Intuition and Decision Making in the Workplace

Using intuition for decision-making is a powerful technique used by successful leaders. However, using intuition in the workplace may be tricky because Western culture loves proof, anything empirical that has evidential credibility attached to it. I’ll never forget an experience I had early in my corporate career. One of the first meetings I had in my new position leading the marketing division was a meeting with the company president. I was excited and nervous. Having done my homework in the area of our planned discussion, I was ready. The meeting began smoothly and I felt confident in my knowledge and insight. Then, my moment came. The president asked me about my thoughts. I promptly answered, “I feel …” and immediately was interrupted by him with words that cut to my core, “Maria, I don’t care about your feelings, tell me what you know”.That experience was the first of many that unfortunately taught me how to not listen to my intuition. Enter spreadsheets. Luckily, I only followed this mode of operation for a few years, before I realized that my previous way of decision-making served me much more efficiently and effectively, which was of course using my intuition.Intuition is a power tool that all successful leaders use, like an internal GPS. I found through working with my clients that some of these leaders have to re-learn how to use intuition because in many of our corporate and work experiences, we learn how to not listen to it.In today’s episode, I share with you a simple strategy to develop and re-connect with your intuition, by just remembering the acronym:I N T U I T I O NAs always, I would love to hear from you. How have you used intuition in your job, career, or personal life?With love,Maria