#595 AI Co-Thinking Part 3: Executive Self-Coaching with AI | Nathan Mauck, Robert Greene, Niels Brabandt
AI Co-Thinking Part 3: Executive Self-Coaching with AI
Executive coaching is common. Executive self-coaching sounds, at first, like a risk. Many people I speak to say that when their boss starts coaching themselves, things will probably get worse. In the third part of our series on AI co-thinking, Prof. Nathan Mauck of the Henry W. Bloch School of Management at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and Robert A. Greene, founder of OIC Innovation, co-authors of AI Co-Thinking: A Framework for Working with AI, explain what they mean by executive self-coaching with AI, and how to avoid its biggest trap.
What makes self-coaching different
Robert Greene points to the key word in the middle: self. Traditional executive coaching can be very valuable, depending on the coach, but it tends to be periodic, often monthly. It is deliberately facilitative and focuses on accountability rather than solutions. Adding the self, supported by AI co-thinking, adds content, context and a continuous sense of purpose and progress.
Nathan Mauck highlights a second advantage. Executives rarely have a truly neutral party to talk to. With employees, peers, customers and suppliers, they have to be guarded. With AI, there is no need to bluff. You can say that you do not know how to handle something and describe where you really are. Neutral human sparring partners are hard to find and only available occasionally. AI is available whenever you need it.
How to start in practice
This is not about sitting down and hoping that something good falls out. And it is not psychotherapy. The starting point is a problem. Robert Greene discovered the use case himself when he wanted to reset his consulting practice and began a discussion about an income reset strategy. Over a couple of months, the problem definition changed and the conversation became executive self-coaching.
His advice: start with a problem and apply the AI co-thinking framework loosely. The good news is that this is a domain you know well, because the domain is yourself. That makes self-coaching an ideal way to gain first experience with AI co-thinking.
Nathan Mauck adds a practical habit: use voice. He uses AI in voice mode on his commute to debrief the day and reflect on his priorities. Because the AI holds the memory and context, it can point out when his days do not match the priorities he set, or confirm that he is on track. It becomes a mirror for self-defined goals and objectives.
The trap: preaching to the choir
I shared a real case from my own work. A client had set up a coach inside his AI and told me that his coach had confirmed a particular approach, one that research has clearly shown to be wrong. When we looked into it, he had uploaded his twelve favourite motivational books and told the AI to use them as the foundation. The result was a perfect machine for self-confirmation.
Nathan Mauck is clear about the underlying mechanism: generative AI seeks to please. It tends to reinforce what you bring to it, and if you give it the context of how you think, it mirrors that back. Recognising this is already a big step. The second step is talking to other people. While writing the book, the authors would co-think with AI and then discuss the results with each other, which protected them from the loop of believing they were onto something simply because the AI agreed.
Apply the framework to the risk itself
Robert Greene recommends reading the introduction of the book and then the appendix. It contains his dialogue with Claude about precisely this risk. He asked what happens if the AI is just telling him what he already thinks, only more nicely. He expected advice on challenging prompts. Instead, the answer was: apply your framework. For an author, that was a sobering moment. The best protection against an ornate reflection of what you already think is a structured framework, combined with human dialogue.
Why this matters for decision-makers
Executives make decisions with incomplete information, under time pressure and often alone. A structured way to reflect, available at any time, can improve the quality of those decisions considerably. But the value depends entirely on honesty and method. Self-coaching with AI works when leaders bring real problems, challenge the answers they receive and combine the technology with human feedback. Used that way, it complements traditional coaching rather than replacing it. The leaders who benefit most are those willing to hear uncomfortable answers, including answers that challenge their own assumptions about themselves.
Three takeaways for leaders
1. Start self-coaching with a concrete problem, not with general reflection.
2. Use AI as a mirror for your own goals, and check regularly whether your days match your priorities.
3. Protect yourself against confirmation: question the sources you give the AI, use a framework and test conclusions with real people.
