Got a hunch? A leader’s intuition must be acted on
We have so many words to try to describe a hunch – sixth sense, our Spidey senses, intuition, gut feeling, instinct. A hunch is an intuitive feeling or suspicion that something might be true or important, even if there is incomplete evidence to support it. It can be a valuable source of insight and creativity yet we sometimes don’t use our hunches to full advantage.
We were recently working with a client to find the learnings on a big project that had a significant financial miss. The project had a major impact to the organization’s reputation, results and even some trust erosion in leadership. During one of the regular project reviews a senior manager noticed there were odd expenses related to Work In Progress – a hunch was forming. He asked about the expenses and someone with respected expertise offered a quick answer - and that ended it, until later when it was too late and they realized damage was done.
As leaders, we make sense of a lot of new, confusing, and ambiguous information to make decisions in a short period of time.
How can you leverage your hunches to become an even more effective leader?
Respond faster
Gathering facts and evidence takes time and effort. We often need to analyze information we have to bring clarity to a situation. By following your intuition, you tap into the early signals you detect and recognize patterns.
Inspire innovation
Leaders who trust their hunches and act on them can inspire others to do the same and create a culture of innovation and creativity.
Navigate ambiguity
Leadership is full of ambiguity where there is often no clear solution and many right choices to move forward. Hunches can help you make decisions and take action to navigate ambiguity, learn more and gain confidence to continue or shift direction.
Yet we often ignore our hunches. What causes us to ignore our hunches?
Bias for an outcome:
We ignore hunches when we desperately want an outcome that doesn’t fit with our hunch. If the senior manager’s hunch was true, the team would have uncovered a financial problem in the project – not good news - even if knowing it earlier could have avoided major complications later.
Psychological safety
We hold onto hunches when it’s not psychologically safe enough to bring them up. We fear we might not be right, we fear how others will view us, or we fear that the information is too imperfect.
Teams don’t take time to add hunches together
Everyone is busy and focused on moving forward with all the information and known issues to solve. Taking time to reflect on our hunches can seem like its slowing things down. When multiple people in a team share their hunch, it can bring exponential clarity and creativity to ambiguous ideas.
What are some steps you can take to evaluate or act on a hunch?
Write it down – it’s one step towards making it more concrete
Share it with someone – see how they can add to your perspective
Make time for teams to share hunches – especially for critical projects or high stakes situations
Test it – what is an easy way to gather more information that will help clarify your hunch?
Stay curious a little longer – after inquiring with someone about a hunch, ask to understand even more
One of our great challenges as leaders is being decisive in a fast moving, ambiguous, and uncertain environment. Yet we also need more than rash decisions based on incomplete information. Finding ways to harness the power of our hunches can give you strategic advantages in detecting issues faster, being more innovative and navigating our way forward. We can act on hunches more confidently by leveraging the instincts of our team, staying curious for longer and gathering just a bit more information. Have a hunch you want to act on?