AI role play training partners for your people managers

Leadership development is not just a one-time thing. It is a constant process of growth and improvement. Traditional training methods often do not fully prepare managers with the practical skills they need for real-life situations.

AI role-play training partners solve this problem. They offer a safe and engaging space for managers to practice tough conversations. They can use leadership ideas and get quick feedback. This hands-on learning leads to a deeper understanding and speeds up the growth of important leadership skills.

In this blog, we will explore how AI role-play training partners can strengthen your leadership development arsenal.

AI role play training – what does it really mean?

AI role-play training, in simple terms, refers to training that includes engaging in simulations and scenario-based learning with AI avatars. This is quite similar to the scenario-based training and role-plays that are done in conventional leadership coaching practice. It allows managers to engage in realistic cases likely to play out in real life. The AI aspect just multiplies the advantages manifold.

AI role play training partners can:

• Do as many re-runs as people managers need without being tired or frustrated
• Adopt the tone of a manager’s multiple colleagues
• Meet the needs of managers in varied profiles, team sizes, and situations
• Practice a range of leadership skills beyond human limits
• Be available for training 24*7, truly on-demand learning for managers
• Keep aside the bias, personal preferences, and norms that impede vulnerability

Why should AI role play training partners be in your leadership development plans?

That’s a valid question! Why should you use AI role-play training partners when human coaches are right there? The reasons are plenty, too. Leadership coaching, in general, happens to be an inaccessible space for most people managers. Organizational resources for leadership development are concentrated on and around the C-suite, leaving little for the managers who are working on the ground, away from the limelight.

As per research by Gallup, only slightly above 1/3rd managers agreed that they had learning and development opportunities. This becomes important to note, when we know that managers are critical influencers of performance by their team. They are also more likely to face people management challenges from all sides and have higher levels of stress at work. While supporting them is much-needed, it often takes the back seat in conversations. As a result, most of them do not have access to support mechanisms.

So, in the ideal world, every manager gets a coach who is dedicated to their growth. Sounds cool, but impractical.

Plus, we also need to think that the coach should meet frequently enough, have a wide range of experiences to match the client’s needs, and also not impact their professional growth negatively by ensuring safe and secure environment. That’s a BIG ask.

We understand that it becomes a huge bill, but what about the loss? Quantifying the lost productivity of your incredible managers, the missing support to your team members in daily routines, and the physical and mental toss this takes would throw up a high number, too.

AI role-play training partners are the solutions that meet your needs and save your ROI equations from going haywire. Compared to traditional methods that allow role-play training, they cost many times less. Simultaneously, the range of AI role-play training partners is huge. They take up any form you need – from the arrogant guy from Finance to the team member whose rude behavior needs to be addressed. The manager’s learning playground expands by a big number in a few clicks.

For leaders, the trouble does not lie in not knowing the basics. Each of them has ideas about what good time management abilities look like and how to tell their team about it. Where I do get stuck is the conversation with a team member who’s always late or the one who’s overworking themselves and needs to take a break. Role-play training hand-holds through these scenarios to prepare managers and pave the way for their success.

Check out how role-play training with AI works in this quick demo with Merlin, the AI leadership coach:

Do’s and Don’ts for using AI role play training partners

While you are in the process of setting up AI role-play training partners for your people, keep these ideas in mind:

Do’s	Don’ts
Define specific skills to practice, linked to job needs	Don’t miss human interaction opportunities
Master fundamentals first and create comfort with the technology	Don’t race through exercises and ignore reflection time
Base scenarios on actual workplace situations	Don’t dismiss emotional context and forget body language considerations
Provide supporting resources and relevant policies	Don’t use irrelevant examples by skipping customization
Review practice sessions with discussions on learnings and insights	Don’t forget to measure results

How do AI role play training partners work with people managers?

Let’s dive deeper into how AI role play training partners can empower leadership and manager development programs in your organization:

#1 Realistic scenario based training

First up. AI role play training partners fulfil need of realistic scenario based training for people facing roles. While a lot of training for managers is conducted, most of it is focused on generic issues, or if cases are taken up, they may or may not be relevant to each manager’s daily troubles. The lack of direct applicability makes learning harder for people managers, since they do not have ready examples of how to do things in real life.

For instance, if you struggle with setting deadlines with your team, a mentor suggests being more assertive in communication. Sure! That makes sense and will help. But what does assertion really look like? What should your sentences and tone of voice look like? Are you sure you don’t come off as aggressive in this process? A role play for this exact scenario will help you figure things out.

AI role-play training partners bridge this gap. They create the space where your people managers can practice how things really happen without worrying about what their seniors would think if they were seen raising those doubts. It lets them practice as much as they need, thus cutting out the need to pull multiple issues into a one-hour frame of a coaching session. Since it’s an AI, it can also adopt different tones and behave like multiple people on the team to prepare managers who are in a variety of scenes.

#2 Scale infinitely to reach all your people managers

As we noted above, one of the most common challenges in learning and development is the lack of resources. As a result, people managers have to wait for their turn at training and coaching. AI role-play training will help you cut the chase because you can scale on a few clicks. It means managers who have historically been out of the learning and development loop now have a chance to access support 24*7. This adds a massive boost to the employee support programs in your workplaces and goes a long way in establishing a positive brand for you.

