August 14, 2025 • 13 mins
If you're using AI apps then maybe you've already learned this lesson. Maybe you're discovering that what you get back from ChatGPT, Grok, or Claude is largely determined by the prompt you type in. In this episode Lone Rock Leadership's Russ Hill dig into the lessons that teaches us for leaders.
• Leadership communication is like a prompt for AI - quality in, quality out
• Frustration with team performance often stems from unclear expectations
• When disappointed with output, examine the clarity of your instructions first
• Strengthening your "prompts" as a leader leads to better team results
• Fine-tune questions, expectations, and communication rather than blaming the team
• This concept applies to client relationships, sales interactions, and all leadership contexts
• High-performing teams need clear direction more than constant correction
Share this episode with a colleague, your team or a friend. Tap on the share button and text the link.
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Leadership lessons from AI.
No, I'm not talking about howto use an AI app like ChatGPT or
whatever, and I'm not talkingabout what we learned searching
for something.
I'm talking about just thingsthat apply to leadership on a
team that are becoming prettyapparent as a frequent user of
(00:20):
AI.
I'll dig into it.
I'll explain in this episode.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
This is the Lead in 30 podcast with Russ Hill.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
You cannot be serious .
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Strengthen your ability to lead in less than 30
minutes.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Can you guess where I'm at?
If you're a regular listener tothis podcast, you know, because
of the audio quality and allthat, that I'm in a vehicle
headed to the airport.
That's the safe bet.
So forgive the lack of thestudio audio, but I wanted to
make sure that we're getting outepisodes.
You all, I am so deep, soburied in just our day-to-day
(01:02):
activity, obviously running anexecutive consulting firm and a
leadership training companythat's got incredibly aggressive
growth targets, and as I'mrecording this, we're halfway
through the year, so just makingsure we're perfectly positioned
, or at least as well positionedas possible, to maximize the
(01:24):
second half of the year andcrush the targets that we have
the key results.
And then there's this book, andif you've never written a book
before, this is our fourth, andeach one just takes on a life of
its own.
This one is double the lengthof anything we've written before
.
We spent way more money onaccess to the best ghostwriters
(01:48):
that exist in the world ofbusiness books.
We've just spent gobs of time.
This one has been in the worksfor four years, which is just
crazy to think about.
That I mean, we've thrown outentire manuscripts, we've hired
and fired ghostwriters, we'vedebated and debated, and and
(02:08):
just, we want it to be really,really good and uh, this one's
tied to our, our fundamental, orour foundational course of lead
in 30.
And so now I'm buried in thatand so, um, hence the uh little
bit less frequency on thepodcast episodes and why I'm
recording one.
It's actually a Saturday, youall, and I don't usually work or
(02:30):
try.
Well, I define work.
I don't go into the office, Idon't meet with clients on the
weekends, but I'm speakingtomorrow morning, sunday morning
, at a gathering of chieflearning officers in the Midwest
, and so I've got to fly outthere and then I speak on stage
for an hour.
I literally then go to theairport and fly back home Sunday
night.
(02:50):
Anyway, if you saw my travelschedule for this week, let me
just think real quick.
Okay, sky Harbor, right inPhoenix, you know our airport.
I'm going to be there today,saturday.
I'm going to be there tomorrow,sunday.
I'm going to be there Monday.
I'm going to be there Wednesday.
I'm going to be there Friday.
I'm going to be there, uh, aThursday.
So what day does that leave?
(03:11):
Tuesday?
Tuesday is the only day of thenext seven days that I'm not
actually in and out of theairport.
That is now.
Can you have a little empathyfor why I'm doing a little bit
less frequency on on the podcastanyway, okay, so, uh, I got to
bang this out in 10, 15 minutesCause that's when I arrive at
(03:32):
the at the airport and got toget through security.
So, uh, we're talking AI.
Oh, by the way, welcome in Ifyou're new to the podcast.
