Intuition is What you Know, Before you Think

Society has trained us over the years to turn down the volume on our intuition. We have become to doubt our intuition so much, that we no longer listen to or even believe in our intuition. Your intuition is that little voice inside you that knows before you even think about anything. What little voice I hear you say. It is that little voice that just asked that question. Begin to trust your intuition once again; it is one of the most powerful forces any leader can have at their disposal. As you once again turn up the volume on your intuition, you will find yourself anticipating challenges and responding to them in a calculated fashion, rather than simply reacting out of panic and overwhelm, when you are faced with any challenges.

Intuition and specifically a leaders ability to intuitively evaluate every situation, is probably the most difficult leadership skill to describe and to teach. Natural leaders seem to get, understand and finally use this concept of belief and trust in their ability to anticipate challenge, change or opportunity or “Intuition” far easier than leaders with less natural leadership ability.

Every person on this plant possesses the ability to be intuitive. Think in your own area of strength, whatever that may be. How often do you just get a feeling about how to do something and you apply yourself to it and things just seem to work out in the end. Let me try to give you an example to describe what I mean. I am passionate about teaching and use my intuition very effectively when I get in front of an audience, to anticipate their needs and interpret the energy in the room. I was recently asked to run a workshop at a university in Durban. The purpose of this workshop was to offer them some guidance and tools to help them to deal with some major changes they had experienced. As is my usual practice I sent out a questionnaire to all attendees a week before the gig, asking for feedback on their concerns and areas they felt needed attention.

The reply I got back from almost all of the attendees was extremely negative. The average response went like this “Not another workshop, please don’t waste our time” I realised that I had my work cut out for me with this one. I prepared a great workshop, addressing the challenges they were facing as best I could. On arriving in the morning, I was greeted by a few steely glances and looks of why are we wasting another day. All of a sudden I just got an overwhelming feeling well up inside me and instead of starting off in my usual professional fashion, greeting everyone, summarising the work we would do for the day and explaining the outcome we wanted to get.

Totally out of character I jumped up on the desk, pulled my jacket off, threw my tie on the table, rolled my sleeves up, looked them in the eye and said you are in charge, how can we make this process work, together? The audience burst out in fits of laughter and within minutes were very receptive to the training I was offering. The director at the university has engaged my service on a long term contract, for me to work with them for the next eighteen months, to help them manage all the changes they are facing.

Intuition is that knowing before you think. It does not rely on facts it is just a feeling, not something concrete. Intuition is an inner knowing and certainty. Learning to use and trust your leadership intuition is based on a number of factors. Firstly equip yourself with as many facts as possible, to have the best information available to program or prime your intuition. Then explore the intangibles like employee morale, organisational momentum and relational dynamics etc. After this it all comes down to learning to listen and trust your instincts or that little all-knowing inner voice.

I have done my best to describe how I process and use my intuition, but as this is such a difficult concept to explain, I need you to trust the feeling associated with your intuition and gradually train yourself to listen and once again learn how to use yours best. Your natural ability as a leader and your learned skills as a leader will help you to continually improve your intuition. Over time leaders, who trust and apply their intuition daily, will become great intuitive leaders.

To become a great intuitive leader learn to read yourself, situations and the people around you. The better you are able to read and interpret all these factors the better you will be able to be intuitive and lead. Leaders understand that they will always achieve far better results by mobilising every asset and resources at their disposal for the benefit of all stakeholders. They are astutely aware of everything around them and every resource at their disposal. As you learn to combine this awareness with a deep trust in your intuition, you will become a really powerful and effective leader.
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