The Role of Intuition in Leadership - Emerging Nurse Leader

By Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN

A leader recently told me a story about a decision made by her executive team that conflicted with her intuition. It felt wrong, and her gut told her it would be a mistake. She said nothing because she had no facts to support her strong emotional inner feelings. The decision did turn out to be a major blunder. She wonders if she could have prevented it by sharing her misgivings. The leader raises a great point – what is the role of intuition in leadership decision making? This leader had often used intuition in her clinical nursing career, feeling like it was her superpower. Yet when it came to leadership, she was not so sure about trusting her instincts in an executive environment that has become very data-driven.

Unlike clinical nursing, trusting our intuition when we’ve been educated to rely on data, does not come easily for most leaders. Leadership expert, Bonnie Marcus, points out that highly complex situations do not lend themselves to cognitive processing alone. Research in neuroscience tells us that the amount of storage in working memory is limited. We need input from all parts of the brain to manage highly sophisticated decisions. The second issue is determining when is enough, enough. Leaders gather data and seek information, but at some point, they reach the over-thinking tipping point. That’s the point where the time needed to gather more data and input exceeds the value. They must decide and move on.

When decisions are highly predictable, then the facts alone might be enough. But if there are many unknowns and the future is complex then intuition could play an essential role, especially those decisions that center on people or politics. Data alone may not be enough. Intuition is part of your intelligence. Your brain is always storing knowledge and experience, even if it is in a deep place. When you are in the midst of problem-solving, the brain continues to work on the problem pulling stored knowledge. Entrepreneurs like the late Steve Jobs as an example rely heavily on their intuition in deciding what could be the next big thing. When it comes to big decision making, Jeff Bezos has noted that he is quite comfortable relying on his intuition.

Most leaders learn over time (usually through mistakes) not to ignore their nagging concerns. Colin Powell once observed that his practice is to make a leadership decision after gathering 40 – 60 percent of the information that can be obtained and then use experience and intuition to make up the difference. Lolly Haskall, an executive leadership coach, writes about intuition in leadership. She notes that everything that you have experienced becomes data points in your mind, every person you have met, every success you have experienced and every failure you had to go through, the learning that you were taught, the mistakes that have become lessons are stored as a memory chip – to be utilized. Leadership decisions, notes John Maxwell, usually involve more than the facts at hand so intuition is a powerful tool.

Read Rose Sherman’s new book – The Nurse Leader Coach: Become the Boss No One Wants to Leave