Think Like a Leader
Intuitive thinking is an unconscious process for rapid action, judgment, and decisions. The leader who relies only on this will not go far. But neither will only listening to facts and numbers. The balanced leader knows when to use their analytical mind alongside their intuitive mind.
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Feel Like a Leader
At its core intuition is about our feelings. It has been defined as an ability to understand or know something immediately based on your feelings rather than facts. The shrewd leader understands that they need to practise and develop how they listen to their own feelings.
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Act Like a Leader
Acting like a leader means using all the resources at your disposal. Your own intuition needs cultivated – it is not a replacement for careful consideration of the facts – when they are available. But it is also useful when under stress, time pressure or working through complex problems. It is even better when you trust your gut in situations where you have a great deal of experience.
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The Influencer Podcast comes from Julie Solomon and focuses on the fast-changing world of influencer marketing. In this episode she is interviewing Christine Owenell and getting a global perspective on how intuition can be used to grow a business.
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Lolly Daskal is a prolific and practical writer on leadership. On her website she writes:
'4 Proven Reasons Why Intuitive People Make Great Leaders
Have you ever wondered how some leaders are more creative and innovative than others?
As a leader coach and business consultant I have seen two kinds of leaders, I have witnessed both, and I have seen the results of both.
One leader thinks that in order to create something new, they must use their analytic mind to be creative.
The other kind of leaders who want to try something new use their intuitive mind to be innovative.
I have seen leaders say that relying on your sixth sense - following your gut - your intuition - is being unreliable.
But for years, I have seen how the intuitive leader can be more of an explorer, and discover more than those who don’t utilize their intuition and I have witnessed that intuitive people make great leaders, they have a competitive edge over other leaders, they are quicker, faster, smarter and more decisive.
Maybe people have a misunderstanding on what intuition really is…
Many people call intuition, a gut feeling, a knowing, words spoken from the heart.
But intuition is more than that…here are 4 ways our intuition really works and how it can make your leadership great again.
1. Our intuition is the accumulation of all the experiences we have. Everything that you have experienced becomes data points in your mind, every person you have met, every success you have experienced and every failure you had to go through, the learning that you were taught, the mistakes that have becomes lessons are stored as a memory chip – to be utilized.
2. Our intuition is the amalgam of all the books we have read: We all read, some read books, other read articles, or blogs or posts or signs or posters, we read and therefore the words make an impression, they leave an imprint, and we remember, maybe not right now, but when we need it – it can be available.
3. Our intuition is the combination of all the people we have met. Think of all your encounters, think of all the people you have met, I believe that every person we meet has something to teach us, that every person we bump into has something to teach us, think of all the lessons we have learned because when we need this it can be put to use.
4. Our intuition is the facts and data we collected: For years I am sure you have done due diligence, you have collected data and facts, and you have created spreadsheets and variations of what things could be and should be, all of that is important, all of it is vital because that knowledge when we need it- you will employ it.'
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This 13-minute recording comes from a youthful John Maxwell. Here he is speaking on intuition from his book ‘The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership'.
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Under construction!
This was taken on a wet day in the middle of Fort William, adjacent to the West Highland Museum. Intuition is this week’s theme and this new build surely represents some business intuition – a belief that a new cinema and café in the centre of town can be a commercial success and contribute to the regeneration of the town centre.
However, the owner is being pragmatic – he knows he is unlikely to get his initial investment back but wants to contribute to the economic development of the town he grew up in.
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Gut Feelings The Intelligence of the Unconscious, was written by Gerd Gigerenzer, the German psychologist, over a decade ago.
He comes out against just accepting the rational scientific as the only way to lead. He claims that intuition often works far better than reason to solve problems and make decisions and details numerous studies that repeatedly demonstrate intuition’s ability to trump logic.
He illustrates how people with less information often make better decisions than experts.
Gigerenzer describes intuition as “unconscious intelligence”, consisting of rules of thumb, or heuristics. In ancient times, humans used intuition to survive in hostile environments, and, as a result, early peoples valued intuition above all other thinking processes.
Curiously, he has found that people who handle things intuitively are usually happier with the results than those who handle things rationally.
“Intuition is the intelligence of the unconscious made manifest”.
Copies are available from AbeBooks
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...without a little reflection, there is no Insight Added.
"The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honours the servant and has forgotten the gift."
Albert Einstein
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Lead well
Graham and Lesley
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