in·tu·i·tion
[in-too-ish-uhn, -tyoo-] Show IPA
noun
1.
direct perception of truth, fact, etc., independent of any reasoning process; immediate apprehension.
2.
a fact, truth, etc., perceived in this way.
3.
4.
the quality or ability of having such direct perception or quick insight.
5.
Philosophy .
a.
an immediate cognition of an object not inferred or determined by a previous cognition of the same object.
b.
any object or truth so discerned.
This is my first entry, and I’m a bit unsure about what will interest leader readership even though I know many leaders and I think I know what they’ll be interested in reading about. Bear with me – this will get better.
The leaders I know are interesting creatures, and they know how to put the pressure on themselves … they expect to know themselves, know their teams, motivate others, take care of themselves, and essentially use some mysterious internal barometer to lead and orchestrate staff through the most intricate, challenging work-related passages. In addition, there are a whole lot of other leadership competencies they occasionally have to pull out of their magical bag of tricks when the right scenario calls for an obscure technique or reference. Leaders are indeed very interesting creatures…how do they know what to do when they do what they do? Sure there are books, but books don’t reflect the living, breathing everyday lives of every unique situation. So how do leaders do it? Well, I’ve learned that some leaders use their “intuition” to guide their decision-making. Read on.
This story evolved throughout 24 hours – a colleague from
Ontario was telling me about the challenges she has in finding and retaining
good people for her team. She’s a leader
in the service industry, and has over ten years of experience working in her
field. She was recently promoted to a
more senior level in her organization, and with it came the additional
responsibility of hiring, training, and motivating her staff to do the very
best they can in an environment where customer service makes or breaks the
company. She was telling me about a new
applicant and some misgivings she was having about her. I was curious about her lukewarm attitude
towards this new staff, and when I asked her about it, she said she had a “bad
vibe” about her. See, she’d made
arrangements to obtain some information from the newbie over the weekend, and
when it didn’t come in, my friend said it was a bad sign. As a matter of fact, the newbie could miss
out on this new job. Does that sound a
bit harsh to you?
My friend later told me she’d heard the newbie was sick over
the weekend and that was why the information didn’t come in. “Too bad” said my friend – she said she could
tell this individual would be a challenge to manage and was not worth nurturing
and courting. Then she made the final
decision not to hire the newbie. Wow. What was it that allowed my Ontario friend to
make this decisive move? She told me she
knew the future because she’d learned the hard way time over time. However, one could argue that every
individual is different and this newbie could have legitimately been sick, so
how does past experience inform today’s decisions? Is this leader’s intuition? In the next few weeks, we’ll explore other
areas where “intuition” plays a part in the work place.
Now, I’d like to hear from you. Do you rely on your intuition in the
workplace? If so, when, and what are
your stories? Do you have any references or links to
articles to share with the rest of us leader creatures?
Take good care.
Take good care.
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