Why you should never use AI for your leadership comms
Is it OK to use AI to produce the first draft of a communication from a leader to their team?
That was a question someone recently posed on LinkedIn.
What, the OP wondered, was the difference between AI drafting something for a leader and a comms specialist drafting it? What makes one more "authentic" and the other not?
From our own experiments with ChatGPT, we’re convinced its inauthenticity is obvious. AI-generated text is bland, circular and unremittingly perky. To anyone who writes for a living, it's very obviously written by a machine. One give-away? All the sentences are the same length.
With the right process, a human comms bod will always do better than a bot.
A good comms person would never write something for a leader without talking to her first. Without listening closely — not just to what that leader says, but how she says it.
In fact, we would go so far as to say that by listening well, the comms bod will produce something more authentic than the leader herself ever could.
People are more likely to reveal their true selves in a conversation than in writing — because they’re less aware of how jarring they find their own voice.
Bad enough on a recording device. Horrific when transcribed in black text on a white page.
Faced with a blank page, the self-conscious author will default to what we call “Shakespearian Quill Syndrome”: a sort of stilted “writerliness” that is anything but authentic.
If you’ve ever sent an article write-up to an interviewee, only to have every quote rewritten to sound more “impressive”, you’ll know what we mean.
In contrast, an effective comms person will probe for the gold. They’ll help the person they’re talking to open up. And they’ll write down what that person says with the minimum degree of filtering.
At the same time, a good leader will trust that comms person with their words — and have the bravery to let their authentic tone of voice shine through.
A real-life example from one of our own clients
A member of our team was working with a CEO who was personable and popular. But his comms had traditionally been very formal.
Covid hit and the first week everyone was sent home, it was obvious a different approach was needed: How was he feeling?
The leader talked about his concern for his elderly parents and his pride in how everyone at the company was rallying.
That conversation formed the basis of a very personal email that captured what he said almost word for word.
When employees received the email, the response was enormous. People said they felt more connected than ever, and really looked after.
Weekly emails followed – always based on a chat about life, family, work, giving employees an insight into his life and sense of humour.
The emails completely changed the CEO’s relationship with his team and how he viewed leadership. Here’s what he said about the experience:
“You have helped me to find my voice in an authentic and meaningful way and I cannot thank you enough for that. The responses to the emails you have helped me to craft during covid speak for themselves.”
What could a similar approach do for your leaders? We can help you uncover their authentic tone of voice.
