Using Intuition as a Physician Leader
Category: Physician Coaching Tips, Physicians Leading Transformation
Intuition: Physician Leadership by Calling Forth Full Potential
Physician leaders ready to go to the next level in what they ask of themselves and of their organizations will find inspiration from The Corporate Mystic: A Guidebook for Visionaries With Their Feet on the Ground, by Hendricks and Ludeman. Here are their thoughts on Intuition:
“Intuition is a high-skill area of Corporate Mystics. As leaders, they must be in touch with the intuitive as well as the logical aspects of themselves. When the heart and soul connection is missing, no amount of data will fill the gap.
“Some call it a ‘gut feeling’, while others speak of an intuitive ‘flash’. The dictionary says that intuition is ‘direct knowing of something without the conscious use of reasoning.’ It is what you might use to:
- Make a personnel decision.
- Tune in to where the problems are in a particular project.
- Get your timing right on an investment.
- Come up with a new market for an existing product.
“Intuition is a natural gift, something to which we all have access. It is also a talent, something we can fine-tune with practice. The main reason intuition is so important is this: It is a clear sign that you are connecting with your inner spiritual guidance system. Intuition is a direct signal from your deepest self that you are navigating from your true center. When intuition is not working for you, it is a sign that you need to refresh your connection with your center. As an Archbishop of Canterbury once said, ‘When I pray, miracles happen. When I don’t, they don’t.’ The same is true with intuition. When it’s there, you can rest assured that you have been nurturing your connecting with your own soul in some way. When it’s not there, it’s time to spend some time in medication, or by a waterfall, or in you office with the door closed.”
Here are additional supportive quotes on the power of intuition:
“The intuitive mind will tell the thinking mind where to look next.” –Dr. Jonas Salk
“The really valuable thing is intuition.” –Albert Einstein
“The leader who would create a vision sufficiently compelling to motivate associates to superior performances must draw on the intuitive mind.” –John Naisbitt and Patricia Aburdene
“People with high levels of personal mastery do not set out to integrate reason and intuition. Rather, they achieve it naturally—as a by-product of their commitment to use all the resources at their disposal. They cannot afford to choose between reason and intuition, or head and heart, any more than they would choose to walk on one leg or see with one eye.” –Peter Senge
“The mind, when it is quiet, delivers up phenomenal intuition which can then be focused to design a next-generation product or to understand what’s driving particular customers.” –Ed McCracken, CEO, Silicon Graphics
I strongly encourage all physician leaders to read The Corporate Mystic, by Gay Hendricks, PhD and Kate Ludeman, PhD.