Leadership mentor
AI leadership coach for the conversations managers postpone
Grace, your AI leadership coach, helps you prepare every 1:1, give feedback people can act on and hand off work you are still doing yourself.
Grace AI mentor
SBI feedback, Situational leadership, 1:1 structure, Delegation matrix
In short
An AI leadership coach is software that develops people managers through their real week. It prepares one to one meetings, helps you phrase feedback with a model such as SBI, suggests how much direction each person needs using situational leadership, guides delegation decisions and tracks your progress as a manager against a plan with monthly milestones.
Most new managers are promoted for a different job
People usually become managers because they were good at the work. The new role rewards something else: getting results through others, having uncomfortable conversations early and letting go of tasks you could do faster yourself. Few companies train for this before the promotion, and the first months are often learned by trial and error at the team's expense.
Grace gives a new or growing manager a structure for that transition. She works on the meetings, feedback and decisions in your calendar this week, not on leadership theory in general.
SBI feedback that is specific and hard to argue with
Feedback goes wrong in two predictable ways: it is too vague to act on, or it sounds like a judgement of character. The SBI model avoids both. You describe the situation, the observable behaviour and the impact it had. Grace helps you write that out before the conversation and removes words that turn an observation into a verdict.
| Draft a manager writes | SBI version Grace helps produce |
|---|---|
| "You are not a team player." | "In Tuesday's planning meeting (situation), you rejected the design proposal before Ana finished presenting (behaviour). She did not share the second option, and we lost a day re-running the discussion (impact)." |
| "Great job lately." | "On the client migration last week, you wrote the rollback plan without being asked. When the import failed on Thursday we recovered in an hour instead of a day." |
| "Your reports are sloppy." | "The last two weekly reports had figures that did not match the dashboard. Finance asked me twice to confirm the numbers before using them." |
Situational leadership matches your style to each person
The same manager behaviour can help one person and frustrate another. Situational leadership describes four styles: directing, coaching, supporting and delegating. Which one fits depends on how competent and how committed a person is for a particular task, not in general. A senior engineer may need delegating on architecture and directing on a new budget process.
Grace keeps a short profile per team member in her memory, built from what you tell her over time: strengths, current tasks, recent wins and recurring blockers. Before a 1:1 she suggests which style fits the topics on the agenda and warns you when you have been micromanaging someone who no longer needs it.
- Directing. Clear instructions and close follow-up for someone new to the task.
- Coaching. Direction plus explanation and encouragement when skill is growing but confidence dips.
- Supporting. Fewer instructions, more listening, for capable people who are unsure.
- Delegating. Agreed outcome and check-in points, then you get out of the way.
A one to one structure that keeps the meeting theirs
Weekly one to ones are the most useful hour a manager has, and the easiest to waste on status updates. Grace proposes a simple structure: start with their topics, then progress on priorities, then feedback in both directions, then development, ending with agreed actions. Before each meeting she drafts an agenda from your notes and the last 1:1 summary, and after it she records the actions so they come back next week.
You can upload material for review as well: a performance review draft, a team update, a reorganisation announcement or the slides for an all-hands. Grace comments against a leadership communication rubric, checking clarity of the message, whether hard news comes early, and whether people can tell what changes for them.
The delegation matrix shows what to hand off first
Most managers delegate too little and too late. Grace uses a delegation matrix that sorts your recurring tasks by two questions: how much your personal judgement is required, and how much growth the task offers someone on your team. Tasks low on the first and high on the second are the ones to hand off this month.
| Task type | Needs your judgement | Growth value for the team | What to do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weekly status report | Low | Medium | Delegate now, review the first two |
| Sprint planning facilitation | Medium | High | Delegate with a checklist and attend once |
| Hiring decisions | High | Medium | Keep, but involve a team member in interviews |
| Performance conversations | High | Low | Keep |
| Fixing urgent bugs yourself | Low | High | Stop, assign and coach |
A roadmap for the first 90 days and the first year
For new managers Grace builds a roadmap around three phases: learning the team in the first month, setting rhythms and expectations in the second, and delivering a first visible result in the third. Each phase has weekly tasks, such as holding an introductory 1:1 with every person, writing down team agreements or running the first retrospective. The full week by week version is in our guide to the first 90 days as a new manager, and if you are choosing a tool for a whole cohort of managers, see how the AI coach for managers options compare on price and privacy.
Grace is an AI persona built on widely taught management frameworks. She is not an HR adviser or an employment lawyer, and for formal matters such as dismissals or misconduct she tells you to involve your HR team. Companies developing many managers at once can use the leadership development platform, where HR sees anonymous progress for groups of five or more and never individual sessions. Managers of sales teams often pair Grace with Maya, the AI sales coach.
How the options compare
| AI leadership coach | Executive or leadership coach | Generic chatbot | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Usual price | From 24 USD a month, or 12 USD per seat on Teams | Market rates of 150 to 500 USD per hour | Low |
| Prepares this week's one to ones | Yes, from your notes and past meetings | Occasionally, in session | Only when asked, no history |
| Remembers each team member | Yes, in a profile per person | If you brief them each time | No |
| Feedback drafting with SBI | Yes | Yes | Generic phrasing |
| Available before a hard conversation tomorrow | Yes | Depends on the calendar | Yes |
Questions about the AI leadership coach
Is an AI leadership coach useful for experienced managers?
Yes, although the focus shifts. Experienced managers usually work with Grace on delegation, developing future leaders, managing managers and preparing difficult conversations rather than on 1:1 basics.
Will my team know I use a coach?
Only if you tell them. Grace never contacts anyone on your behalf. On a company plan, HR sees aggregated adoption and progress for groups of at least five people, not who said what.
Should I enter real names of my team members?
You can use first names or initials. The profiles exist so Grace can remember context between sessions, and they are not shared with your employer.
Can Grace help with performance reviews?
She helps you structure the review, check that each point has an example and phrase it with SBI. For formal performance processes, follow your company policy and involve HR.
What does it cost for a whole management team?
Teams costs 25 USD per seat per month with a minimum of 10 seats, or 12 USD per seat on yearly billing. Enterprise adds SSO, SCIM provisioning and company playbooks inside the coaches.
See your first month before you pay
Describe your team and the goal for this year, and Grace drafts your first milestone and tasks.