Intuition and Leadership

Intuition is when we know something or know what to do without necessarily reasoning. Some intuitions are instinctive. We do not need anybody to tell us what to do when, for example, we see our loved ones are in danger or when we see our house is on fire.

However, some other intuitions are the result of years of education, knowledge building and practical experience. While it does not sound very right to say that we can learn intuition, we can perhaps learn how to better our intuitions to make better decisions.

In his bestseller Blink, Malcolm Gladwell describes how a veteran firefighter was able to “sense” a change in situation and order all of his crew out of a house just before it collapsed. This individual was unable to identify the steps in his decision. He just “knew” that it was time to get out.

This is also similar to what I mentioned in another previous entry about Japanese samurais. Once all the individual skills are practiced and learned to perfection, they retire to a mountaintop to meditate. They then deliberately forget what they have learned.  When they return they find the distinct skills have been naturally integrated into their style or way of being. The samurai then seldom have to think about skills at all – they have become their intuitions or they have become samurai masters.

The same goes for experienced leaders and consultants. A veteran marketing manager can tell straight away if a product is going to be a big hit or not without looking at any reports. A long-time recruiting consultant can almost decide whether or not to hire a person without even asking a single question. Yes, we can and we will better ourselves at making intuitive decisions if we learn from our mistakes.

It is critical for a leader or a consultant to understand, however, that not all intuitive decisions are right. Seemingly based neither on reasoning nor adequate information, they can be wrong, sometimes very wrong. This needs to be emphasized when making intuitive decisions. In addition, in this unprecedented world, some situations are so novel that intuition is also next to useless. In that case, a reasoning-based deliberate decision making process that takes into account all relevant factors is necessary.

There is, unfortunately, no formula as of when to follow your intuition and when to adopt a more deliberate and rational approach. This is perhaps a unique intuition that you will have to build on: when to use your head and when to use your gut.