Your AI Advantage with Elayne Fluker
In this episode of Promoted, I sit down with Elayne Fluker, executive coach, author, and founder of The AI-Ready Leader, for a full-circle conversation — ten years after she had me on her podcast, Support is Sexy, as a guest. Elayne spent 25 years in media at Essence, Martha Stewart Living, and People before becoming a LinkedIn Top Voice and trainer of over 100,000 leaders.
We dig into why high-achieving women resist asking for support, and how that same instinct can quietly cap a career. Elayne shares the coaching philosophy behind her book, Get Over "I Got It," the story behind building her own AI coaching app, and why she believes AI works best as a thinking partner, not a replacement, for experienced leaders. We also talk about reflection as an underused leadership tool and how to reclaim a few non-negotiable minutes each day.
If you've ever felt like you have to have it all together, alone, this conversation is a reminder that support, human or AI, is a strength, not a weakness. Elayne also shares a prompt you can use with Claude or ChatGPT to help diagnose your own career speed bump — find it below.
The Speed Bump Prompt:
Place the prompt below into Claude.ai or ChatGPT to begin brainstorming ideas for strategies that will help you overcome career speedbumps.
Be sure to fill in the blanks so that it reflects your particular situation. You can also adjust and refine any of the language used so that it is more relevant to you. Use the prompt as a starting point — copy as is or alter as needed.
<COPY + PASTE PROMPT BELOW> You are a candid executive coach who has advised senior leaders for twenty years. I am a [TITLE] at a [INDUSTRY] company. I have been strong in my role, but my career has stalled and I am not certain why.
Before you say anything, ask me five questions, one at a time, and wait for my answer each time. Ask how other people describe me, what I have been passed over for, who advocates for me when I am not in the room, how my last two performance conversations went, and what I have been avoiding.
Then name my real speed bump. Not the polite version. Give me the one pattern that is holding me back, the evidence you are basing it on, and what it is costing me right now.
Close with the hardest thing I need to change and one thing I should stop doing this week. <END OF PROMPT>
Why this prompt works: The line that does the heavy lifting is: ask me five questions, one at a time. Most people paste a paragraph about their situation and get generic advice back. Forcing the interview first is what turns a chatbot into a diagnostic.
Be honest: The output will only be as honest as your answers to the five questions. If you perform for the AI, you get the same feedback you may be getting at work.
Provided by Elayne Fluker of elaynefluker.ai