I don't usually rant like that.
Um, now, that's a lie.
Yeah, I do.
This is just a raw audio journalof somebody who spends their
living coaching, consultingsenior executive teams at some
of the world's most amazingbiggest companies.
(03:53):
Through unforeseen events, loneRock leadership gained access
20 years ago to the C-suite ofcompanies like Amazon, general
Motors, ford, cigna, lockheedMartin.
The list goes on and on and onand on across all different
industries.
(04:14):
And I'm not flexing, I'm justgiving you context.
And so you don't get accesslike that and then keep what you
see learn to yourself.
That would just be stupid.
And so this is one of theplaces that we share what we're
learning.
So it's the Lead in 30 podcast.
(04:35):
In less than 30 minutes, youget some value to help you lead
the team that you lead.
And I'm Russ Hill.
Okay, there's a lonerockio.
Okay, I'm Russ Hill.
Okay, there's a loan rockio.
Okay, I'm checking all theboxes Loan rockio, if you want
more loan.
Rock leadership is the name ofour firm.
Okay, ai.
So I was having a conversation.
Our youngest son's the only oneleft at home.
He's in high school.
(04:56):
Sophomore year just began.
Yeah, I know it's weird, butArizona they start school in mid
July and long story about, butanyway, he's way into AI and I
think there are some, really,because I am, and so I've just
advocated it.
I use it so much, and I'mtalking about it to our family
so much, that I've created allof these AI users.
(05:19):
And some of you may thinkthat's bad and there probably
are some repercussions oreffects of that that aren't
aren't positive, but I thinkthey're outweighed by the ones
that are positive the and thoseof you again that this isn't a
podcast about AI, um, thatthere's lots of other shows
about that, but if you're notutilizing it in every aspect of
(05:42):
your life, I'm talking about howto fix the leaky faucet.
I'm talking about, um, the userguide for your blender.
I'm talking about, uh, um, how,whether or not you can cook
what you're pulling out of thefreezer in an air fryer.
I'm talking about reviews.
I'm talking about businessstrategy.
I'm talking about review thisdocument help me think about it.
(06:03):
I'm talking about bookmanuscripts.
I'm talking about a client thatyou're meeting with and you
want like a background onsomebody or something.
I'm talking about everythingcomparative competitive analysis
, like if you're not using, I'mpaying like $200, $300, $400 a
(06:24):
month for like five or six perLLM they call it that right.
Large language manual, large,large language memory, large
language what's the M?
I forget.
Large language memory, I think.
Anyway, for all of them,because there's just access.
That's unbelievable.
(06:44):
Why would you like that?
That to me is like how much isit worth to you to pay for
access to the brightest mind,the fastest computer in the
world?
Like at least $20 a month.
I mean like that's like howwould you not?
And then 200 is like insanelycheap, 2000,.
(07:08):
I'd pay it Anyway.
Okay, so I'm having thisconversation with our youngest
son and I'm talking about props.
Those of you that use AI a lot,you know this.
Those of you that don't.
I need to give 30 seconds, 60seconds of background for you.
The prompt is what you type in.
So I open up ChatGPT, grok,claude, gemini, whichever one it
(07:30):
is that you're using, these arethe most popular and they're
the the the most popular andthey're all different and they
all have strengths that I so Iuse all of them, because I use
this one for helping me writearticles or books.
I use this one to give me quicksearches of the internet.
I use this one for what, anyway?
Um, when you, when you type inthe prompt so, for instance, I
(07:52):
want to know, um, somethingabout a target, so there's
chapter, let's see if I canremember, there's 22 chapters in
our upcoming book that comesout in the next several weeks
and, gosh, chapter.
See if I can guess this.
I've got to.
I got to make sure I got itfrom memory.
It's not.
Yeah, Chapter five.
(08:13):
Chapter five starts with Targetand the CEO of Target and a
story that 99% of you don't know.
