HAVE YOU EXERCISED YOUR INTUITION?

The World Bank President did not have a good week last week. He was quoted as saying “In hindsight, I wish I had trusted my original instincts.” Now – just how many times have we said the same to ourselves?

Our instinct, gut feel, intuition; (call it what you will), is a phenomenal gift given to us all when born, but as we grow up, we increasingly question its use, particularly in business. Partly through education and our obsession with measuring everything, intuition is often not referred to as a useful business tool, but a risk. However, when you read books and articles on, or written by successful Entrepreneurs and business tycoons, there is a continual reference to their use of intuition as part of their success.

Let me give you an example. Can you remember the last time that you bought a house? I have recently been working with a colleague who has just done that and the conversation went along the lines of “ Well – we spent ages writing down our top 10 ‘Must-haves’ for the house. You know, 4 bedrooms, adequate garage space etc.. We shared this with the Estate Agent and asked her to ensure that these were taken into consideration with every house we see.” Weekend before last, I bumped into her and she was so elated. “We have found the most fabulous house – it just feels so right for us – we decided that we could probably live there for ever”. After hearing about the style, I did ask if it ticked all 10 ‘Must-Haves’. “Oh no – about 4 actually, but we will manage, as we just love it!” Now, they may well have bought a house with all 10 buttons ticked, but would have ‘felt’ right, and therefore would they have been happy and satisfied in it? The same can be said about decisions at work, of course.

Just think back through last week, in particular decisions made and meetings attended:
X How many decisions did you make that just ‘felt right’ and took little deep thought?
X Are there any decisions that you made logically, but keep coming back into your mind?
X How often do you allow yourself to use ‘change your mind’ based on a feeling?

It is a difficult one as intuition is, by its nature, difficult to measure and also difficult to explain and articulate to others. If you are spending a significant amount of money on behalf of other Partners, by just saying “it just feels right” is probably not going to tick their box!

However, allowing ourselves to at least be aware of our gut feel may make all the difference to our decisions. Neurologically, we still have much to learn, but we are beginning to understand why intuition is more than just a whim or risk. Intuition is something that comes from within, from our subconscious mind. What our subconscious mind does is spot congruences and ‘mis-matches’ in communication and thinking that our conscious mind does not. For example, a Supplier may be saying something about their product to you, but your subconscious is busy matching what is being said to the non-verbal communication. If there is a mis-match, (for example, eye direction and movement, gestures, posture etc) it will pick it up and you will get that ‘gut-feel’ even though you don’t know why. Alternatively, in buying the house, my colleague will have had tremendous congruence between their emotional feelings about living in a dream house and the house that they were experiencing, which is why it ‘just felt right’.

So, as a Leader in your organisation, how much lee way do you give to allowing ‘gut-feel’ to play a part in your decisions, and events? There is clearly a balance so that your decisions are based on sound judgement and reason. However, checking the extra ‘gut-feel ’button just may make the difference between a right decision and a phenomenal one!

As a start, you can easily practise becoming more aware of the link between your thoughts and your own body (which creates that gut feel) by trying these simple exercises:

X Watching your football/rugby/sports team at the weekend. Think about the physical effects on your body every time there is a score. What hurts, what feels good?

X Getting up on Monday morning – how do you feel in your head, and how is the body in comparison?

X Holding a meeting with colleagues you respect – how is your posture, your gestures, your energy levels?

All of these will give you great insight to how your body responds to events and decisions going on in your business. Enjoy using it to your advantage!

Until next week


Kate Tojeiro is an Executive Performance Coach at www.the-x-fusion.co.uk