When One Door Closes: Finding Your Next Mission with AI and Leadership Skills

For years, Geoff Woods served as Vice President of The ONE Thing, a bestselling leadership brand and book. It was a career-defining position that gave him success, visibility, and a sense of purpose. However, Geoff made a surprise move in 2023: he walked away. Rather than stay in his current role, he sold his equity and resigned.

Clearly, that decision created uncertainty. But, it also provided opportunities for profound personal growth and reinvention. In addition to a new career path, a new identity emerged, shaped by clarity, courage, and artificial intelligence. Considering that AI market share is expected to reach $3,680.47 billion by 2034, expanding at a CAGR of 19.20%, maybe Geoff made the right choice. 

Letting Go of a Career-Defining Role

Geoff’s drive for success has deep roots. Having been bullied as a child, he turned to achievement to prove his worth. With this mindset, he rose to the top of leadership discussions, becoming a public face for a globally recognized brand. Upon exiting The ONE Thing, though, he quickly realized he had tied too much of his identity to his title.

It was one of the most difficult chapters of his life. In Geoff’s words, the next six months were painful, but necessary. After spending time in deep self-reflection, he began the process of rediscovering his identity without the accolades and status of his former role.

A Call That Changed Everything

It was during this liminal period that Geoff received an unexpected call. He was contacted by Naveen Jindal, Chairman of Jindal Steel & Power in India. Previously, Geoff coached Jindal’s executive team. Jindal was now offering Geoff a rare opportunity.

Jindal told Geoff to come in-house. And, more importantly, he gave Geoff the chance to tell him what the job was.

Geoff accepted the position and became Global Chief Growth Officer. In his role, he worked across a portfolio of companies, aligned leadership, and drove growth. This is exactly what he did. As a result of his strategic guidance, Jindal Steel grew its revenue from $750 million to $12 billion under his guidance.

A Life of Luxury — And Its Limits

In Geoff’s new life, he had access to private jets, gourmet chefs, luxurious mansions, and India’s political power center. The cost of all that was high, however. His family remained in the U.S., and traveling internationally constantly wore him out. Eventually, the glamour wore off.

According to Geoff, each trip was accompanied by two weeks of stress before departure, followed by two weeks of decompression afterwards. There was no way to sustain it. Once again, Geoff found himself at a crossroads, this time in a new continent and a new stage of life.

Discovering the Power of AI

In late 2022, everything shifted again.

During an executive offsite, someone asked him, “Have you heard of ChatGPT?” Instantly, Geoff watched AI generate intelligent text. As much as it felt like magic, it felt like an opportunity as well.

He then remembered the best career advice he’d ever received: “Don’t ask which job to take. Ask which skills are so valuable they’ll serve you anywhere.” Artificial intelligence was clearly the next skill for him, as well as for other executives.

Geoff immersed himself in the study of artificial intelligence. In a matter of weeks, he outlined an overall strategy for the company. What was the chairman’s response? “Why don’t you lead it?”

He was suddenly in charge of designing and implementing AI transformations for more than 100,000 employees, coordinating with tech giants like Google, identifying enterprise use cases, and assisting executives in embracing new technology.

From Corporate Leader to AI Thought Leader

Even though the project was large, Geoff realized he was still thinking too small. It wasn’t enough to implement AI at a single company, even a huge one. As a result, he started a company focusing on AI leadership and wrote a book to help executives meet the challenges of the future.

That book, The AI-Driven Leader, addresses an alarming gap in business. According to Geoff’s research, just 5% of executives have begun using AI, despite 100% believing it would affect the future. The problem was that they didn’t know where to begin.

Geoff is committed to closing that gap. His company, AI Leadership, teaches executives how to think strategically about AI. As Geoff says, AI is more a tool than a goal. The goal is business growth.

