Keeping your wits about you as a leader in an AI world

I’ve noticed that AI has become a regular talking point in coaching conversations with heads. I was really impressed the other day as I listened to a head tell me how he and his staff are leveraging it, among other things, as a tool to enhance effective feedback to pupils. The creative possibilities seem to keep coming, but I can’t help wondering what we might be losing as AI occupies a bigger and bigger space in school life and in the minds of school leaders.

The context of shrinking budgets, recruitment issues, staff absence and ever increasing pupil needs seems to have accelerated the rise and rise of AI in the education sector. It’s great to have this powerful tool, and some quick and easy answers to problems, but there is a potential downside, I believe, when it comes to leadership.

Here are some worries that I have for leaders around AI:

1.      Parents are using AI resources like ChatGPT to uplevel their complaints and tie school leaders in knots, sapping time and energy. On the one hand, you could argue that the tools are empowering parents to raise issues, but on the other, speaking to each other is a much more effective way to conduct a difficult conversation than lengthy emails generated via a middle-man (middle-robot!). Heads have been living with ‘keyboard warriors’ for years now, but AI seems to have supercharged that effect. How can we keep parent relationships warm, human and respectful in this context?

2.      When you’re busy and overwhelmed, it seems like a great option to reach for AI to help answer questions and solve problems. There’s no doubt that that’s a helpful approach if you’re seeking simple facts. From my perspective as a coach, however, I wonder if we're always asking the right question as we start typing into ChatGPT. I know that in coaching sessions, the first question or problem that a leader puts on the table is rarely the real issue. Talking through problems and exploring reality tends to bring to the surface other, more significant challenges that lie beneath. Do we risk losing depth and staying on the ‘surface level’ the more we use AI in these situations?

3.      I also worry that having AI always just a click away could exacerbate self-doubt. It seems to be an all-knowing presence, which has answers that you don’t have. Does ChatGPT know best? What about the knowledge and experience that each and every one of us has gathered across our years of teaching and leading in schools? Does our own instinctive and deep understanding get lost as we reach for the quick answers? Do we start to doubt ourselves as questions arise in our minds, whereas before we might have trusted ourselves to take the right steps?

There are more questions than answers here, but these are just a few of the challenges that leaders will need to navigate over the coming months and years.

I believe in the ability and creativity of the education workforce to meet these challenges head on, but we need to keep our wits about us and be conscious of what might get lost as we move forward in the use of AI.

My coaching business is a one-man band, where human connection is at the forefront. I know that I am providing an important service for school leaders: a kind and empathetic presence, a safe and non-judgemental space to explore and discuss experiences collaboratively and a partnership that helps leaders nurture their own insights and wisdom. Human skills are becoming ever more important in an AI world. Relationships are still at the heart of leadership.

If you’d like to ringfence some time for talking things through with an experienced coach, do get in touch. You can book directly into my calendar for a 30 minute no-charge consultation. There’s no obligation. You can get a feel for whether I’d be a good fit for you as a coach, and then decide whether to proceed. Find out more about my packages and the costs here.