What Is Your Gut Telling You?

Posted on June 25, 2010 by Ronald T. Brown, Ph.D.

Yale professor Robert Sternberg has studied the reasons why some people succeed and most don’t – and has defined the term “successful intelligence.” He writes that many people care so much about appearing intelligent that they suppress their curiosity, ingenuity, and initiative – thereby critically limiting their ability to succeed at higher levels.

Why is their success limited

? They let their “brain” override the often times greater wisdom that is coming from somewhere else.  And that somewhere else is their “gut.”  Simply stated: Most of the time, your gut knows way more than your brain does.  Aristotle wrote, “The brain is not solely in the head.  The Brain is in the heart and more.”  Many highly successful businessmen, pastors, and leaders do not have the sharpest intellect, but have learned how to leverage their ingenuity, creativity, and gut.

** Retired CEO’s were surveyed and asked what was their biggest regret as a leader?  Near the top of the list what the response, “When I did not trust my gut in a leadership situation.”

As a leader, you must

not

allow your intellect, and ability to analyze, suppress your “

intuition

” in a decision-making process.  Your “gut” is the part of you which many times is smarter than your brain, reacts faster than your brain, and reads opportunities with discerning clarity.  So when you find yourself saying (or thinking,) “Something inside is telling me…”  Then stop right there and pay attention to what it is saying! 

**

So how can a leader develop their “gut?

”

Whenever an important question or challenge arises, pause before you say anything, or act out in any way, and ask:
1) What do my instincts say?  What is my gut saying to me?
2) Why might it be saying that?
3) What does my deeper experience say?
4) What are some potential, yet hidden, breakthroughs?
5) What’s deeper? What’s more?

Many leaders are hesitant to look past their intellect to tune into what their gut (or heart) is telling them.  Yet highly effective leaders have come to peace with how their “gut” will many times lead them – and they use that inner wisdom for their advantage.

Steve Jobs – CEO of Apple – said, “Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the result of other people’s thinking.  Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.  And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.  They somehow already know what you truly want to become and do.  Everything else is secondary.”

** What is your gut telling you right now?