This article is part of a four-part series with Nathan Mauck and Robert Greene on AI co-thinking. In Part 4, we look at real-world application. I wish you every success in applying this in your organisation.
Niels Brabandt
---
More on this topic in this week's videocast and podcast with Niels Brabandt: Videocast / Apple Podcasts / Spotify
For the videocast’s and podcast’s transcript, read below this article.
Is excellent leadership important to you?
Let's have a chat: NB@NB-Networks.com
Contact: Niels Brabandt on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nielsbrabandt
Website: www.NB-Networks.biz
Podcast and Videocast Transcript
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc: AI co-thinking and executive coaching and back by popular demand yet again for Another episode our experts Nathan Mauck and Robert Greene thank you much for being here
Robert Greene: Thank you Niels
Nathan Mauck: Thanks for having us.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc: So thank you very much for taking the time again so you know executive coaches Are quite common but what do you mean especially in the context of AI and AI Co-thinking what is executive self-coaching because most people who I talk to Said when my boss is going to self-coach themselves, everything probably goes worse from there. So what do you mean by executive self coaching?
Robert Greene: Well, as the title implies, the key is that middle word, self coaching. So and again, as your question suggested, there's their traditional executive Coach, which can be very valuable depending upon who that person is, But it tends to be periodic, monthly. It's more going back to where you were and trying to, it's not offering solutions. In fact, it's intentionally facilitative and it's just trying to hold people accountable. Inserting the self kind of adds to the content and the context and ultimately The sense of purpose and progress. And it's a way of applying executive coaching through AI co-thinking that we Stumbled on. In fact, I personally, during the course of my learning by doing with generative AI.
Nathan Mauck: You know, the, to me, one of the real interesting things about, Let's say this type of coaching, In general is it can be really helpful for really anybody, but executives to Talk with kind of a neutral party and that they can, uh, take on a tone in that Conversation that they wouldn't. If, uh, an employee, a coworker, a peer, uh, a possible customer, A supplier, you know, anybody that's a stakeholder, you have to be a little More guarded and, um, AI offers the opportunity to, you don't have to bluff, right? You can just sort of say, I don't know, I'm not sure how to handle this. And here's, here's kind of where I'm at. And it can be really helpful and that Can be helpful with a person who's neutral. But to Bob's point, people like that are often hard to come by and definitely Periodic. And so AI being on demand 24 hours a day as a resource that whenever You want that, I think is potentially really powerful.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc: Absolutely. So how does it look like in real world practice? How do you actually get started? You just sit down and talk into the AI and Hope something good's falling out of it? Or how do you make sure that this is A professional coaching approach? How do you start?
Robert Greene: Well, it's an interesting question because we kind of developed this use case, In fact, a little bit in the way you just suggested. Not quite as severe, but no, one does not want to just kind of roll in and, hey, how's it going? And by the way, we're not talking psychotherapy here. We're not talking the provision of some satisfaction to some medical requirement. We're talking about addressing a problem. And in the case where I kind of stumbled on this whole use case, My problem to solve is I wanted to reset my consulting practice. And I literally started the discussion around income reset strategy. And off we went but a couple months down the road that problem definition changed And and we headed into something that was more directly around executive self-coaching So the answer to your question Niels is Start with a problem apply the framework that we're suggesting in a in a in A loose way the good news here relative to our discussion a couple episodes ago Here's a situation where you know the domain pretty well. Yeah. The domain is yourself. And in fact, this is a great way, and I'll turn it over to Nathan now, To get your feet and hands wet, if you will, with AI co-thinking. Experiment with it, with a use case of executive self-coaching.
