Instinct or intuition is out of fashion at the moment in leadership circles. Blame Skilling and Lay. People want to see your working out, like you used to have to do in your maths book at school, to prove that the conclusion is anchored in reality.
The return to ‘show me the evidence’-based leadership is a shame. I had my head in Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking yesterday and I can’t remember what she wrote that sparked this off, but she reminded me that instinct and intuition are, in fact, ‘ploughed-in’ knowledge. It has merged with you so completely that it is no longer part of your conscious thought. You don’t even know how you know it.
So, anyway, more intuition in leadership, I reckon…
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