Use your intuition in business, great leaders do it, why shouldn’t you?
What is Intuition? A simple explanation is that intuition is a subconscious awareness that shapes our ability to make decisions. Have you ever had that gut feeling, that hunch that you should be choosing one direction over another, doing a certain something or making a particular decision? That’s your intuition, and it can save you a lot of hassle, time and second guessing if you listen to it. We’ve all used our intuition in our personal lives, whether conscious, or unconsciously, but what about in the world of business?
Great leaders use their intuition to help with making large, small and everyday choices. They listen to their gut to quickly make solid decisions and formulate plans, while seeming to spend very little time or analysis in determining how to move forward. What’s the key to this enviable business acumen? Repetitive decision making. Making decisions over and over again builds an intuitive leader with an internal filing cabinet of situations and outcomes to draw from and to help guide them through the decision making process. WikiHow describes intuition as “how you quickly tap into your subconscious mind, which is where you “archive” all kinds of information that you don’t remember on a conscious level.”
Decision making with intuition in the business world means trusting yourself and your initial assessment of a situation, which would include a brief and often subconscious calculation of the physical and emotional environment. Antonio Damasio, a neuroscientist at the University of Southern California and head of the Brain and Creativity Institute, has researched and linked intuition and decision making. In an interview with Fast Company, Damasio states that “rationality, emotion, and our physical bodies are all intertwined in the way we make decisions.” – essentially, intuitive decision making is a combination of instinct and data. Intuition allows us to access our experiences, emotions and recognize patterns at lightning speed, giving us that feeling or sense of what we need to do next or what path we should take.
There is a wealth of information and studies that discuss the use of intuition in business, some of the more interesting articles about intuition and business that I’ve come across are listed below:
MIT Sloan Management Review – great article about the Senior Executive and how to cultivate instinct/intuition.
Psychology Today – a piece on intuition as a mental matching game and the best types of situations in which to follow your intuition (hint – it’s not for stock picks).
Psychology Today – an article by Francis Cholle, author of Intuitive Compass, discussing what Intuition is and how we use it.
Intuition can be useful in the world of business, providing insight, assistance with decision making and on a personal level, a competitive edge when it’s acknowledged and utilized. If you’re not doing it already, start listening to your intuition, this book will help.
Do you listen to your intuition regarding business matters and situations? 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!
