How Not to Sound Like ChatGPT as a Leader

Free cliff notes from Episode 333 of The Manager Track

Your team discounts messages that read like AI wrote them, even when they only suspect it. These cliff notes give you the 4 habits for using AI that keep your judgment and your voice in what you send, plus a checklist to run before you hit send.

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What's inside

Six pages built for the moment you're about to write a review, prep a hard conversation, or send an email that matters. Keep it open next to your AI tool.

Why good scripts still sound fakeThe order that holds up: think, decide, then use AI.
What sounding like AI costs youThe research on suspected AI use, and the three costs to your credibility.
Where AI-written work gives itself awayReviews, proposals, scripted conversations, and emails, with what to do instead.
Your leadership philosophy worksheetThe questions to answer once, so AI has your stance to work from.
Four habits, with prompts you can copyIncluding how to get AI to challenge your draft instead of rewriting it.
The before-you-send checklistSix checks that keep your judgment and voice visible.

Why this matters now

In Cornell research published in Scientific Reports, people rated a chat partner as less cooperative when they only suspected AI-suggested replies, whether or not AI was used. In a BetterUp Labs and Stanford survey published in Harvard Business Review, 42% of people who received AI "workslop" saw the sender as less trustworthy.

You don't need to stop using AI. You need the thinking to come first, so the message is still yours when it goes out.

The tool can find you better words, but it can't care.

Ramona Shaw, host of The Manager Track and founder of Archova, has spent roughly the last decade working with first-time managers.

Want the full conversation?

Episode 333 walks through the research, a client example, and each of the 4 habits in about 23 minutes.

Listen to Episode 333