Data and intuition…the perfect business partners
Have you ever been presented with so much data, graphs, chart, and numbers that instead of things starting to make sense it starts to become confusing? In fact, more questions start to arise, your reasoning becomes cloudy and you become paralyzed by the data and are struggling to figure out what to do next?
Whether you’re a senior executive or an accountant, a sales representative or lawyer, we all want to move forward in business. The ultimate goal is to move your organization, department or career from good to great. Making the wrong decision can debilitate an organization and/or career as much as making a right decision can catapult it to the next level. But in the information society we live in today, sometimes too much information stops us from making decisions and moving forward. So how do we get over this issue in the business world? Try following your intuition along with your intellect. John Naisbitt, who invented the concept of “Megatrends” in 1980 and has been the world’s best known observer and analyst of global trends for more than 30 years, suggests intuition becomes increasingly valuable in the new information society precisely because there is so much data.
What is intuition?
Intuition has been called many things: gut feeling, instant knowing, inner voice, and instinctive knowledge. Simply put, intuition is the ability to KNOW – beyond data, reason and logic – the truth of any question or situation. It’s available to everyone, an invisible, powerful intelligence free for the taking. Have you ever disregarded a ‘feeling’ or ‘sensation’ and regretted your decision? “I should have followed my gut.” That’s your intuition. Logic and analysis only provide partial answers. Intuition is our most reliable compass on life’s journey and everyone has it so why not use it, especially in business.
Intuition, when used with data, can confirm business direction, product ideas, new hires etc. As we know, a business decision is as much an art (intuition) as it’s a science (market research). Knowing how to use the two together is what distinguishes the good businesses from the great.
How can you use intuition in business?
- Fine-tune your vision and mission statement and confirm that you’re on the right path
- Intuition will allow you to tap into your feelings and confirm what truly resonates with you so you are motivated and passionate about what you do. This is critical to move yourself or an organization forward.
- Evaluate team dynamics and find the most beneficial way to bring everyone together
- Use intuition to guide you to find the right solution in bringing a team together and getting them to work cohesively. You can feel when something is off or when people are not feeling part of the team, don’t ignore this but use your intuition to fix it and get your team back in performance mode.
- Create success through insightful hiring decisions
- Ever hire someone that looked great on paper but you knew something was off and this feeling was confirmed the first few days at work? Stop the unnecessary task of hiring the wrong people which impacts your business negatively. Trust you intuition when something doesn’t feel right.
- Identify areas and/or departments that need specialized assistance to ensure organizational goals remain on track
- Why is it we can ‘see’ the solution to everyone else’s problems/issues but not our own. Your intuition can guide you in ‘seeing’ the issues before you. You need to be open to listening to the clues that are presented to you every day.
- Establish and/or confirm business plans (Sales, Marketing etc.) content and strategies that will allow you to obtain the vision for your organization
- Use intuition to confirm your plans. When revisiting ideas and examining them in a different light (via intuitive techniques) you will receive greater insight, allowing you to change direction which gives you that winning business idea.
When the top business leaders are asked what makes them successful, of course they answer the expected response, “hard work, great team, amazing idea, passion, long hours, but they also say they followed their intuition. Something inside them was guiding them and they choose to listen to it. So if you don’t believe me that intuition is your best business ally, then maybe you will listen to the words of Steve Jobs, Apple co-founder:
I began to realize that an intuitive understanding and consciousness was more significant than abstract thinking and intellectual logical analysis. Intuition is a very powerful thing, more powerful than intellect, in my opinion. That’s had a big impact on my work.
Stop relying on just one way to look at things. Using just the intellect in business will only get you so far. Combine and use the power of intuition along with intellect. This is key to moving your ideas, decisions and organization to the next level.
Do you believe your intuition is an effective tool in helping you make business decisions? Feel free to leave a comment below or shout out to us on Facebook or Twitter. Of course, you could always write your own blog post on the subject and share it with us… We’d love to read it!