The #1 Newsletter to keep you out of burnout forever!
Leadership in 2025: Evolve or get left behind
November 3, 2024
Apr 7, 2024
Two weeks ago, I visited Detroit to speak to 200+ CIOs and technology innovators at the SIM technology leadership event.
My presentation was on the power of artificial intelligence to help CIOs become more effective and productive in their daily operations.
I shared several examples of how I have been using AI to help me be ultra-productive and precise in my decision-making process.
This is the presentation I covered during my speech: https://sim.drdegnan.com
Then, I commented on all those CIOs that seemed to rattle some. I asked everybody: “Who here pays for their own Chat-GPT subscription?”
About 30 hands went up in the air.
At that point, I replied, “Congrats, you will keep your job! The rest of you risk losing your job in the next three years.”
As you can imagine, that was not the most popular thing to say.
So, let’s understand why.
Note: During the conference, I shared with everyone my Power50 AI prompts that have helped me use AI in my daily operations in leadership.
You can download them here: https://power50.drdegnan.com
The Big Problem without AI in Leadership
I spend much of my time helping leaders level up their game and lead confidently and resiliently in an era of constant change and ecological disruption.
Many spend their business hours responding to emails and chat messages desperately trying not to burn out.
The constant message overflow and information noise tremendously burden the ability to focus and actually get anything done strategically.
And it is not going to get easier.
So, what can we do to conquer and thrive in the age of information overload?
1. Process Information Faster at a Higher Quality
You can not turn off the information flow, and you can’t simply ignore it.
Your timely and accurate response to critical business events and actions is essential to ensuring your teams have what they need to move forward quickly and decisively. So, you want to find a way to deal with all of this noise and filter out the critical data from the rest.
When it comes to my emails, AI has become my assistant.
For example, I use Google Gemini for my email to provide quick summaries of what’s in my inbox. It helps me break down the essentials to which I should respond and keep the rest on the side. On the side means a summary of all the emails I will not respond directly to and not even read, such as project updates, vendor communication, and anywhere I am CC’d—this alone saves me 20 hours weekly. It’s insane!
2. Go Beyond “Hey ChatGPT, create some content for me.”
I also ask Gemini to help me break down certain emails and better understand things like the sender’s motivation and the underlying potential ask and reason.
AI can help you decipher emails regarding the sender’s intention, raising your emotional intelligence for a more informed and meaningful response.
Often, I drag email attachments and other documents (e.g., Excel, PowerPoint, PDFs) onto ChatGPT and ask it to analyze numbers, help me identify where data might be missing, and anticipate the consequences of what the data might be telling me.
3. AI-Powered Strategic Thinking
AI can already be used in strategic “Thinktanks” and brainstorming sessions to help uncover new ideas and strategy options.
You can ask AI to help you compare your strategic thinking with other strategies and validate your assumptions on competitive advantage, market penetration, and product feature development.
I have been using ChatGPT to help me create test data to build out my financial models in Excel, conduct a SWOT analysis, industry trend analysis, market comparison, and propose options for strategic execution.
In A Nutshell
If you are hoping to level up your leadership performance in an age of information overload without AI, you are going to fail by burning out and making inadequate decisions for your organization that no longer produce a competitive advantage.
Without AI mastery in leadership, you will be out of commission in the next few years [for sure.]
Learn how to collaborate with your AI assistant and master AI prompting. You can get a head start by downloading my Power50 AI prompts at https://power50.drdegnan.com.
Find out how ready you are for C-Suite leadership. Take my scientific readiness assessment at https://csuite.drdegnan.com.
BURNOUT TEST
Reversing burnout starts by knowing how much you’re currently dealing with burnout. 🔥 🔥 Go ahead and take my free burnout assessment right now: https://burnout.drdegnan.com.
Every year, I take on a limited number of professionals who aspire to a successful executive leadership career without burnout.
If you would like to learn more, set up some time with me and discover if we are a fit, by going to https://meet.drdegnan.com.
Leadership is hard. We spend a lifetime perfecting to lead teams and organizations with tangible results that change people’s lives.
Let’s make sure we get it right without burning out.
Hi, I’m Oliver.
I have been living in the trenches of a C-suite leader for over 17 years, leading thousands of employees between Startups, PE, and Fortune 50 companies. I am the former SVP and CTO for IBM Watson Health, Chief Architect for Intuit in Silicon Valley, and founder of MoreTalent AI with a successful exit in the 7-figure range. Every newsletter I send out has invaluable insight to help you succeed in your journey.
Listen to my latest podcast episodes and learn about career success and a life without burnout.
Click to listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify:
Join 87.4k professionals and get your Burnout Score:
Dr. Degnan's Burnout Score is a scientific first step for you to reverse and prevent burnout forever. After that, join 2.3k professionals and take my masterclass, NEVER BURNOUT AGAIN, and reverse burnout forever in less than 20 days.
