Introduction
Leading Differently with AI
One of our performance strategists, Vaidehi Mittal, had the privilege of working with a leader who was ready to challenge how things have always been done.
Recently, Vaidehi coached Sharmin Nault Hislop, a corporate communications leader at Alberta Blue Cross, who wanted to explore what artificial intelligence could really do for her daily work and leadership effectiveness.
This Hybird AI coaching session was a standout example of how quickly someone can move from initial experimentation to confidently using AI as a powerful tool for productivity, creativity, and decision-making.
Gains
Value Delivered
The most significant outcomes from this session were:
From 2 Hours → 5 Minutes
Tasks that previously took two hours were completed in five minutes using AI, representing a dramatic efficiency gain.
Faster, clearer meetings
Meetings became more productive and shorter thanks to AI-generated agendas and contextual notes.
Team-wide AI adoption
Sharmin‘s team noticed and embraced these process improvements, leading to a broader adoption of AI-driven workflows.
Sharper writing, stronger impact
Sharmin consistently reported improvements in content quality, tone, and impact, and cited AI to refine her communication both for everyday emails and high-stakes proposals.
Opportunity to action
Session Context and Early Wins
We kicked off the session with the goal of demystifying AI and turning it into a daily ally.
Sharmin‘s openness was immediately clear. She signed up for an AI platform, watched an introductory video, and dove into hands-on exploration. She described how she used the tool to design a cake, work on professional development goals, and define success metrics for her supervisor.
The impact was immediate. She asked the AI to draft a memo she had been working on, and it returned a more in-depth version in seconds. She also noted how the AI supplied an agenda for a workshop that hadn’t been created yet, saving her and her colleagues’ significant time. She shared these outcomes with her manager, highlighting that her increased efficiency was possible because of these new processes.
Outcome
Experimentation Yields Tangible Results
The conversation quickly progressed from simple task delegation to strategic experimentation. When tasked with summarizing a lengthy article on internal communications trends, she used the AI to extract the nine key points, eliminating unnecessary sales pitches and focusing only on actionable insights. This shift allowed her to spend less time reading and more time acting on critical takeaways.
She didn’t stop at the summaries. One bullet point about moving away from email as the primary communication channel prompted her to ask the AI for alternative options to engage remote employees.
It provided ten suggestions, which she immediately discussed with her team.
- She described how this new workflow let her "spend less time reading to find content and more time actioning key insights."
- She also used the AI to streamline meeting preparation. Before a recent meeting, she had the tool summarize her key discussion points into an agenda, complete with context for each topic.
- She observed, “Such a fruitful meeting and we didn’t even use the full half hour!”
Strategy
Developing AI as a Thought Partner and Problem Solver
A major theme in this coaching engagement was using AI as a strategic thought partner. Sharmin embraced exercises that challenged her to debate both sides of business topics, ask the AI for objections and rebuttals, and simulate stakeholder Q&A sessions.
She applied these techniques to a real-world challenge: building a business case for an additional team member. She iterated with the AI to refine her arguments, and generate real-world examples to support her proposal.
By adopting this approach, she felt more prepared for executive pushback and planned to use the AI-generated examples as supporting evidence in future discussions.
Growth
Broader Insights for Leadership and Team Development
This session underscored several broader leadership lessons:
- Experimentation breeds confidence. By starting small, manageable tasks and building on early wins, leaders can quickly trust and scale up new tools.
- AI dramatically accelerates and improves work quality. Sharmin described time savings from two hours down to five minutes on a single task, noting, “Massive time saver for me. Having the ability to start and finish something quickly is phenomenal.”
- Delegating research and brainstorming to AI frees up time for strategic thinking and team engagement. She leveraged the tool to gather diverse perspectives, generate discussion questions, and even craft scripts and slides for team presentations.
- AI can help leaders maintain professionalism in emotionally charged communications, ensuring messages remain solution-focused and effective.
Growth
Broader Insights for Leadership and Team Development
This session underscored several broader leadership lessons:
Experimentation breeds confidence
By starting small, manageable tasks and building on early wins, leaders can quickly trust and scale up new tools.
Phenomenal Speed & Quality Gains
AI dramatically accelerates and improves work quality. Sharmin described time savings from two hours down to five minutes on a single task, noting, “Massive time saver for me. Having the ability to start and finish something quickly is phenomenal.”
Delegate the Dull, Own the Strategy
Delegating research and brainstorming to AI frees up time for strategic thinking and team engagement. She leveraged the tool to gather diverse perspectives, generate discussion questions, and even craft scripts and slides for team presentations.
Professionalism Under Pressure
AI can help leaders maintain professionalism in emotionally charged communications, ensuring messages remain solution-focused and effective.
See What Impro.AI Can Do For You
This experience is a reminder that leaders who are willing to experiment and iterate can unlock immediate, tangible benefits from new technologies. By approaching AI as a thought partner and workflow enhancer, Sharmin not only increased her own effectiveness but inspired her team and organization to rethink what’s possible.
