We often refer to highly effective leaders, especially those with less experience or background, as having great leadership instincts. In our estimation, they seem to know things we wouldn’t expect them to know. More importantly, these people land on a good or right answer seemingly without much effort. They are instinctively good at leadership, or so we believe.
This is a great article that made me pause and think - anything that can take the reader on a thought-provoking journey in such a short amount of words deserves an A+. Well done.
At first, I disagreed with the premise, "Which is why leadership is not a place where they exist," regarding instincts. My initial reaction while reading was that there is absolutely a place in leadership to trust our "gut" or intuition.
However, I agree with the lesson here that there is a more straightforward explanation for why we can make intuitive decisions and why it feels natural in the first place.
Experience combined with values/principles explains much of how a leader operates and their ability to navigate complex situations with perceived ease.
Nov 17, 2023·edited Nov 17, 2023Liked by Admired Leadership
The more I've thought about this, we might be able to separate instinct from intuition. I'd be curious about your opinion on that.
Here's what I mean. Instinct, as you've described it, are those human elements ingrained in our biology that you just listed - fast, reactive thinking. Intuition is that slow, deliberate, encouraging internal dialogue (opposite of Ego, which is fast, loud, degrading, and sometimes obnoxious), more so related to slow, logical thinking. It reminds me of Daniel Kahneman's book, "Thinking, Fast and Slow."
I'm probably confounding many things here - thinking out loud. Now that you've forced me to think on a Friday morning, you're right; there is no instinct in leadership.
It all comes back to habits formed from experiences and values. Touché. 😅
Reminded of how Don Draper says he gets great ideas.
"Peggy just think about it.. deeply. And then forget it. Then an idea will... jump up in your face"
Seems a trivial aside when writing it down.
It was actually shot as a less than profound moment when he gives this advice in Mad Men. But there is something to it. He is explaining intuition in the last statement. But the thinking deeply part is experience and research. The "forget it" part about jumping into experience.
But the profound part is that the writers of the show are casting aside a lot of insight in an otherwise throw-away moment in the show. An ad-man's creativity can easily be mistaken for instinct or intuition, but it all seems to emanate from the same kind of routines.
Those who know their values clearly have a very fast decision tree... they are not distracted with the idea of... "but all that money!" or whatever the temptation to deviate might be. Everything else is lived experience applied with a flourish or two.
Agreed. Dig a little on someone who casually references their gut as the source of their decisions and you’ll find it is some combination of very defined values and reps they’ve already been thru. Makes a ton of sense.
This piece highlights the importance of assessing someone’s values when being hired into a team, especially into a leadership position. If a leader’s capability is largely influenced by their values, then those values need to align closely to the values of a business otherwise they may not be best placed for the role. Curious to hear other peoples’s thoughts on this?
In the movie, Tommy Boy, Richard (played by David Spade) walks into a gas station to get directions to the town he and Tommy (Chris Farley) are go to for their next sales meeting as they try to save the company. He tells the attendant he's trying to find Town X, but it's not on the map. The attendant replies, "Get yourself a new map." Sarcasm ensues between Richard and the Attendant. Richard finds out his map stops at one county and the town he's trying to get to is in the next county over. Hence, Richard needed to get himself a new map.
I use this mantra, "Get yourself a new map" whenever I am faced with situation where I feel uncomfortable or unsure about what to do next. The 'map' I'm trying to use is insufficient and that is the main cause of my uneasiness. I use what I've got and try to make the best out of the situation as possible. I pay attention and learn as much as I can from the experience so that I can update my 'map' a little bit and hopefully do better in the future.
You are right. There is no such thing as a born-leader--one who operates successfully and consistently from pure instinct. There is intuitive leadership or gut leadership, which can stem from the combination of experience and values, as you say, but to take it to the next level, the leader needs to study and intentionally apply that learning. One could say that this learning is a form of experience, and the desire to learn and apply the learning is a form of values. All true. But the effort to learn and apply--to treat leadership as a discipline that requires mastery--really sets the great leader apart from the gut leader.