It's remarkable, and so we takeyou behind the scenes anyway.
So I want to, like, I'mthinking something about Target.
Maybe we're having a meetingwith somebody or whatever, and
(08:33):
maybe we're headed there, and soI need a little bit of info.
So whether or not the AI toolapp whatever gives me back the
information I'm seeking islargely dependent, not on the
quality of the AI.
Well, that's true, it doesdepend on the quality of the AI
app or whatever, but it alsoequally potentially depends on
(08:55):
the prop, what you type in.
So if you are vague, I'll giveyou a.
For instance, like I've put inour the manuscript of our book
it's over 300 pages and I'vegiven it, uploaded it to
different AI tools and if I say,hey, compare this manuscript to
the bestseller business books,it will give me a certain
evaluation.
(09:16):
Then, if I change the prompt tosay, now, compare this to the
best-selling business booksaimed at senior executives of
these type of companies, itgives me a completely different
assessment because the promptchanged, the output changes, and
(09:37):
so when I'm frustrated by theresponse, I realize or it's not
giving me what I need, or I wantmore detail, or I want whatever
.
I change the prompt.
I actually think this is one ofthe most valuable courses
anyone could take, not that Ihave one for you or that I've
taken one or the most valuableskill for certain people in
position and I think this isgoing to be a thing in
(10:00):
corporations like communicationstaffs, researchers, quality
control, all that.
These folks are going to go toschool, they're going to get
educated on prompts and they'regoing to bring tons of value by
understanding how to work thenuance of that and so the
takeaway, the punchline for youreal quick, is the value.
(10:23):
Here's the crossover for me whyI'm talking about this in a
leadership podcast episode.
The value of the output of yourteam has a lot to do with the
quality of the prompt you givethem.
See why I wanted to talk aboutthis.
So you're looking at the outputlike, oh my gosh, why is that
team not giving us what we want?
(10:44):
Or why are my direct reportsnot doing this?
Or why are we not getting thisfrom that person?
You got to look at the prompt.
What are you asking?
A lot of this comes down toexpectations, clarity around
roles, clarity around the targetthat you're trying to get right
and which is, you know, we justtalk about that all the time.
(11:07):
It's the foundation of our workwith organizations and
executives and leaders is whenyou really boil it down.
If you want to put it in itssimplest terms, it's increasing
the quality of the prompt.
I just want you to let that sinkin.
I want you to think about that.
I want it to be on your mind inmeetings that you hold this
(11:30):
week, in texts that you send, inmessages that you post in Slack
, or Teams, in emails that youput out in Teams, in emails that
you put out in one-on-onesyou're having, in market visits
that you have this week or next.
Think of what you're saying tothe team member, to the
leadership group, as a prompt,and the output that you get is
(11:53):
going to have a lot to do.
Got to make sure I'm going tothe right place.
I haven't been to thisparticular terminal in forever.
Am I going to the right place?
Yeah, okay, flying a differentairline than I usually go,
because I'm going to a place Idon't usually go to speak
tomorrow.
So, yeah, think of it as aprompt and then just work on it
(12:14):
Like I just want.
I'm not going to give you anymore specific direction than
that, I just wanted to floatthat idea past you.
It could be with a client thoseof you that maybe you don't lead
a team but you work in saleswhat's the quality?
The output has a lot to do withthe prompt and I spend a
significant amount of time onquestions, like I've coached you
(12:39):
on this before in otherepisodes, but when I'm sitting
there working with an executiveteam.
I'm observing them, or on theback of the room, or whatever it
is.
What I'm writing down in mynotepad are you could think of
it as prompts?
What's the question that I'mgoing to ask this executive team
when I make a comment or ask aquestion here in 20 minutes?
What's the observation I'mgoing to provide?
(13:04):
Those are all prompts and youall, a lot of us, all of us
could benefit from fine tuning,strengthening the prompts we put
out and maybe putting a littlebit less energy into blaming the
team or the individual for theoutput.
