Tag: top tips

Turn AI into the best coach you’ve ever had.

“I have worked with a lot of professional coaches and attended many leadership trainings and retreats. But I’ve never had a better coach than the one I have now,” says Alexandra Samuel.

Alexandra is a hotly in-demand expert on AI and the digital workplace. In her new article for The Wall Street Journal, which was on the cover of that publication’s Artificial Intelligence Report, she explains how she built a custom GPT to act as her own coach. And in her HBR IdeaCast podcast episode, she shows you how to do it too.

Collaborating with AI doesn’t replace human collaboration, Alexandra explains. But it does give you 24/7 access to a coworker whom you can be completely honest with. “There’s no judgment, because there’s no judge. I’m able to let loose, and take all the time I need to get something just right.”

Treat ChatGPT like a creative agency.

“Congratulations! You’re the proud owner of a new creative agency,” says Greg Hoffman, former Chief Marketing Officer at Nike and author of Emotion by Design.

ChatGPT and other generative AI tools have given us all the tools to be powerfully creative. Thinking, ideating, and prompting AI is a brand new application of your creativity—and it doesn’t depend on having the budget for an external agency. “We could, in the next hour, conceive a product, build a business plan, create a distribution strategy, and finalize a go-to-market plan with creative.”

And this frees us up to not only create without constraints, but to experiment, fail, and move on without getting stuck. That hypothetical go-to-market plan? “I’m not saying it would be good,” Greg says. “But that doesn’t mean that the exercise is a failure. It just builds to the next thing.”

Take AI home with you.

“If you want to get the most out of AI for your company, don’t let your experience of AI stop when you leave the office every day,” says Katie Drummond. “I’ve learned more about it in my own home than I have as the editor-in-chief of WIRED.”

As the global editorial director at an iconic tech magazine, Katie leads teams on four continents and oversees some of the world’s most influential journalism on emerging technology.

She says that taking AI outside the office can give you a lower-stakes environment to experiment in. “I would gladly take the risk of getting my daughter’s Show and Tell date wrong over messing up a mission-critical project at the office! So expand your sandbox. You can be much more creative, more expansive in your understanding of AI if you do it outside of the constraints of the office—and then bring some of that creativity back to work with you.”

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Just start running.

You’re in the woods and you come face to face with a bear. What do you do?

Many organizations are facing down bears of their own: major threats like rapid change, a rocky economy, and the rise of AI. And what do they do? “Companies will do a very company thing,” says Neil Hoyne. “They say, ‘The bear is coming at us, and it’s going to kill us—so let’s gather 100 people in a room to try to solve the bear problem.’”

As Google’s chief strategist, Neil has spent almost 9000 hours (over a full year!) talking to CEOs, boards, and investors about how they make decisions and navigate change. He says the best companies he works with do something different when they recognize a threat: “They just start running.” They’re not trying to outrun the bear. They’re jus​​​​​​t trying to outrun the competition.

So the next time you’re facing a big business challenge, don’t waste time trying to find the perfect data, or the ideal solution. Just start running.

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Facing a big decision? Flip a coin.

What sets the most successful people apart? It’s not hard work. It’s their intuition.

Star Northeastern and Harvard business prof Laura Huang has interviewed the world’s most accomplished people: from Pulitzer Prize winners to Olympic athletes. And she found that the most important element in their success was their intuition: the combination of external data and personal experience.

And you can use your gut feel in practical ways both at work and in life. For example, many of us spend so much time gathering inputs and information for a big decision only to find ourselves stuck at the moment of truth. If that’s you, try this: flip a coin. As you see the outcome, note how you’re feeling, and what your inner voice is telling you. Are you excited? Disappointed? Then take that information, trust your gut, and go make your decision.

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Take advantage of fresh starts.

Every January, we make admirable New Year’s resolutions: I’ll go to the gym more, diet more, read more books. Katy Milkman, bestselling author of How to Change, says that “fresh start” mentality doesn’t just affect us at New Year’s. We feel the same way after a birthday, a big holiday like Labor Day, and even the start of a new week. And we can use that to make better decisions.

Think about the important dates you have coming up. Maybe your birthday or anniversary is around the corner, or your company’s new fiscal year is starting soon. You can use that to inspire change and goal-setting, both individually and as a company.

