25 Prompts Every Corporate Professional Should Try

  1. How to use this list

    Copy the prompt that fits, replace anything in [brackets] with your context, and paste into any AI tool. The more specific your input, the more useful the output. Treat it as a thinking partner by giving it the real situation. The more detail you can give it upfront the better

  2. Four rules that make every prompt work harder
    Tell AI the why, not just the what
    Give it permission to push back on you, encourage it not to be sycophantic
    Specify your audience so it calibrates tone
    Use it as a thinking partner, not a task executor

Career & Growth

  1. Asking for a raise
    Before I write a salary conversation email, I want to build the case properly. Ask me targeted questions about my role, recent impact, and what I know about the market then we can draft an email that leads with value delivered, not time served.

  2. Building visible impact in 90 days
    I want to use the next 90 days to build visible, strategic impact. Not busy-work. Based on the context I give you about my role and organisation, help me identify the two or three moves that would actually shift how I'm perceived at a leadership level. Prioritise quality of positioning over quantity of activity. Ask me questions about my skills / role if you need more detail.

  3. Internal Role Gap Analysis
    Here's the job description for an internal role I'm targeting, and here's my current CV. Tell me where the genuine gaps are and where I'm underselling my existing capability. I want to know what I actually need to build and what I haven't articulated properly yet.

  4. Asking for a Raise
    Before I write a salary conversation email, I want to build the case properly. Ask me targeted questions about my role, recent impact, and what I know about the market then draft an email that leads with value delivered, not time served

  5. Rewriting Your Self-Review
    Here's my self-review draft. Rewrite it to lead with outcomes, not effort. If something I've described sounds like an activity rather than an impact, push me to find the number, the decision influenced, or the problem it solved. Strip anything that reads like a task list.

  6. Development Plan from Performance Feedback
    Here's my last performance review. Build me a development plan. Don't treat the weak spots in isolation. I want to understand the pattern behind them and build habits that address the root cause, not just the symptom. Make development suggestions realistic for someone doing this alongside a full-time job

Communication & Relationships

  1. Rewriting an Email to Your Manager
    Rewrite this email to my manager. The goal isn't to sound more confident, it's to be clearer about what I'm asking for and why. Remove anything that hedges my bets unnecessarily or buries the ask while keeping the tone in my voice

  2. Rehearsing a Difficult Conversation
    I need to have a difficult conversation with a colleague. Here's the context: [situation]. Play their role so I can rehearse scenarios. Once we've run through it, tell me what I did well, where I got defensive, and what I could have said instead.

  3. Calibrating Tone in a Message
    Write three versions of this message: casual, neutral, and formal. Then tell me which one you'd recommend and why, based on the context I've given you about the relationship and what I'm trying to achieve.

  4. Saying No Without Burning a Bridge
    I need to decline a request from another team. Draft a response that's honest about capacity without sounding defensive, keeps the relationship intact, and where appropriate, leaves a door open. Don't make me sound apologetic for having priorities.

  5. Reading Between the Lines in an Email Thread
    Here's an email thread that's getting tense. What's actually going on underneath? What is this person likely frustrated about that they're not saying directly? Help me draft a response that addresses the real issue, not just the surface one

  6. Mapping a New Team
    I've just joined a new team. Based on the org chart and context I'll give you, help me map who I need to build relationships with first. The focus is influence not seniority, as well as dependency, and who controls information or resources I'll need. Give me a prioritised view, not a comprehensive list

Meetings & Time

  1. Meeting Transcript → Action Items
    Here's the meeting transcript. Extract everything assigned to me — explicit and implied — and draft a follow-up for each that confirms the action, sets a clear timeline, and keeps accountability visible without being bureaucratic

  2. Cleaning Up 1:1 Notes
    Here are my raw notes from a 1:1. Turn them into a clean recap I can send — include decisions made, actions with owners, and anything needing a follow-up date. Don't over-format it. It should read like a human wrote it, not a bot

  3. Making the Most of 30 Minutes
    I have 30 minutes before my next meeting. Here's where this project stands. What's the single most leveraged thing I can do right now — not the most urgent, the most strategically useful? Help me use this time intentionally

  4. Preparing for a Meeting
    Here's tomorrow's meeting agenda. What questions might come to me that I need a sharp answer for? And what should I proactively raise, given what I know about the room and what's at stake? I want to walk in as a contributor, not just an attendee."

  5. Auditing Your Calendar
    Here's my calendar from the past two weeks. What patterns do you see? Where am I in reactive mode versus creating something? Where am I probably the only person in a meeting when I shouldn't be? I want an honest read, not reassurance.

Snr Stakeholder & Presentations

  1. Executive Summary from a Long Report
    Here's a [X]-page report. Summarise it into the five things my senior leadership team actually needs to act on, and what's decision-relevant, not what's interesting. Flag anything that changes the picture from what they likely currently believe

  2. Stress-Testing a Presentation
    Here's my deck. Be a skeptical senior leader. Not hostile, but rigorous. What's missing? What claim doesn't hold up under scrutiny? Where will someone ask a question I'm not ready for? I want the uncomfortable questions now, not in the room

  3. Translating Technical Content for Senior Leaders
    Here's a technical update. Rewrite it for a senior leader audience — no jargon, no assumed knowledge. Lead with why it matters, then what it means, then what (if anything) needs their attention. It should land in under 60 seconds of reading.

  4. Writing a LinkedIn Post About a Win

    "Help me write a LinkedIn post about something I'm proud of professionally. I want it to feel like something a real person wrote — not a highlight reel or a humble brag. The win matters, but so does the thinking or struggle behind it. Here's what happened: [context]

Projects & Strategy

  1. Finding Your Big Rocks
    Here's my job description. Help me identify where the highest-leverage focus areas actually are not just what the document currently claims, but what likely matters most to my stakeholders and leaders. I want to see the signal through the job description noise.

  2. Weekly Priority Triage
    Here are my tasks for this week. Run them through a prioritisation framework and tell me what I should own fully, what I should delegate or defer, and what I should push back on entirely. Be honest about what I'm probably keeping out of habit rather than necessity.

  3. Starting a New Project Right
    I've just been assigned to lead a new project. Before I do anything, what are the five questions I need to ask stakeholders to understand the real brief not just the stated one? I want to surface assumptions, constraints, and political context that won't be in any document.

  4. Spotting Themes Across Conversations
    Here are notes from [X] stakeholder/customer conversations. Separate the noise from the signal — what's a one-off complaint versus a pattern? And tell me what I should be escalating, to whom, and with what framing