(13:24):
I mean, both matter right.
All right, I got to go.
I'm at the airport.
I'll talk to you in the nextepisode of the Lead in 30
podcast.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Share this episode with a colleague, your team or a
friend.
Tap on the share button andtext the link.
Thanks for listening to theLead in 30 podcast with Russ
Hill.
Leadership lessons from AI.
No, I'm not talking about howto use an AI app like ChatGPT or
whatever, and I'm not talkingabout what we learned searching
for something.
I'm talking about just thingsthat apply to leadership on a
team that are becoming prettyapparent as a frequent user of
(00:20):
AI.
I'll dig into it.
I'll explain in this episode.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
This is the Lead in 30 podcast with Russ Hill.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
You cannot be serious .
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Strengthen your ability to lead in less than 30
minutes.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Can you guess where I'm at?
If you're a regular listener tothis podcast, you know, because
of the audio quality and allthat, that I'm in a vehicle
headed to the airport.
That's the safe bet.
So forgive the lack of thestudio audio, but I wanted to
make sure that we're getting outepisodes.
You all, I am so deep, soburied in just our day-to-day
(01:02):
activity, obviously running anexecutive consulting firm and a
leadership training companythat's got incredibly aggressive
growth targets, and as I'mrecording this, we're halfway
through the year, so just makingsure we're perfectly positioned
, or at least as well positionedas possible, to maximize the
(01:24):
second half of the year andcrush the targets that we have
the key results.
And then there's this book, andif you've never written a book
before, this is our fourth, andeach one just takes on a life of
its own.
This one is double the lengthof anything we've written before
.
We spent way more money onaccess to the best ghostwriters
(01:48):
that exist in the world ofbusiness books.
We've just spent gobs of time.
This one has been in the worksfor four years, which is just
crazy to think about.
That I mean, we've thrown outentire manuscripts, we've hired
and fired ghostwriters, we'vedebated and debated, and and
(02:08):
just, we want it to be really,really good and uh, this one's
tied to our, our fundamental, orour foundational course of lead
in 30.
And so now I'm buried in thatand so, um, hence the uh little
bit less frequency on thepodcast episodes and why I'm
recording one.
It's actually a Saturday, youall, and I don't usually work or
(02:30):
try.
Well, I define work.
I don't go into the office, Idon't meet with clients on the
weekends, but I'm speakingtomorrow morning, sunday morning
, at a gathering of chieflearning officers in the Midwest
, and so I've got to fly outthere and then I speak on stage
for an hour.
I literally then go to theairport and fly back home Sunday
night.
(02:50):
Anyway, if you saw my travelschedule for this week, let me
just think real quick.
Okay, sky Harbor, right inPhoenix, you know our airport.
I'm going to be there today,saturday.
I'm going to be there tomorrow,sunday.
I'm going to be there Monday.
I'm going to be there Wednesday.
I'm going to be there Friday.
I'm going to be there, uh, aThursday.
So what day does that leave?
(03:11):
Tuesday?
Tuesday is the only day of thenext seven days that I'm not
actually in and out of theairport.
That is now.
Can you have a little empathyfor why I'm doing a little bit
less frequency on on the podcastanyway, okay, so, uh, I got to
bang this out in 10, 15 minutesCause that's when I arrive at
(03:32):
the at the airport and got toget through security.
So, uh, we're talking AI.
Oh, by the way, welcome in Ifyou're new to the podcast.
I don't usually rant like that.
Um, now, that's a lie.
Yeah, I do.
This is just a raw audio journalof somebody who spends their
living coaching, consultingsenior executive teams at some
of the world's most amazingbiggest companies.
(03:53):
Through unforeseen events, loneRock leadership gained access
20 years ago to the C-suite ofcompanies like Amazon, general
Motors, ford, cigna, lockheedMartin.
