You Brief AI Better Than Your Team

“If you wanna make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make a change.” – Michael Jackson

As I read earlier this week on LinkedIn, “CEOs, Prepare for the 4th of July Fireworks in the Workplace” — many organizations are bracing for quiet protests, silent resistance, and passive sabotage over the holiday mid-week slump (Lawson, 2 July 2025). That’s your wake-up call:

If leadership isn’t clear, consistent, and respectful — even on a holiday week — culture will revolt.

We brief AI with more clarity, respect, and patience than we give our teams.

• We set context.
• We define outcomes.
• We tolerate iteration.
• We even say thank you.

Then we step into meetings and forget all of that.

• We rush.
• We assume.
• We punish version one.

This isn’t about ChatGPT. It’s about leadership behavior. And culture is just behavior made visible.

Prompting Is a Leadership Behavior

Prompting isn’t a technical function. It’s a leadership act.

When you engage with AI, you:

• Frame your intent
• Set tone
• Define success
• Iterate without judgment

That’s exactly what teams need — but rarely get. If you’re clearer with a machine than with your people, that’s not a communication gap. That’s a cultural signal — and your culture is listening.

The Psychology: Self-Efficacy Still Drives Performance

Albert Bandura’s theory of self-efficacy remains one of the most enduring explanations for why people act — or don’t.

“People must believe they can produce results by their actions in order to sustain motivation” (Bandura, 1997).

AI creates that belief by design. It responds calmly. It invites retries. It doesn’t politicize failure.

Now look at your team environment:

• Is feedback weaponized?
• Is iteration welcomed or penalized?
• Is safety just a slide deck?

If self-efficacy isn’t built into your leadership behavior, your team won’t risk showing up fully.

Evidence from the Field: AI, Safety, and Performance

Study 1: AI Reduces Stress, Builds Capability

In a 2025 longitudinal study across German industries, researchers found that exposure to AI tools significantly improved worker well-being, job satisfaction, and psychological resilience — particularly when introduced with clear expectations and learning loops (Gürtzgen et al., 2025).

People didn’t thrive because AI made them better. They thrived because they felt safe to try.

Study 2: Prompt Literacy Improves Human Leadership

A 2024 study on prompt engineering found that teams trained in how to prompt AI became significantly more effective in giving peer feedback, leading meetings, and resolving ambiguity (Kohnke et al., 2024).

Learning to communicate clearly with machines carried over into better human collaboration.

Structure didn’t just boost productivity. It built trust.

This Week’s Case: BMW + Nvidia in Germany

At GTC Europe 2025, BMW and Nvidia launched a new AI-enabled manufacturing site in Germany.

The headlines said automation. The story was behavior. Instead of starting with consultants or execs, they began with factory-floor employees.

These workers — often overlooked in transformation — were trained to prompt, pilot, and lead AI integrations.

That wasn’t just capability-building. It was psychological empowerment. Start with trust, and change doesn’t feel imposed. It feels owned.

(Source: investors.com, July 2025)

The Leadership Gut Check

Would your last team brief have worked as an AI prompt?

Was it:

• Clear?
• Specific?
• Safe to respond to?
• Designed for iteration?

If the answer’s no, you’re not leading a transformation. You’re just moving noise around.

Prompt Like a Leader

Here’s what real prompting looks like in human terms:

• “This is version one. If it misses, we adjust together.”
• “Here’s the one thing that matters most. Let’s respond to that.”
• “What would you say if this room had no fear in it?”

That’s not soft. That’s exact. And exactness is what cultures crave right now.

The Final Line

AI will do what you ask. People will do what your behavior permits. Culture lives in that gap.

So before your next rollout, your next campaign, your next “alignment” session — check your prompt.

If it wouldn’t land with a human, then stop writing like you’re talking to a bot.

The Author

Ilja Rijnen MSc is a global HR transformation leader, executive coach, and the founder of Talent Transformer. With over 20 years of experience across EMEA, APAC, and North America, Ilja specializes in culture renovation, leadership behavior, and strategic learning. He is the author of Design for Reality: How Behavior Beats Strategy (Every Time), and creator of the SAT model: Simplify. Align. Transform.

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are my own and do not represent the views of any current or former employer. All case examples are anonymized or composited unless otherwise stated, and sources are publicly available.

References

• Bandura, A. (1997). Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control. Freeman.
• Gürtzgen, N., Laible, M.-C., & Parys, J. (2025). Artificial intelligence exposure and worker well-being: Evidence from linked survey and register data. Scientific Reports, 15, Article 10321.
• Kohnke, L., Zou, B., & Shaidullina, A. R. (2024). Tell me your prompts and I will make them true: Prompt engineering and communication literacy in professional teams. Heliyon, 10(3).
• Lawson, T. (2025, July 2). CEOs, Prepare for the 4th of July Fireworks in the Workplace. LinkedIn.
• Investors.com. (2025, July 3). BMW and Nvidia Unveil AI Factory in Germany.