And if you’re the kind of person whose gym attendance declines dramatically in February, try using your fresh start to do a one-time action that has big effects down the line. For example, in one study, Katy encouraged employees to sign up for their company’s savings program after a fresh start—and saw a 30% increase in savings over the next 8 months.

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Change your story to change your life.

“All of us walk around with stories about our lives,” says Lori Gottlieb. “Why things went wrong, why we treated someone a certain way (because, obviously, they deserved it), why someone treated us a certain way (even though, obviously, we didn’t). Stories are the way we make sense of our lives.”

Lori is the instant New York Times bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone (which has sold over 2 million copies). In her viral TED Talk, which has been watched over 7 million times, she argues that “we get to choose what goes on the page that lives in our minds and shapes our realities.”

So the next time you’re telling yourself a story that’s making you feel anxious or angry, take a step back and ask if there’s a way you can reframe it to add more nuance, more agency, and ultimately more possibilities for what it can become.

 

Play to your (scientific) strengths.

We’ve all been told to “play to your strengths.” But how many of us actually know, with scientific backing, what those strengths are?

Dan Lerner is the positive psychologist behind NYU’s most popular elective, “The Science of Happiness.” He says that when we identify and use our strengths at work or at school, we’re more likely to achieve our goals, work better in a team, and tap into greater wellbeing in the long-term.

Dan suggests looking into which of the 24 science-based character strengths you possess the most of: from gratitude and fairness to zest and humor. (You can use this free quiz.) Then think about how you can incorporate your top strengths into your day-to-day. If bravery is one of your top 5, try asking a tough question in a meeting. If you rank high for curiosity, talk to someone about finding more learning opportunities. And then identify people whose strengths complement yours so you can do more meaningful work together.

 

Use your time to get happier.

Feeling like there aren’t enough hours in the day? You’re not alone. But Cassie Holmes says we actually do have enough time—and if we learn to use it well, we’ll find ourselves both more productive and happier overall.

This star UCLA professor’s bestselling book, Happier Hour, is packed full of strategies for using your 24 hours to craft a more fulfilling life. She suggests first taking an account of your time with a tracking sheet, recording what you’re doing and how you’re feeling. Then, look at what activities make you happiest, and figure out how to maximize them.

“Happiness isn’t about the quantity of time we have available,” she says. “It’s about the quality: how we invest the time that we have, and how invested we are while spending that time. With just a little intention and attention, we can find extraordinary happiness in ordinary moments.”

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Think of AI as a “motorcycle of the mind.”

“Steve Jobs used to say that computers are a bicycle for the mind,” says Nick Thompson. “I think of AI as a motorcycle for the mind.”

Nick is the CEO of The Atlantic, former editor-in-chief of WIRED, and author of the forthcoming book The Running Ground. He explains how he uses generative AI tools not only to do various tasks for him, but to improve his skills: “to test myself, to challenge my assumptions, to learn new things.”

He argues that technology will help us level up our capacity in the long term. “Technology does distract us,” he says, “but it also allows us to become much more sophisticated in how we process information. Our ability to imagine greater things just expands with time.”

Ask not what AI can do for you.

When we start implementing AI into our workflows, many of us spend time figuring out what AI can help us with. But that’s not the best way to start.

“What ends up happening is that you pivot a lot—because there are many, many things that AI can do—and never really get any of the successes you need,” says Radhika Dirks, global AI advisor and CEO of XLabs.

Instead, start with a vision. “What do you want to create?” Radhika asks. “The more daring, the more impossible it sounds, the better. Don’t hesitate to sound different. And what you will soon realize is that the right technology, the right AI, the right talent will come to you.”

Always doing the same thing? AI can help.

Every job has areas of repetition—yours is probably no different. What if you could free yourself up to do more exciting strategic work?

“You have codified systems, strategies, and processes. It stands to reason that there’s a lot of repetition in them,” says Fab Dolan, founder of the AI startup 99Ravens and former Global Chief Marketing Officer for Android. “These repeatable, high-value processes can become building material for AI systems.”

And that doesn’t mean just writing the same email over and over. At his startup 99Ravens, Fab is using AI to make cross-team conversations easier by making individual expertise more accessible to the whole team. “That’s the biggest opportunity for most people within AI right now.”

Remember: You’ve been here before.

AI may seem like a brand-new challenge. But you’ve done this before.

“The internet, the mobile phone—this isn’t any different,” says Justin Reilly. “In many ways, AI is even more accessible to companies. If you were trying to build for the smartphone in 2007, there were maybe five companies in the world that could help you. Now, you can just sign up for an account with an LLM and start playing with it.”