The list goes on and on and onand on across all different
industries.
(04:14):
And I'm not flexing, I'm justgiving you context.
And so you don't get accesslike that and then keep what you
see learn to yourself.
That would just be stupid.
And so this is one of theplaces that we share what we're
learning.
So it's the Lead in 30 podcast.
(04:35):
In less than 30 minutes, youget some value to help you lead
the team that you lead.
And I'm Russ Hill.
Okay, there's a lonerockio.
Okay, I'm Russ Hill.
Okay, there's a loan rockio.
Okay, I'm checking all theboxes Loan rockio, if you want
more loan.
Rock leadership is the name ofour firm.
Okay, ai.
So I was having a conversation.
Our youngest son's the only oneleft at home.
He's in high school.
(04:56):
Sophomore year just began.
Yeah, I know it's weird, butArizona they start school in mid
July and long story about, butanyway, he's way into AI and I
think there are some, really,because I am, and so I've just
advocated it.
I use it so much, and I'mtalking about it to our family
so much, that I've created allof these AI users.
(05:19):
And some of you may thinkthat's bad and there probably
are some repercussions oreffects of that that aren't
aren't positive, but I thinkthey're outweighed by the ones
that are positive the and thoseof you again that this isn't a
podcast about AI, um, thatthere's lots of other shows
about that, but if you're notutilizing it in every aspect of
(05:42):
your life, I'm talking about howto fix the leaky faucet.
I'm talking about, um, the userguide for your blender.
I'm talking about, uh, um, how,whether or not you can cook
what you're pulling out of thefreezer in an air fryer.
I'm talking about reviews.
I'm talking about businessstrategy.
I'm talking about review thisdocument help me think about it.
(06:03):
I'm talking about bookmanuscripts.
I'm talking about a client thatyou're meeting with and you
want like a background onsomebody or something.
I'm talking about everythingcomparative competitive analysis
, like if you're not using, I'mpaying like $200, $300, $400 a
(06:24):
month for like five or six perLLM they call it that right.
Large language manual, large,large language memory, large
language what's the M?
I forget.
Large language memory, I think.
Anyway, for all of them,because there's just access.
That's unbelievable.
(06:44):
Why would you like that?
That to me is like how much isit worth to you to pay for
access to the brightest mind,the fastest computer in the
world?
Like at least $20 a month.
I mean like that's like howwould you not?
And then 200 is like insanelycheap, 2000,.
(07:08):
I'd pay it Anyway.
Okay, so I'm having thisconversation with our youngest
son and I'm talking about props.
Those of you that use AI a lot,you know this.
Those of you that don't.
I need to give 30 seconds, 60seconds of background for you.
The prompt is what you type in.
So I open up ChatGPT, grok,claude, gemini, whichever one it
(07:30):
is that you're using, these arethe most popular and they're
the the the most popular andthey're all different and they
all have strengths that I so Iuse all of them, because I use
this one for helping me writearticles or books.
I use this one to give me quicksearches of the internet.
I use this one for what, anyway?
Um, when you, when you type inthe prompt so, for instance, I
(07:52):
want to know, um, somethingabout a target, so there's
chapter, let's see if I canremember, there's 22 chapters in
our upcoming book that comesout in the next several weeks
and, gosh, chapter.
See if I can guess this.
I've got to.
I got to make sure I got itfrom memory.
It's not.
Yeah, Chapter five.
(08:13):
Chapter five starts with Targetand the CEO of Target and a
story that 99% of you don't know.
It's remarkable, and so we takeyou behind the scenes anyway.
So I want to, like, I'mthinking something about Target.
Maybe we're having a meetingwith somebody or whatever, and
(08:33):
maybe we're headed there, and soI need a little bit of info.
So whether or not the AI toolapp whatever gives me back the
information I'm seeking islargely dependent, not on the
quality of the AI.
