Your Three Starter Prompts
Copy these into a document you actually use and adapt the bracketed parts. The library is three prompts, not thirty, and you actually use all of them. That is the point: small, reused, refined.
Coaching
"You are helping me prepare for a one-on-one. Here are my sanitized notes from recent sessions with a direct report: [notes]. Identify the recurring pattern and give me three coaching questions that help them find the root cause themselves. Do not include names."
Planning
"Here is a plan I am considering: [plan]. List the ways it could realistically fail, rank them by likelihood, and tell me which single assumption would break first."
Decisions
"I am about to decide [decision]. Assume it failed badly six months from now. List the most likely reasons it failed, focused on this specific situation, not generic risks."
Knowledge Check
Review each weak/strong prompt pair. For each, select which improvement lever made the difference.
Pair 1
Weak
"Write a development plan for my employee."
Stronger
"Write a 90-day development plan for a mid-level analyst who wants to move into a senior role. Focus on project ownership and stakeholder communication. Structure it as three milestones with success criteria."
Which improvement lever made the biggest difference?
Pair 2
Weak
"Help me prepare for a difficult conversation."
Stronger
"You are a management coach. Help me prepare for a conversation with a report who consistently misses deadlines. Give me three coaching questions that open root-cause inquiry rather than accusation. Keep each question under 15 words."
Which improvement lever made the biggest difference?
Pair 3
Weak
"What are the risks in this plan?"
Stronger
"Here is the plan: [plan text]. List the top five ways this could fail in the next 90 days. For each, name the single assumption that would break first. Rank by likelihood, most likely first."
Which improvement lever made the biggest difference?
Knowledge Check
1. The five elements of an effective prompt parallel the elements of effective delegation. They are:
2. According to Microsoft Research (2023), the most common barrier to prompt quality among early enterprise users was:
3. Before pasting employee notes into a commercial AI tool, a manager should:
4. The pre-mortem technique (Gary Klein, HBR 2007) works by:
5. The best reason to keep a small personal prompt library is that:
Apply It Today
Open a document you actually use and paste in the three starter prompts. Adapt one to your real work. Block five minutes on your calendar to do it before your next meeting.
Reflect