Strategic Simplicity: AI with a Purpose

According to Geoff, AI applications can be categorized into three categories:

• Empower people. By equipping employees with AI tools, you can significantly boost their productivity and free them from mundane responsibilities.
• Improve operations. AI can be integrated into core business workflows to optimize processes, reduce errors, and drive unprecedented efficiency.
• Enhance offerings. Using AI strategically can result in the creation of entirely new products and services, or it can be used to enhance existing ones.

It’s all about sequencing. After all, too many companies rush to product integration before educating their leaders. However, executives can avoid costly mistakes when they understand how AI works.

Real Use Cases: From Real Estate to ROI

Geoff’s approach is based on real-life success stories, not theory.

In one real estate fund, Geoff used AI to review a 66-page investment memo from a target investor’s perspective. Within seconds, the AI flagged unclear sections, surfaced likely objections, and helped refine the pitch.

At a hard money lending company, Geoff automated a tedious task: reviewing renovation budgets by zip code. Using AI, 90% of the work was completed, allowing an employee to focus on higher-value work and saving $60,000.

These stories show AI shouldn’t replace people — it should elevate them. It’s not about efficiency for the sake of efficiency. The idea is to reclaim time, unlock creativity, and think strategically.

A Playbook for AI-Driven Leadership

According to Geoff, most barriers to adoption of AI are not technical-they’re human. The problem is that leaders do not understand how to communicate with AI, which is why they receive weak results. The framework he uses for prompting AI is both simple and effective:

• Describe the task clearly. Be explicit. It’s important not to be vague or ambiguous. In other words, explain exactly what you want the AI to accomplish. In general, the more specific and detailed the instructions, the more accurate and useful the AI’s outcome will be.
• Provide context. AI does not understand your business, industry, or internal objectives inherently. For it to respond intelligently and produce truly valuable insights, you must provide it with the necessary background information, relevant data, and constraints.
• Assign a persona. This is a game-changer. To help the AI adopt the appropriate tone, vocabulary, and analytical lens for its responses, you can explicitly instruct it to “behave like a CFO.”
• Let AI interview you. If you’re unsure how to phrase your initial prompt for complex problems or when you’re unsure how to phrase it, let the AI guide the conversation. For a complete picture, instruct it to “ask one question at a time”. After it indicates that it has sufficient context, let it do what it is supposed to do. Often, deep insights can be gained by using this interactive, Socratic method.

As an extraordinarily powerful thought partner, AI’s real potential is realized through this interactive, conversational process.

One Person, Billion-Dollar Infrastructure?

In the age of AI, something radical is now possible: a billion-dollar solo business. Now, a single person can handle customer service, marketing, financial modeling, and product development.

It’s now possible for agile founders and solopreneurs to accomplish what used to require large teams.

In the end, though, none of this matters unless the person behind the machine thinks strategically. AI will be at its most powerful when leaders can frame the right problems, ask the right questions, and lead their organizations with vision.

Key Takeaways

• Identity is fluid. You’re more defined by your purpose than by your position. When you undergo a major career transition, you should be prepared to redefine yourself.
• Strategic skill acquisition. Chase valuable skills, not jobs. In this day and age, AI literacy is a fundamental leadership skill that can be applied anywhere.
• Lead by example. In most cases, it’s not the technology that hinders AI adoption; it’s the leadership. To inspire your team, learn AI yourself and implement it.
• AI as a force multiplier. By automating repetitive tasks, AI empowers people to do higher-value, more meaningful work.
• Strategy first, tech second. AI shouldn’t be used to solve problems. Instead, use AI intelligently to address your business’s core challenges.
• Effective communication with AI. Learn how to communicate with AI. In order to unlock its full potential, we must provide clear prompts, context, assign personas, and use interview techniques.
• Embrace transformation. There’s more to AI disruption than automation; it’s about a fundamental shift in how we work. Tomorrow’s businesses will be shaped by those who adapt today.

Featured Image Credit: Tara Winstead; Pexels: Thank You!