Well, that's true, it doesdepend on the quality of the AI
app or whatever, but it alsoequally potentially depends on
(08:55):
the prop, what you type in.
So if you are vague, I'll giveyou a.
For instance, like I've put inour the manuscript of our book
it's over 300 pages and I'vegiven it, uploaded it to
different AI tools and if I say,hey, compare this manuscript to
the bestseller business books,it will give me a certain
evaluation.
(09:16):
Then, if I change the prompt tosay, now, compare this to the
best-selling business booksaimed at senior executives of
these type of companies, itgives me a completely different
assessment because the promptchanged, the output changes, and
(09:37):
so when I'm frustrated by theresponse, I realize or it's not
giving me what I need, or I wantmore detail, or I want whatever
.
I change the prompt.
I actually think this is one ofthe most valuable courses
anyone could take, not that Ihave one for you or that I've
taken one or the most valuableskill for certain people in
position and I think this isgoing to be a thing in
(10:00):
corporations like communicationstaffs, researchers, quality
control, all that.
These folks are going to go toschool, they're going to get
educated on prompts and they'regoing to bring tons of value by
understanding how to work thenuance of that and so the
takeaway, the punchline for youreal quick, is the value.
(10:23):
Here's the crossover for me whyI'm talking about this in a
leadership podcast episode.
The value of the output of yourteam has a lot to do with the
quality of the prompt you givethem.
See why I wanted to talk aboutthis.
So you're looking at the outputlike, oh my gosh, why is that
team not giving us what we want?
(10:44):
Or why are my direct reportsnot doing this?
Or why are we not getting thisfrom that person?
You got to look at the prompt.
What are you asking?
A lot of this comes down toexpectations, clarity around
roles, clarity around the targetthat you're trying to get right
and which is, you know, we justtalk about that all the time.
(11:07):
It's the foundation of our workwith organizations and
executives and leaders is whenyou really boil it down.
If you want to put it in itssimplest terms, it's increasing
the quality of the prompt.
I just want you to let that sinkin.
I want you to think about that.
I want it to be on your mind inmeetings that you hold this
(11:30):
week, in texts that you send, inmessages that you post in Slack
, or Teams, in emails that youput out in Teams, in emails that
you put out in one-on-onesyou're having, in market visits
that you have this week or next.
Think of what you're saying tothe team member, to the
leadership group, as a prompt,and the output that you get is
(11:53):
going to have a lot to do.
Got to make sure I'm going tothe right place.
I haven't been to thisparticular terminal in forever.
Am I going to the right place?
Yeah, okay, flying a differentairline than I usually go,
because I'm going to a place Idon't usually go to speak
tomorrow.
So, yeah, think of it as aprompt and then just work on it
(12:14):
Like I just want.
I'm not going to give you anymore specific direction than
that, I just wanted to floatthat idea past you.
It could be with a client thoseof you that maybe you don't lead
a team but you work in saleswhat's the quality?
The output has a lot to do withthe prompt and I spend a
significant amount of time onquestions, like I've coached you
(12:39):
on this before in otherepisodes, but when I'm sitting
there working with an executiveteam.
I'm observing them, or on theback of the room, or whatever it
is.
What I'm writing down in mynotepad are you could think of
it as prompts?
What's the question that I'mgoing to ask this executive team
when I make a comment or ask aquestion here in 20 minutes?
What's the observation I'mgoing to provide?
(13:04):
Those are all prompts and youall, a lot of us, all of us
could benefit from fine tuning,strengthening the prompts we put
out and maybe putting a littlebit less energy into blaming the
team or the individual for theoutput.
(13:24):
I mean, both matter right.
All right, I got to go.
I'm at the airport.
I'll talk to you in the nextepisode of the Lead in 30
podcast.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Share this episode with a colleague, your team or a
friend.
Tap on the share button andtext the link.
Thanks for listening to theLead in 30 podcast with Russ
Hill.
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I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
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