Intuition: An Advisor On Your Team

Intuition is a great resource to have in your leadership tool box. It is becoming increasingly important that people in the business world are able to make quicker decisions to match the requirements of this fast-paced world.

Examples of business leaders who use intuition are Oprah Winfrey, Richard Branson and George Soros. Oprah, for example, recognises in many of her writings that her intuition has been a major asset in her life.

It is up to you as to how you will use intuition as a tool. Remember that intuition is information. Use it just like another ‘advisor on your team’ who provides you with a different perspective.

Clearly, there are limitations to making intuitive decisions. However, the more research and discussions that are undertaken to understand the brain and body processes that underpin intuitive decision making, the more this faculty will become a more accepted element of management and organisational practices.

In a world where evidence, facts and reason have been considered superior and more valuable than an idea that appears less tangible, it is understandable that many people seem somewhat less comfortable with the concept of intuition.

As we have seen previously, whilst perhaps we are not always consciously aware, we use our intuition daily. Intuition plays an integral part in our sense of ‘knowing’.

Remember that one of intuition’s main functions is survival, the sense of knowing when something is amiss or different, therefore determining if you are in danger or not; a primary function that is shared with other primates.

Many effective leaders rely heavily on their intuition, with the vast majority of people unaware that the bulk of their decisions are purely based on a mix of emotions and intuitive hunches; and while not attributing their subsequent action to this ‘knowing’, they will often justify their behaviour and decisions through the use of a logical argument.

As we have seen, intuition should definitely be developed as part of your set of leadership competencies. After all, the more you use your intuition, the more your intuition will serve you.

Excerpt from book ‘Leadership is Upside Down’.