This is a great article that made me pause and think - anything that can take the reader on a thought-provoking journey in such a short amount of words deserves an A+. Well done.
At first, I disagreed with the premise, "Which is why leadership is not a place where they exist," regarding instincts. My initial reaction while reading was that there is absolutely a place in leadership to trust our "gut" or intuition.
However, I agree with the lesson here that there is a more straightforward explanation for why we can make intuitive decisions and why it feels natural in the first place.
Experience combined with values/principles explains much of how a leader operates and their ability to navigate complex situations with perceived ease.
So what do you think, Josh. Would anything count as a leadership instinct?
An impulse to fight, flee or freeze?? :)
The more I've thought about this, we might be able to separate instinct from intuition. I'd be curious about your opinion on that.
Here's what I mean. Instinct, as you've described it, are those human elements ingrained in our biology that you just listed - fast, reactive thinking. Intuition is that slow, deliberate, encouraging internal dialogue (opposite of Ego, which is fast, loud, degrading, and sometimes obnoxious), more so related to slow, logical thinking. It reminds me of Daniel Kahneman's book, "Thinking, Fast and Slow."
I'm probably confounding many things here - thinking out loud. Now that you've forced me to think on a Friday morning, you're right; there is no instinct in leadership.
It all comes back to habits formed from experiences and values. Touché. 😅
Reminded of how Don Draper says he gets great ideas.
"Peggy just think about it.. deeply. And then forget it. Then an idea will... jump up in your face"
Seems a trivial aside when writing it down.
It was actually shot as a less than profound moment when he gives this advice in Mad Men. But there is something to it. He is explaining intuition in the last statement. But the thinking deeply part is experience and research. The "forget it" part about jumping into experience.
But the profound part is that the writers of the show are casting aside a lot of insight in an otherwise throw-away moment in the show. An ad-man's creativity can easily be mistaken for instinct or intuition, but it all seems to emanate from the same kind of routines.
Those who know their values clearly have a very fast decision tree... they are not distracted with the idea of... "but all that money!" or whatever the temptation to deviate might be. Everything else is lived experience applied with a flourish or two.
Agreed. Dig a little on someone who casually references their gut as the source of their decisions and you’ll find it is some combination of very defined values and reps they’ve already been thru. Makes a ton of sense.
This piece highlights the importance of assessing someone’s values when being hired into a team, especially into a leadership position. If a leader’s capability is largely influenced by their values, then those values need to align closely to the values of a business otherwise they may not be best placed for the role. Curious to hear other peoples’s thoughts on this?
In the movie, Tommy Boy, Richard (played by David Spade) walks into a gas station to get directions to the town he and Tommy (Chris Farley) are go to for their next sales meeting as they try to save the company. He tells the attendant he's trying to find Town X, but it's not on the map. The attendant replies, "Get yourself a new map." Sarcasm ensues between Richard and the Attendant. Richard finds out his map stops at one county and the town he's trying to get to is in the next county over. Hence, Richard needed to get himself a new map.
I use this mantra, "Get yourself a new map" whenever I am faced with situation where I feel uncomfortable or unsure about what to do next. The 'map' I'm trying to use is insufficient and that is the main cause of my uneasiness. I use what I've got and try to make the best out of the situation as possible. I pay attention and learn as much as I can from the experience so that I can update my 'map' a little bit and hopefully do better in the future.
You are right. There is no such thing as a born-leader--one who operates successfully and consistently from pure instinct. There is intuitive leadership or gut leadership, which can stem from the combination of experience and values, as you say, but to take it to the next level, the leader needs to study and intentionally apply that learning. One could say that this learning is a form of experience, and the desire to learn and apply the learning is a form of values. All true. But the effort to learn and apply--to treat leadership as a discipline that requires mastery--really sets the great leader apart from the gut leader.
Great post. Spot on, and well put.