The CEO of Wavelo and former Head of Product at Verizon, Justin has spent a career spearheading AI transformations. He suggests looking back to what your internet and mobile rollouts looked like—and then bringing the lessons you learned into your AI strategy.

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Listen to your emotions. Even the bad ones.

When we feel negative emotions, like anger or fear, it’s tempting to shut them down. But Ethan Kross says all emotions offer important information for us, if we know how to understand them.

“All negative emotions, when they are experienced in the right proportions, are really good for us,” he says. “For example, I experience regret—and that alerts me to something that could have gone better in the past, and prepares me to not repeat that circumstance in the future.”

Ethan is an award-winning psychologist at the University of Michigan, as well as the bestselling author of Chatter and Shift. He argues that we can lead, perform, and live better when we know how to use our complex emotions.

Fall in love with your stress.

Take a moment right now to think about something that’s stressing you out. Our dominant response is to try and deny, reduce, or counteract the stress. But Modupe Akinola says some stress is good for us—if we know how to use it.

“Playing for the long term requires shifting our perspective on stress,” says this celebrated Columbia Business School professor. “For example, simply reminding someone that stress has enhancing properties can make them more creative and enable them to think more flexibly.”

Now go back to that thing that’s stressing you out. “Don’t try to deny the stress. Instead, use it,” Modupe says. “Inherent in that stress are opportunities that can take your performance and your company to an even better place.”

Use anxiety to prepare for the future.

“Anxiety is an emotion,” says Tracy Dennis-Tiwary. “It’s not a disorder. It’s not a red flag. It’s not a danger signal. First and foremost, it’s an emotion. It feels really bad. But it’s actually good for you.”

A clinical psychologist and the bestselling author of Future Tense, Tracy reveals how anxiety turns us into “mental time travelers,” helping us prepare for an uncertain but hopeful future.

Tracy argues that we can turn anxiety into an ally by learning to channel it to create the future we want. “Anxiety lives in that space between where we are now and where we want to be, and it energizes us to bridge that gap.”

Remember: There’s hope on the other side.

Are you part of Generation Dread? Sometimes it feels like we’re anxious about everything, from the day-to-day to the looming climate crisis. But Britt Wray says that when we work through these anxieties, we’ll find hope and purpose on the other side.

Britt is the author of Generation Dread and director of Stanford’s CIRCLE: a research and action initiative focused on emotional resilience and climate leadership. She shows that acknowledging and dealing with our climate anxiety can help us find purpose and avoid burnout.

Britt says that to succeed in the long game, we need to take action, manage our emotions, and take breaks in equal measure. “It’s a very hopeful moment to be in, as we do this difficult yet fulfilling, meaningful, and purposeful work.”

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1. Ask more questions. No, more than that.

How many questions is too many? It’s way more than you think.

In research on sales calls, Harvard Business School professor Alison Wood Brooks found that the most successful agents were the ones who asked the most questions. But more than that, she found that the line between “lots of questions” and “too many questions” is much further out that most of us think. In order to reach that tipping point, you’d have to ask 4 questions a minute—that’s 1 question every 15 seconds!

When you learn to ask more and better questions, you’ll be able to listen so people talk—and get the best out of your relationships at work, Alison says.

2. Get to know your stress—and then use it.

Stress is the #1 killer of high performance. But if we learn how to leverage it, it can help us outperform our competitors and reach new heights.

“You need to get to know your stress like you would get to know somebody on a first date—so that you get to a point where you learn to fall in love with it,” says Modupe Akinola, one of the most highly rated professors at Columbia Journalism School. Modupe suggests that leaders use stress to bring the best out of their teams: for example, you could try introducing a time limit to get the most creative ideas without judgment, or creating overwhelming conditions so your teams are forced to rely on one another and use their unique strengths.

3. Fortune favors the curious.

Don’t just look at what your competitors are doing. Look at what everyone else is doing: from developments outside your sector to innovations that are quite literally out of this world.

Greg Hoffman, former CMO of Nike, explains that the air cushioning technology behind some of Nike’s most beloved shoes was actually invented for space suits by a NASA engineer. If Nike hadn’t been curious about the technology and willing to take a risk, they would have missed out on a massive opportunity. Greg suggests that leaders exercise curiosity like a muscle: “What starts out as homework becomes habit over time.”

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