The Law of Intuition (8)

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership - John Maxwell Chapter 8 - The Law of Intuition

Leaders Evaluate Everything With a  Leadership Bias

Leaders know have to read their instincts and follow their intuition in making decisions.  Sure, they pull together facts and do their research, but at the end of the day, they always trust their instincts in their areas of strength. 

Leaders look at things differently than others do - they look at everything through a leadership bias.  

People are intuitive in their area of strength.

Leaders make decision based on their instincts and intuition.  They make decisions based on facts plus instinct plus other intangible factors, such as employee morale, organizational momentum, and relational dynamics.  

Colin Powell says that his practice is to make a leadership decision after gathering only 40 to 60 percent of the information has been obtained, and then he uses his experience to make up the difference.  He bases his leadership decisions as much on intuition as on facts.  

Who you are dictates what you see.  How you see the world around you is determined by who you are.\

Leadership intuition is the ability to read what's going on.  Intuition comes from two things: the combination of natural ability, which comes in a person's areas of strength, and learned skills.  

You must be able to read:

- The situation - must be know what your current situation is, the good, the bad, and the ugly

- Trends - must be able to see the bigger picture and understand where your field is going

- Resources - must know what you have and how to maximize your assets

- People - must know who you are leading and influencing to know how to get the best out of them

- Themselves - 'No one can produce great things who is not thoroughly sincere in dealing with himself.'

Three Levels Of Leadership Intuition

1 - Those who naturally understand leadership

2 - Those who can be nurtured to understand leadership

3 - Those who will never understand leadership

A leader has to read the situation and know instinctively what play to call.

Applying the Law of Intuition

1 - Learn how to trust your intuition.  Begin by working within your areas of greatest strength because thats where, naturally, your intuition is the strongest.

2 - Reading people is one of the most important abilities in leadership.  Always work on being a better reader of people by 1 - reading books on relationships 2 - engaging more people in conversations 3 - become a people watcher

3 - Think about how you can mobilize people and harness resources by imagining how you can accomplishing tasks without doing any of the work.

- Who is the best person to take this on

- What resources do we possess that can help

- What will this take financially

- How can I encourage my team to achieve success