Nathan Mauck: A really practical, tactical kind of thing that I found that helps, And this may resonate with some people more than others, some might already Be doing this, but I love to turn on the mic on AI. So rather than, you know, trying to type everything out, it really opens, Especially for this kind of work. And actually, one thing I've really been enjoying is while I commute to and From work, I've got a voice mode of AI. And so it's a chance to kind of debrief on the day. It's a chance to reflect On, hey, here's kind of overall the priorities I have, and here's where I'm at. And so this kind of check-in, and then the AI holds the memory. It holds the context. So it's not just a one-time coaching type of experience. And then it can kind of say, hey, remember how you said you wanted to prioritize everything? This and this, and I'm not really hearing that in your day. Or be like, hey, it sounds like you're kind of on track with the types of things You were talking about. So it's Like a mirror to your own kind of your self-defined goals and objectives.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc: Talking about the mirror, maybe you heard about the term preacher preaching to the choir. So when they're both basically in the same spectrum of work. And in addition to that, a real world example, which I had, one of my clients Said hey they set up a coach within their AI good and then they said my coach Confirmed xyz and I said this is this is scientifically proven Wrong so so how is that possible turns out After we looked into it what he did in the beginning it was he took his Favorite 12 motivational speaker written books uploaded that into the AI and Said so this is the foundation this is how this business works this is the reference you need to use So how can we limit the risk of either preacher preaching to the choir or straightforward Bias because we all know that bias is strong on every human being no one can Exempt themselves from that How can we be sure that this is suddenly not becoming a perpetuum mobile of Self-confirmation of the wrong piece of doing the same thing over and over again
Nathan Mauck: Bob, I'm thinking of one of Bob's great quotes from the book, Which is this question of, is it great minds think alike or like minds think alike?
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc: I think the full quote is great minds think alike, but tend to differ. I think that's the full quote.
Nathan Mauck: Yeah, right. That is, uh, so, uh, I think first of all, just recognizing this, This fact, which is true that it will, first of all, the, these generative AI Seek to please, they want, they want you to like the answer. Um, so they do tend to be positive reinforcing. And then if you give it the Context of kind of, here's how I think, then it mirrors that, That back to you. Just recognizing that can be incredibly, incredibly useful. Um and uh you know I always say too it's like uh this Sort of highlights sometimes the need of talking to other people uh so it's Like yes the AI coaching can be really helpful but um too I think the best way To avoid some of this reinforcement is, Uh yeah occasionally like one thing that I really liked about writing this book With bob is we would co-think with AI and then we'd come and bob and I would Talk right and so it helps check against this hey am I just stuck in this loop Of, um, the AI thinks I'm onto something. Um, and then Bob and I can give each other feedback. So, you know, It's part of the solution, but you don't want to just, you know, Go into a vacuum of, of AI only.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc: Absolutely.
Robert Greene: And I, and I think if, if one has a, has a choice of reading our book and I Would, I would, I would say, read the introduction, but also maybe start with the appendix. Because the appendix as a dialogue, my dialogue with Claude, That addresses precisely your question. Because it was interesting that you asked because Nathan and I got into this. And again, halfway, months into the book, we started to, what about this risk Of like minds versus great minds? And so I asked Claude, hey, you're great. You're understanding me. You're thinking ahead. You're amplifying. What's the risk here if you're just telling me what I already think but in a Nicer way and how do I avoid that And I expected it to say come back with new prompts well you need to challenge Me more or whatever but in fact it came back and said hey apply your framework That's the way you avoid this this work this this uh and and here I am hey I'm I wrote this book and here Claude is Using this book to teach me and this is and this is the last page of the book I'm gonna I'm thinking and again that was a sobering moment I would I I would say But anyhow that I think that the answer the ultimately the answer is You know think in terms of a of of a framework and and uh and and apply that And do the kind of thing that nathan was saying and and that's the best that's The best protection against simply getting An ornate reflection of what you already think.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc: I think these are the perfect final words. We see how important it is to reflect On what you do in AI. The question is now, how do we all bring it together into real-world practice? So we're going to talk about AI co-thinking in the application, The real world. That's our next episode. But for this episode, There's only one thing left for me to say. Nathan and Robert, Thank you very much for your time.
Robert Greene: Our pleasure. Thank you.