The Prompt Leader [Part 3 of 5]

Do you remember that hidden "system prompt" I mentioned?

(Hold that thought because that's where it gets weird...)

Your team isn't making decisions.

They're pattern-matching.

Like AI.

(Stay with me.)

LLMs don't "think." They predict the next word based on patterns.

Your team? Same thing. They're predicting the next action based on patterns.

The micromanager who reviews every email is training their team's probability engine to predict: "Independent action = pain."

Result: paralysis.

That hands-off leader who only shows up for disasters is training the pattern: "Visibility = problems."

Result: hidden failures.

We're treating teams like decision-making machines. We give input and get output.

But probability engines learn differently. They absorb patterns from everything...what gets rewarded, ignored, promoted, or fired.

Want to see this in action?

Watch what happens when you make thinking visible.

(I'm serious... try it with your team... thank me later)

Hidden Thinking: "Solve the customer churn problem."

The team pattern-matches to last year's solution and then fails quietly.

Visible Reasoning: "Walk me through your churn analysis. What patterns and logic are you seeing?"

The team learns HOW to think, not just WHAT to deliver.

(One approach builds compliance. The other builds intelligence.)

But here's the uncomfortable part:

Most leaders are accidentally training their teams to hide their reasoning, pattern-match to "safe" answers, and optimize for looking smart instead of getting smarter.

The best teams?

They've learned to make their probability engines visible, show their work, and iterate openly.

Tomorrow, I'll show you three "intelligence boosters" that can transform any team into a learning machine.

The same ones that make GPT-4 feel like magic.

Part 4: "The Intelligence Multipliers"