My boss told me to shut up.

Early in my career, if I talked for longer than sixty seconds, he’d stop me. It didn’t matter if I was mid-thought or mid-ask.

It stung. I felt unprepared, like I’d wasted his time before I even got to the point.

But over months of getting shut down, I learned something that reshaped how I communicate with every leader since. Lead with the answer. If they want the why, they’ll ask.

Every major AI platform does the opposite. Ask a question and you get paragraphs of reasoning, context, and qualifications. Then, buried at the bottom, the actual answer.

It’s like writing your manager a novel when they asked for a number.

I’ve suggested before that AI works better with structured commands than it does with freestyle conversations. Let’s flip the coin and talk about how AI should adapt to you.

Most tools let you set custom instructions in your settings to reshape how AI responds.

My preferences cover three areas. First, format: punchline first, answer length should match question complexity. Second, language: I ban nearly a hundred words and phrases that make AI sound like AI… “comprehensive” (exaggeration), “moreover” (transition), “it’s important to note” (filler).

Third, thinking structure: state facts with numbers, challenge assumptions, flag future implications, then give me one concrete next step.

These rules cut friction by forcing AI to respond in a format I prefer, and by catching me when I slip back into natural language mid-conversation.

I spent years learning to communicate the way my managers needed me to. It’s time we hold our AI tools to the same standard. The best answer in the world is worthless if nobody reads it.

Originally published on LinkedIn