to execute. Your calendar proves it. What’s harder to find is time to reflect especially when your decisions carry weight, your words ripple, and your presence sets the tone.
That’s where AI becomes powerful. Not as a machine to push faster, but as a mirror for reflection, insight, and growth.
And the gap between those two uses is your competitive advantage.
The Future of Leadership Development in an AI World
Leadership development is already shifting from event-based to experience-based. Workshops are important, but the real growth happens in the moment:
Right before a high-stakes board review.
Right after a hard feedback conversation.
Right when a pattern starts to show up again.
AI tools like AI Susan make coaching available in those moments through video, voice, or text, whichever suits the situation.
Here’s what’s changing as a result:
- Growth is personalized
- Feedback is real-time
- Self-awareness is accessible anytime
But the human element remains essential. Empathy, integrity, and executive presence don’t come from a prompt, they come from who you are when the pressure hits.
The best AI-augmented leaders don’t hand over their growth to machines. They partner with them to stay sharp, aligned, and intentional.
AI + Emotional Intelligence: A Surprising Ally
Your tone can make or break a message, especially at the executive level. AI can help you see what your brain might gloss over.
Paste a team email or client update into your AI tool and ask:
- “What’s the emotional tone of this message?”
- “Does this email sound defensive, rushed, or empathetic?”
- “What might someone on the receiving end feel?”
The goal isn’t to sanitize your voice. It’s to ensure your impact matches your intention.
But there’s a caveat here. AI reflects your patterns back at you. If your questions are vague, the feedback will be too. The better your prompt, the better the mirror.
Something else to remember: AI doesn’t understand context or cultural nuance the way humans do. You’re still the leader. Use your judgment. But let AI help you check your blind spots before they become performance issues.
Combine AI with the Enneagram for Deeper Self-Awareness
AI reflection gets even more precise when paired with a model like the Enneagram.
Identifying your Enneagram type reveals your core motivation: the driver behind your patterns. That insight, paired with smart AI prompting, turns reflection into growth.
Try prompts like this:
- “Analyze this meeting recap through the lens of an Enneagram Type 3. Where might I be overly focused on achievement or image?”
- “If I were leading as an Enneagram Type 9 under stress, how might I be avoiding necessary tension right now?”
- “Does this email draft reflect the strengths or the blind spots of a Type 6 leader?”
You can take this work even deeper with platforms like AI Susan that are built specifically for executive coaching—trained on real-world leadership data, not just internet content.
With this approach, AI isn’t telling you who to be. It’s reminding you who you are—and when you’re drifting from your best leadership self.
Why General AI Isn’t Enough for Leadership Growth
General AI platforms like ChatGPT are powerful, but they weren’t built for the nuance of executive coaching. Their answers are wide-ranging, often generic, and pulled from internet content that does not reflect high-performance leadership environments.
Platforms like AI Susan are different.
They are trained on real coaching conversations, leadership models, and high-stakes decision-making moments. The models understand the context of the C-suite, the patterns of pressure, and the language of growth and aren’t trained for ‘agreement’ like many other LLMs. And, with various modalities, including voice and video, you can practice difficult conversations with a coach trained to develop you specific for those types of engagements from proven strategies.
So while generic AI might help you write faster, AI Susan helps you lead smarter.
This isn’t just about information. It’s about insight— and AI Susan is purpose-built to surface it in the moments that matter most.
How to Use AI to Coach Yourself
Whichever platform you choose, you don’t need a full playbook to begin. You just need better questions.
Here are self-coaching prompts leaders are already using with AI tools like ChatGPT, AI Susan, or similar platforms:
- “What am I not seeing in this decision?”
- “How might my tone land based on this draft email?”
- “What leadership reflex might be driving my response?”
- “How can I phrase this feedback so it’s honest and supportive?”
- “If I want to lead with intention in this meeting, what’s one thing I should say—or not say?”
You can create a 15-minute ritual every Friday: paste in a recap of your week, run a few prompts, and track how you’re showing up. Let the tool reflect back patterns, gaps, and tone. You’ll walk into Monday clearer, cleaner, and calmer.
Pro tip: Save your top three prompts in a notes app or use AI Susan’s reflection mode to revisit them on the go.
Try It: 5 Self-Coaching Prompts for Your Next Leadership Review
As you use AI for reflection, the tool learns you as well. Over time, that insight is invaluable. Use it to start your own 5-day self-coaching experiment, including some prompts executives are using inside AI Susan and beyond:
- Read these emails or read the transcripts and let me know patterns showed up for me this week?
Write a 2-line summary of where you fell into old habits. - Where did I lead with reactivity instead of intention?
Was it a tone shift? A rushed decision? A missed pause? - What conversations am I avoiding, and why?
Use AI to roleplay or rehearse the opening lines. - How did my tone affect my team this week?
Copy-paste your written comms and ask AI to evaluate tone and alignment. - If I led from my best self tomorrow, what would change?
Let AI reflect back possibilities based on your Enneagram type, current goals, or recent challenges.
You can run these as a journaling practice or feed them into your AI tool of choice.
The Reflective Edge
It’s like I always say:
“The future belongs to leaders who can learn faster than their reflexes.”
This is what AI makes possible.
You don’t need more information. You need sharper reflection, faster feedback, and accessible tools that bring leadership growth to where it matters: your next conversation, your next decision, your next moment of presence.
No matter who you’re leading, AI can be your coach in the pocket. But you are still the one doing the work.
Let it sharpen your clarity. Let it challenge your autopilot. Let it remind you of who you are when you lead with full awareness.
Ready to take the next step?
→ Explore AI Susan: On-Demand Leadership Coaching That Sticks
