Trusting your instincts

Objective

How often have you had the experience of looking back at a decision made, or not made, against the ‘advice’ of your instinct and regretted that you had not been bolder? How often have you allowed factors that seemed more important than they really were at the time to deflect you from doing what you knew was the right thing to do? Most of us can probably confess to these feelings if we are honest – I am bound to say that many of my worst mistakes have occurred when I probably knew in my heart of hearts that I was taking the wrong course of action.

To be a successful leader enable your instinct (some would call it intuition) so it is a key part of your decision-making toolkit. Let it be a companion whispering in your ear – and listen!

Context

A CEO once said to me that the most important part of my job as a team leader (I was then at director level) was to be sure I had the right team – and that if this meant that I only needed to work half a week, then so be it! He was not wrong – as an effective leader you will realise that part of trusting your instincts is to be certain you have the right team in the right roles who are encouraged to make their own decisions. This is the first and most critical area where you must trust your instincts because your choice of team determines the outcome of so many future actions.

In addition, you will face occasions when staff come to you with an issue about which they are not clear over what course of action to take. The right approach here is not for you to think the answer through for them, but to facilitate their own thinking, teasing out if they actually know the answer but are unprepared to admit it or to commit to it. Trusting your instincts is thus also about building a legacy – demonstrating its importance and power.

In summary, the outcome is empowerment – doubtless an overused term but one which, in everyday effective leadership, really does happen. You really can see people learning to excel in following their judgement, and relish the liberation yourself of doing what you know to be right.

Challenge

There is an easy and possibly glib response to the value of instinct – that it is all a matter of experience. It can’t be denied that there is always a ‘first time’ in taking leadership roles, and many of the approaches discussed in this book evolve as you learn how colleagues and staff respond to your styles of action. But the inevitable learning process that takes place can be accelerated if you recognise three critical traits.

• Like any leader you do have instincts and these are not only allowable in business but are vitally necessary. They are not to be sidelined as the preserve of entrepreneurs and are not out of place in the process-orientated corporate world.
• Trusting an instinct is not the same as being impulsive. An instinct is a deep-rooted ‘gut’ feeling for a course of action that may need to be tested out on colleagues or verified by some further analysis. An impulsive decision will be an emotional one based on a reaction to circumstances and is not subject to analytical support. Your colleagues will very rapidly learn to discern the difference in you.
• It should not be your objective to be popular. A leader who follows their instincts will be undeterred from making unpopular decisions, but will have the convictional courage to stand by them. So try to prevent analysis from becoming an avoidance strategy!

Success

What is the benefit for the organisation or team in recognising and inculcating this approach? The gain is to develop a culture that is fast-moving and responsive with the following characteristics.

• Common sense – a value is placed on the common sense, ownership and accountability that most employees have to exercise in their daily family lives as children, partners or parents.
• Experience – respect is given to experience and insight, which are valued at least as equally as analysis.
• Empowerment – managers feel enabled to make decisions rather than have them checked in advance (subject to the authority limits that any organisation will require).
• Decision-making – a premium is placed on the quality and not the methodology of decision-making.
• Speed – decision-making becomes faster.
• The individual – decision-making becomes a tool for all staff individually and not always something that happens through consultation and meetings.

In the end ‘trusting your instincts’ is as much about trusting those of others as it is about trusting your own – get the right people, make the right decisions and empower them to make theirs!

Pitfalls

Possibly the greatest danger in valuing instinct is that you allow it to override the requirement for more detailed analysis, to assume that instinct based on ever-increasing experience can always suffice. With greater experience comes greater facility in assessing how decisions should be made. A further risk is that excessive caution about instinct leads to a loss of entrepreneurial drive – and that this hesitancy pervades not only decision-making specifically but the broader attitudinal approach the leader needs to take to business.

There is a fine balance between instinct and caution, decisiveness and analysis. While it does get easier with time, the leader should be continuously aware that this is a balance that does need striking.

Leaders’ checklist

• Learn to recognise when you have instinctive feelings, and learn how to articulate them rather than bury them within avoidance processes.
• Learn also to recognise the excessively emotional response – for example, that instantaneous e-mail response that should be sent to ‘draft’ – and to treat it for what it is.
• Understand that after learning to be yourself, recruiting the right next line-of-staff is the biggest decision you will make.
• Encourage, even train, your staff to recognise the value of their own instincts.
• Review your decisions and assess how many are being made again because you doubted an original judgement.