Back when I worked in publishing, one of my most important tasks was working on magazine covers. The right (or wrong) cover image and blurbs could make or break the financial success of any issue.
To get better at this analysis, I picked up Malcolm Gladwell’s book “Blink.” I thought the book would help me learn how to listen to and trust my gut feelings when I looked at proposed cover images. As I later confirmed in my Predictive Index profile, I tend to make decisions based on objective facts, rather than subjective feelings. But with more than 1,000 magazine covers under my belt, it was reasonable that my gut feelings would be pretty good. I just needed to learn to listen to them.
The same kind of intuition comes into play with lots of other decisions that leaders make on a day-to-day basis: Should I jump into the conversation now, or hold back? Should I push for more resources or make do? Should I hire Candidate A or Candidate B? Leaders are constantly making judgement calls.
Sometimes our gut serves us well in these cases. And sometimes it … doesn’t. How do you know?
This came up recently when I was recording an episode of The Leadership Line podcast with Tammy Rogers and Scott Burgmeyer. We were discussing decision-making, and my own style is quite different from the way Tammy and Scott make decisions. I am inherently more cautious and like to have more information.
Sometimes the little voice on my shoulder says, “Slow down. This is going to change again real soon.” Sometimes that little voice says, “Slow down. You don’t have all the facts.”
And sometimes that “slow down” voice is just plain wrong. Or circumstances call for quick action. (When the fire alarm goes off, I don’t wander the building looking for the source of the smoke. I just high-tail it out of there.)
Here’s where Gladwell’s thinking helps me. It reminds me that I have lots of experience making leadership decisions. And I can trust that gut instinct because it may seem like it’s spur-the-moment, but it’s really built on decades of information.
What’s YOUR decision-making style? Do you need to trust your gut more often?
Karman Hotchkiss
