The 21 Irrrefutable Laws of Leadership #8 — The Law of Intuition

leaders evaluate everything with a leadership bias

The 8th law of The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership — The Law of Intuition— states that “leaders evaluate everything with a leadership bias.”

Great leaders look at things differently, they evaluate everything with a leadership bias, as a result, they instinctively, almost automatically, know what to do when it comes to leading.

People born with natural leadership ability are especially strong in the area of leadership intuition. You might not be intuitive in the area of leadership but you are intuitive in your area of strength.

With Intuition, Leadership is More than Facts

Although facts are important, the Law of Intuition depends on so much more than just the facts. The Law of Intuition is based on facts plus instinct plus other intangible factors.

My practice is to make a leadership decision after gathering 40 – 60 percent of the information that can be obtained, and then use experience to make up the difference — Colin Powell

Intuition come from two things: from natural ability (person’s areas of strength) and from learned skills.

With Intuition, Leaders are Readers

To develop your leadership intuition, you have to be able to read differently. To read differently, you have to think differently. With intuition, leaders are able to read situations, trends, resources, people, and themselves.

Leaders are Readers of Their Situation

Intuition helps leaders to be aware of their environment. They are able to pick up details that might elude others. They have the ability to ‘smell things’ in their organization. They can sense people’s attitudes and they know the situation before they have all the facts.

Leaders are Readers of Trends

Instead of focusing on their day-to-day work or on effectiveness and efficiency, leaders, by intuition, look years ahead. They can discern where the organization is going. Their intuition tells them when something is happening, and conditions are changing.

Leaders are Readers of Their Resources

Leaders think in terms of resources and how to maximize them. In the table below, you will observe that leaders think differently in the way they see resources:

People
How they think when they encounter challenges


A good worker
What can I do to help?


A high achiever
How can I solve this problem?


A peak performer
What can I do to reach the next level so that I can overcome this?


A leader
Who is the best person to take this on? What resources do we possess that will help us? What will this take financially? How can I encourage my team to achieve this?

Leaders are continually aware of what they have at their disposal.

Leaders are Readers of People

Intuition helps leaders to sense what is happening among people. Great leaders can sense what is what is happening in a room—whether there’s curiosity, doubt, hope, reluctance, anticipation, or relief.

Leaders are Readers of Themselves

Good leaders know not only their own strengths and blind spots, skills and weaknesses, they also know their current state of mind.

Action Points to Develop Your Leadership Intuition

Trust your intuition. Begin by working with your areas of strength and natural talents.
Develop the ability to read people. Read books on relationships. Engage more in conversations. Watch and observe people and see if you can sense when they are feeling upset, happy, confused, or angry.
Train yourself on how to mobilize people to action. Think about your current project and goals. Now imagine how you can accomplish them without doing any of the work yourself except for recruiting, empowering, inspiring, and motivating others.

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