Law #8 of John Maxwell's The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership is:
The Law Intuition: Leaders Evaluate Everything with a Leadership Bias
This, Maxwell notes, is the most difficult of the laws to teach. He notes that natural leaders get it instantly, learned leaders get it eventually and non-leaders never get it. The Law of Intuition deals with more than facts…but also many intangibles [eg employee morale, organizational momentum, relational dynamics]. We all possess intuition. Everyone has some level of intuition in the area of his/her strength. This intuition can be nurtured and developed and applied in the area of leadership.
How Leaders Think
Intuition comes from the combination of natural ability [which comes in a person’s area of strength] and learned strengths.
1. Leaders are readers of their situation: Leaders can “smell” things in the organization. They can sense people’s attitudes and chemistry among teams. “Natural ability and learned skills create an informed intuition that makes leadership issues jump out at leaders.
2. Leaders are readers of trends: Followers focus on current goals/tasks; managers focus on efficiency and effectiveness; leaders take a broader view, discerning where the organization has been and where it is going.
3. Leaders are readers of their resources: They focus on mobilizing people and leveraging resources to achieve goals vs relying on their own individual efforts.
4. Leaders are readers of people: This may be the most important intuitive skill for leaders to develop, since any and everything a leader does involves other people.
5. Leaders are readers of themselves: A leader has to be sincere about self-analysis: strengths, weaknesses and mind set. Leaders can hurt their organization when they become self-centered, pessimistic or rigid because they may end up believing that they cannot or should not change.
Three Levels of Leadership
1. Those who naturally understand leadership: These people instinctively understand people and know how to move them from A to B. even as kids, these are the ones leading on the playground
2. Those who can be nurtured to understand leadership: Most people fall into this category. Those in this category usually have good people skills and are teachable. If they work to develop their leadership and intuition, they can.
3. Those who will never understand leadership: Occasionally, there are people with no leadership skills and no interest in developing them.
Applying the Law of Intuition to Your Life
1. You must be willing to trust your intuition. First, determine your strongest natural talent. Second, act on/use that talent. Pay attention to whether and when you know something is ‘right’ or when you are ‘on’. Don your instincts betray you? When? Why? Get to know your intuition ability in areas where you are strong before you develop it further in leadership.
2. Reading people is on of the most important leadership abilities. How would you rate yourself? Can you sense when others are happy, upset, confused, mad? Do you anticipate what others are thinking? You can improve in this area by reading relationship books, engaging others more in conversation and becoming a people watcher.
3. Train yourself to think in terms of mobilizing people and harnessing resources. Imagine how you can accomplish current goals and projects without doing any of the work yourself. You may want to wrist these down and keep them handy:
• Who is the best person to take this on?
• What resources do we possess that can help us?
• What will this take financially?
• How can I encourage my team to achieve success?
Reference:
Maxwell, John. The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Chapter 8- The Law of Intuition. Thomas Nelson, Nashville, TN; 2007
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