Today we celebrate our Nation’s Independence Day. I wonder what level of intuition influenced our founding fathers, our original leaders, in founding this County. John Maxwell in his The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership states:
“Successful leaders see every situation in terms of available resources: money, raw materials, technology, and people. They can sense people’s hopes, fears, and concerns. And they can step back from the moment and see not only where they and their people have gone, but also where they are heading. It’s as if they can smell change in the wind.”
I believe that Maxwell intended this to be directed at today’s leaders, but am amazed at how accurately it must have applied to the likes of great leaders such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. It also appears that this idea has been a constant throughout the history of our country. Intuition, although may be a most difficult concept to explain, is clearly a tool that all of use in making decisions every day.
As leaders, we have the ability to remove ourselves from what is happening at any moment and the responsibility to evaluate where our team is headed. A leaders intuition is quite often, the one thing that defines a great leader. It could be argued that some are born with great leadership intuition and others develop it through failure and success. The challenge comes in processing the information into a mindset that, although can’t be defined on paper, will prove to be the guiding force in decision making. The principles of leadership remain fairly consistent, but the application of a leader’s skills change with every situation.
I would suggest that intuition is merely a product of the knowledge gained during the trials and tribulations that we encounter every day. That “gut feel” that you have in a specific situation is simply a reaction to the events that you have previously experienced.
DEVELOPING INTUITION BY CHANGING YOUR THINKING
Our intuitive capabilities can be strengthened by changing the way we think. Dr. Wayne Dyer said “If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” When we begin to process our experiences not just as an event but as a lesson learned, we add to our intuitive skill set. That database of memories that exists in our mind that creates that “gut feel.”
LEADERS SOLVE PROBLEMS USING THE LAW OF INTUITION
Sometimes simply analyzing the facts of a situation will not produce the solution to the problem. Let’s just accept that intuition is the result of preconditioned thoughts based on our previous experiences. It would logically follow that these experiences, although not directly related to the problem at hand, can provide the needed intuition to come up with a solution.
Regardless of your opinion on how we develop intuition, one thing is constant, we all have it and we all use it. As you continue forward in this thing called life, I would encourage you to change the way you view your experiences. Every choice we make has a result and every result can provide an additional opportunity to gain knowledge.
The choice you have to make is whether or not you will use this knowledge to help develop your intuitive skills. What is your gut telling you right now?
Next Up: Law #9 – The Law of Magnetism
Barry Smith www.buildingwhatmatters.com 7/4/12
