Using ChatGPT for leadership advice: what it misses
Edge of Possibilities | Liz Murray | The Inner Leader
Reading time, 4 minutes
Using ChatGPT for leadership advice: what it misses
I asked ChatGPT how to handle a tricky conversation with someone in my team, and the advice was helpful. But it never asked me a single question about me, and if I didn't know better, I would have walked in quietly confident and completely blind. In this episode I share what AI got right for me, what it missed, and the story of a client who typed his problem in while he was angry. Then I share the one step to take before you act on any advice about your people.
Key takeaways:
- AI gave me simple steps and good questions to open a difficult conversation. That part it got right.
- It didn't ask about my attitude going in, what I'd been projecting, or the rapport I'd already built, so it only had half the story.
- Advice typed in the heat of the moment can validate our anger and give us ammunition. For one client, that led to a disciplinary process that escalated into a bullying claim.
- When it comes to human behaviour, there are no facts, just perceptions. AI can only work with what we feed it, and our mindset shapes what we share.
- Before you act on any advice about someone in your team, start with you. Ask what you've contributed and what attitude you're bringing in, then ask them questions first.
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Timestamps:
0:00 β Quietly confident and completely blind
0:54 β What ChatGPT got right, and what it missed
2:05 β The client who typed it in angry
3:05 β No facts, just perceptions
4:03 β Start with you before you act on any advice
4:22 β What AI can't show you
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PUBLISH DATE: Monday, 19 October 2026 at 6:00am Sydney time EPISODE LENGTH: 4 minutes 59 seconds
THUMBNAIL: Using ChatGPT for leadership advice cover, Liz in her pink blazer with the line "Quietly confident. Completely blind."
Full transcript
A while back, I asked ChatGPT how to handle a situation with a team leader. And you know, the advice that I got was pretty helpful. It gave me simple steps, and it gave me also some really good questions to ask, and I thought, wow. But you know what? It never asked me a single question about me. So if I didn't know better, I would have walked into that meeting quietly confident and completely blind.
So last week I talked about asking instead of telling. This week is all about where do we all go for advice, and what that advice can't see. I'm going to share with you today what AI got right for me, what it missed, and the one step to take before you act on any advice about your people.
I asked AI how to have a difficult conversation with someone who was not open to feedback. They're very confident and quite self-assured. They're the type of personality that always tells but never asks.
What ChatGPT got right was the simple steps of the process during the conversation, and the questions to broach the subject. That part it got right.
What it missed was asking about me. My attitude going in, and what I'd been projecting in the previous interactions with this person. Had I gone in before in Parent mode or Adult mode? It didn't ask. It didn't know. What kind of rapport had I already built with the person, and how might they have felt after previous interactions that I had with them, based on how I was showing up? AI knew none of that. So it actually had half the story.
The real first step is actually reflecting on our own part, then asking the team members some questions to get their understanding before we jump in to start fixing things.
I want to share an example with you of a client who typed it in angry. So he'd taken feedback from a team member really personally, and he had painted a gloomier picture in the heat of the moment. While sitting with that raw emotion and a really bruised ego, he was on the keyboard typing away to AI to get some advice on what to do. And AI told him to start a heavy disciplinary process, based on the information that he put in. It validated his anger and his attitude, and it gave him more ammunition.
So he took the steps with that angry energy, and in the end it escalated to the team member going to HR and putting in a bullying claim against him. It was resolved over time, through some 1 to 1 coaching sessions with him and some support for the team member. But it could have been avoided with a coaching session first, to prepare him for who he was being going into the situation.
I want to share with you what AI can't see. So when it comes to human behaviour, there are no facts, there's just perceptions. Let me say that again. When it comes to human behaviour, there are no facts, there are just perceptions.
AI can't read our mindset, our beliefs or our filters. We all have blinkers on about our own behaviour. We see other people's behaviour based on our state in the moment, and we filter it through that. So our mindset feeds our confirmation bias, and that determines what information we share when we're plugging it into AI to get that advice.
So really interestingly, the research on self-awareness shows that people who report having very high self-awareness are actually the least likely to have high levels of it. And AI can only go off what we are feeding it. So the advice can be good. It's just working from our side of the story.
So before you act on any advice about someone in your team, start with you. Ask yourself what you've contributed and what attitude you were bringing in. Then ask them the questions first, before telling them what you think and your opinion.
You know, AI can give you really good general advice. What it can't do is show you your own patterns, and that's exactly what the Leadership Mirror is for. I designed it specifically for that purpose. It looks at how you lead under pressure, and it shows you where your pattern is. It's free, it takes about 5 minutes, and the link is below.
I'd also love you to share in the comments some examples, or where you've actually asked AI about a leadership question or a leadership problem, and what it missed in that situation.
Transcript tidied for punctuation, capitalisation and paragraph breaks from the recording, wording kept as spoken.The self-awareness research mentioned is from Tasha Eurich's book Insight.