GenAI and people management
I've felt a bit eye-rolly about the GenAI hype wagon, in part because I work at a company where we talk about AI constantly, and it's tiring. The "write stuff for me" use case doesn't particularly appeal to me. I use it every so often, but I like to handcraft most of my communication.
That said, I have found a valuable use for it in my role as a people manager. When I'm facing a tricky situation, and I want more advice and ideas on how to handle it, an LLM can be a good thinking partner.
Here are some examples from recent history. I've paraphrased the prompts for brevity.
Prompt: I have a direct report who speaks at a low volume with a very strong accent. People have a hard time understanding them, which is impacting their ability to do the job. How can I give this person feedback in a respectful way and avoid being perceived as prejudiced?
Outcome: I finally made a plan to deliver the feedback, and delivered it shortly thereafter. It went well and laid important groundwork for future performance conversations.
Prompt: I received concerning feedback about someone that my team works closely with. I feel I need to pass this feedback to this person's manager. Should I deliver it to the person first or to their manager first?
Outcome: I spoke to the manager first. The manager appreciated it. I spoke to the person next. They wished I'd come to them first instead, which isn't surprising, and they may still harbor some resentment toward me about that. But we're beginning to see the behavior change in a good direction.
Prompt: I had a disturbing meeting with someone yesterday. They treated my team with unwarranted contempt and judgment over an innocent mistake. I want to give them feedback that their tone was counterproductive and that they should improve their communication process around the underlying issue. How should I do that?
Outcome: I slowed down and did not send the email I had drafted while I was emotionally escalated. I'm glad I didn't. Gemini's advice was to separate the two issues (the person's attitude/tone vs. the process changes) and handle them with distinct approaches, since one is much more sensitive than the other. This seems obvious in hindsight, but it wasn't at the time.
I didn't mindlessly follow the LLM's advice in any of these cases. But the act of asking it and reading the response provoked me to think harder about the situation, consider more options, and get off my butt and do something about it.