Claude for Executives

You have limited time and unlimited demands on it. Claude is most useful to you when it handles the preparation and production work so you can focus on decisions and relationships. Ten minutes a day, used consistently, is enough to see a real difference.

Your Highest-Leverage Uses

Email triage and drafting. Paste a thread; ask for a summary. Ask Claude to draft a response for you to review and send. This alone is worth the subscription for most executives.

Meeting prep. Before any important meeting: "What do I need to know before meeting with {company/person/topic}?" Then: "Now generate 5 questions worth asking."

Talking points. Describe the audience, the context, and what you need them to walk away believing. Claude drafts the structure; you deliver it.

Decision framing. Before committing to a direction, run it through Claude: "Here's what I'm considering. What am I missing? What's the strongest argument against this?"

Two Projects to Set Up First

Project 1: "My Voice" Create a Project. Upload 2–3 past emails or memos you've written. System prompt: "I'm {name}, {title} at Empower. Match my tone when drafting communications." Use for any writing task.

Project 2: "Company Context" Create a Project. Upload the one-pager, org chart, or anything that explains what Empower does. Use when asking Claude to draft external content, talking points, or customer communications.

Mobile-First Pattern

Most executives find Claude most useful on mobile, in transition moments — between meetings, in a car, waiting on a call.

1. Dictate input using voice-to-text.
2. Paste into Claude.
3. Review before your next meeting starts.

You don't need to type full prompts. "Summarize this, three bullets" is enough.

What to Avoid

• System prompts longer than 10 lines. Noise.
• Uploading 50 reference files. 2–3 well-chosen documents outperform a library.
• Writing from scratch with no voice or context. Output feels generic and you'll reject it.

Executives who get the most value treat Claude like a capable chief of staff: well-briefed, fast, reliable at first drafts, not a replacement for judgment.

One-Week Challenge

For the next five business days, every time you're about to send an email longer than three sentences, draft it with Claude first. Compare time spent. Revisit Friday.