Listening to your Gut
- Blog Listening to your Gut
Listening to your Gut
On Making Decisions
Each day is comprised of a multitude of micro-decisions. What to eat, what to wear, where to go, when to leave, what to say, how to say it, when to apologize, when to apologize again, and then again, and so forth.
Motherhood has come with an even greater number of decisions, and I’ll admit I wasn’t particularly great at making them before becoming a mother. Often, I would try on four different outfits in the morning, adjusting each item until I was sure it was right. I would hem and haw over where to eat dinner or which social gatherings to attend over the weekend. I would change my mind at the last minute, worried I was making the wrong decision.
Once children entered the picture, I was tasked with making decisions for them in addition to the ones I was making for myself. What will they eat? What will they wear? Where will we go? When will they sleep? These decisions seemed to matter even more. The stakes were higher, significantly impacting someone else’s life in addition to my own.
For an organizational leader, this is magnified, there are decisions about hiring, firing, budgets, mergers, goals, vision, salaries, discipline, growth, and so much more. These decisions impact a lot of moving pieces and a whole lot of people.
As there is little time for a mother to hem and haw over all the decisions, there is even less time for an organizational leader. Which is, in fact, is a very good thing.
A leader needs to make many choices each day, over and over without driving himself or herself absolutely bonkers. Luckily, a good leader, like a good mother, begins to develop something called intuition. Intuition is an internal compass that guides a person in decision-making. Whether a leader and/or a mother, or neither, we all have intuition. A leader, however, who is responsible for making more decisions more frequently, needs to rely on this intuition more than others. This forces a leader to begin to listen to their intuition and eventually, to trust it.
Trusting your intuition and aligning your decisions with it leads to internal peace, or what Travis Smith, CEO of T&E Logistics, calls peace of mind. Travis, on the IOL Podcast, shares one of the wisest pieces of advice he ever received as a leader.
In making decisions, if saying yes to something costs you peace of mind, it costs too much.
Travis said he learned that if a new opportunity or a possible new hire was keeping him up at night with worry or anxiety, then he knew the right answer—no.
Patrick notes that having peace of mind is more than a spiritual thing or a luxury for a leader. He says it can be used as a strategic tool. Good leaders use it as a compass to point true north, to help them make the right decisions.
So how do we begin to identify and hone our intuition that helps keep our peace of mind? Here are a few ways:
Be a student of yourself.
Start to notice to your first responses when presented with a new decision to make. Which option overwhelms you? Or makes your heart beating faster? Does one of the options make you feel excited, hopeful or joyful? Don’t overthink it. Usually, your first response will tell you a lot about yourself and the paths that you should take. Try making a few decisions from this first response and see where you end up. This is your gut response.
If you misinterpret your intuition, make a change.
Whoops. You went with your gut and it led you down a path that turned out badly. Make a change. Learn from it. Don’t beat yourself up and “never go with your gut again” that will only leave you spinning in circles in all decisions. Trust yourself and give yourself space to make a mistake and grow. You made a deal with someone who burned you? That’s okay. It was a mistake. We all make them. Keep going, learn from that mistake and continue to strengthen your intuition. That is, in fact, how it gets stronger.
Pray.
In prayer, decisions become clearer. The Holy Spirit speaks. If you are truly stuck between one decision or another, the Holy Spirit can guide by closing one door over another, giving you supernatural peace, or making the path easy to see. Travis said he asks God for closed doors, even locked ones. He says sometimes he finds himself trying to open closed doors when in hindsight, they were closed for a reason. Locks ensure he cannot open them.
Have patience, it takes time.
This takes practice, years and experience. Even this past week, I backed out of a commitment I had made a few months ago that I was sure was going to be a healthy path for me and my family. As the school year ramped up, I quickly realized I had made a mistake and needed to make a change. It wasn’t easy and I disappointed a few people that I love. Afterward, however, I knew I had done the right thing. I had hemmed and hawed over the original commitment and should have gone with my gut, instead. See, I’m still learning to trust that intuition.
Remember that peace is not a luxury. Peace can be in the hearts and minds of every leader. Understanding your intuition and learning how to use it can make all the difference.
At IOL, we believe that no one drifts into excellence. We’re here to help guide you. Please reach out!
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Author: Ashley Buenger
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