Moreover, a lot of industries, such as healthcare and retail, have people managers working on the ground at distributed locations. They can scarcely find the time to gather for shared leadership development activities. These situations are also more emotionally charged than in your average workplace due to the sensitive nature of the work and the higher interactions with people every day. AI role-play training partners fit in perfectly into their busy days because they allow managers to practice a conversation before heading into the meeting room.

#3 Get comprehensive feedback on training

Feedback might just be the most important and most overlooked part of training. Role-play training is helpful not just because you get to act out real-life scenarios but also because then you can collect feedback on how well you did. At times, this is not feasible. It could be due to a shortage of time, given that coaches have to work with multiple people. Or else, if you are doing role-play training with your team members, they may have adequate insights to properly evaluate your performance and offer the right suggestions.

AI role play training partners are great in this regard because they not only offer the freedom to repeat conversations as much as one needs, they follow up with detailed feedback too. For instance, every role play that a manager does with Merlin is followed by a discussion on how they performed. It includes appreciating the strengths and highlighting the areas of improvement. The manager can further ask more questions about specific bits of the conversation to understand how they can improve.

#4 A safe training environment for managers

The challenge with a lot of training – role plays and specific scenarios in particular – is that they need a safe space in order to be successful. Can your workplace guarantee that? As per research by the American Psychological Association, about 15% of workers admit that their workplaces are “toxic” and have lower levels of psychological safety. While the ratio sounds small, it points to more than 1 out of every 10 workplaces.

This points to an absence of healthy co-worker relationships, potential cases of bullying and discrimination, and an overall unhealthy culture. In such scenarios, coaching and mentoring relationships are not viable since there are threats and potential for harm. The people, thus, won’t be open and vulnerable to receive coaching, and the providers could potentially be damaging the situation.

AI role play training partners provide a safe and secure environment where your people managers can practice and learn the tricks of their trade without worrying about sabotage. The mental load created by possible interruptions to their professional journeys is huge and complicates the situation. An AI role play training partner is free from those biases and situational constraints. That’s why the managers can be their true selves and share problems that they would rather not be seen accepting.

Now, let’s break this down even further. When we are speaking of AI role-play training partners, is role play training the end game? Or, is there more to uncover with AI led training for people managers?

How to use AI role play training partners for leadership development?

Merlin, Risely’s built-in AI coach for people managers, is available round the clock to support your people on their everyday quests. It could range from practicing a difficult conversation before hitting the meeting room to thinking long-term and working toward professional goals strategically.

We will understand this in more detail below, but before that, remember: you can start talking to Merlin for free, right now, right here.

#1 Role plays

The first way to engage with Merlin is an AI role-play training partner for people managers. Merlin is capable of taking the form of your team members and carrying out conversations in a few simple steps:

1. Go to Ask Merlin on Risely and select “Role plays” after signing in.
2. Describe your situation and set the context for the role play. This is where the magic happens, because you have an unparalleled degree of control in designing the conversation.
3. Run the role play. Talk with Merlin as yourself while Merlin responds as your AI role-play partner.
4. Gather feedback on how the conversation went, what was right, and what else you can improve.
5. Repeat as many times as you need.

You can check out in a quick demo here: Try AI Coaching with Merlin for free!

#2 Skill Development

At times, you know where you need to work; the trouble lies in figuring out how to do that work. Or else, after running a role play, Merlin will point you toward the specific people management areas that you need to improve. In such cases, you can talk about skill development with Merlin. It is further aided by in-built skill assessments for core leadership areas that every leader needs to master. Based on your inputs and assessments, the journey begins on a route just as unique as yours.

#3 Discuss Situations

No journey is complete without its own share of roadblocks. We get it. Whenever a people manager gets stuck, they can simply share the situation with Merlin. At times, even putting forth the challenge and talking about it is super helpful. An AI coach like Merlin is always there to help you in this manner. Based on such discussions, you can proceed with role plays if needed.

#4 Achieve Professional Goals

Last but not the least, developing the careers of people leaders need long-term thought. One of the best ways to sell your L&D initiatives to employees is tying them to the goals that matter to their career. That’s where Merlin becomes your buddy and your manager’s co-pliot. People managers can discuss, set up and plan goals with Merlin. It will help them throughout the planned journey with personalized recommendations and nudges.

If the journey gets tough, Merlin is just a text away.

In these manners, you can expand access to leadership development and other strategic L&D initiatives to a larger audience. AI role play training partners are very helpful in people facing roles since the conventional training modes are harder to access and supply in organizations. In the age where work happens beyond just work desks, learning needs to be on the move too.

To sum up

AI role play training is a great way to build leadership skills. It mixes theory with practice and helps improve decision-making skills. It also gives real-time feedback. This training helps people managers to do well in different management situations.

AI role play is easy to scale and access. This is helpful for remote teams, making sure they keep improving their skills. Adding AI role play to learning programs can really help your managers grow as leaders.

Welcome the future of leadership training. Use AI role play training for your people managers with Merlin!