Does Intution Contribute to Transformational Leadership?

When you read the word intuition you’ll either roll your eyes, OR you’ll lean forward, wanting to read further.

I hope it’s the latter.

As a coach I heavily rely on my intuition in a coaching environment. We’re trained to do so.

Why?

Because it’s sometimes what’s NOT being said that needs to be explored.

And in order to coach clients to a transformational point, great coaches will lean into the stuff that’s harder to quantify, it’s even difficult to explain but it’s something that we naturally develop within our toolkit.

Whether you realize it or not, you also use your intuition, it’s an innate gift you’ve been given that you can use to support you all areas of your life.

When our intuition kicks in, it’s usually our first response or thought about what we want to do or say BUT the mind likes to take over and convenience us that we’re wrong.

Let me tell you a story about what happened to me last week.

I brought my dog John down to the beach Friday morning. It was a fabulous morning, bright, sunny, crisp.

John and I were taking in all the views, enjoying the present moment.

He met many other dogs on the way, all wagging their tails and wanting to play.

We sat down on a rock and were looking at the birds together, when I spotted another dog directly across from us.

My stomach immediately did a flip.

Why? I noticed the dog was staring at John from a great distance away AND I also noticed the uncertainty in the owner’s dog when he was trying to get him to recall.

He was approaching us, never breaking eye contact with John.

(Meanwhile John is blissfully unaware.)

As the dog approached us, he turned almost wolf-like- hunting for his prey- head forward and down, tail between his legs and ears pinned back.

My intuition kicked right in and I immediately picked John up.

Now, John is an 8 month old Golden Retriever, he’s heavy.

I can’t lift him on a normal day BUT at that moment I didn’t feel his weight.

I said to the owner that I didn’t feel comfortable, that his dog’s body language suggested something other than fun and play, and asked that he call his dog away.

The owner got defensive and began shouting at me, but eventually he called his dog away.

We were both fine.

It was only after that, my mind started to doubt my intuition.

Maybe I was overreacting

Maybe I was in the wrong

Maybe I’m too protective of John

UNTIL, my neighbour who also has a dog a similar age to John texted me.

She was walking down to the beach and was approached by another dog owner who warned her about an aggressive dog that was attacking other dogs.

And yes, that dog fitted the exact description of the dog that approached John.

My intuition was right all along.

Your intuition kicks in all the time, it’s a question of whether or not you choose to listen to it.

In work, try tapping into your intuition in the following ways:

Your intuition is a powerful tool that’s worth exploring.

How many mistakes have happened that, when you look back, you say ‘I knew from the very start that I shouldn’t have done that’, OR ‘I knew they weren’t a good fit for us, I just couldn’t put my finger on it.’

AGAIN- It’s your intuition.