Search the Site |
Living by Intuition, and Talking about it
As an individual, if you've been given the gift of a useful skill, use it. As a professional, you must go beyond using it; you must also find a way to tell people about it.
My Gift is Intuition It's very late at night; I'm sitting in a hospital room where the lights are dim. Occasionally a beam from the hallway peaks through the door, sometimes blocked by a shadow from the night nursing staff mulling around the empty hallway. The brightest light in the room is the glow from my computer monitor. I know I'm not thinking as clearly as I should, but need something to distract me from all the possibilities. You see, 48 hours ago I was having a Sunday afternoon conversation with my mom. It was like any other conversation we've had over the years, living 4 hours apart. Not exciting, but our ritual. The only difference was this time when we hung up, I felt this ever so slight pang in the pit of my stomach. I couldn't put my finger on it, but something wasn't right. A few hours later, I called my mom again. She shared her recent activities and rushed me off the phone to complete something of immediate importance. Instead of going about my business, I called my brother. If you know me, you know that is a conversation that doesn't happen very often. We are not close, but we are not distant either. It's not a complicated or electrifying story, we just don't talk often. He lives local to our mother and I just needed someone, there, to tell me everything was okay. Better yet, he'd seen her earlier in the day and everything was fine. Great. Why didn't I feel better? I tossed and turned through the night. I readied in the morning and attended a meeting. I couldn't take it...I called my mom at lunch. While nothing seemingly was out of the ordinary, to quote myself "something is very wrong". I couldn't articulate what it was, but I knew. Clearly, by my 5th call to my brother in less than 24 hours, he thought I was neurotic. Instead of calling the hospital for my mother, I'm certain he considered calling for me! While I won't bore you with all the details, I'm now sitting next to my mother in the before mentioned hospital room. Nurses are running neuro tests every 15 minutes. She has a significant brain hemorrhage. My introduction to her doctor was grim, no "hello", no "nice to meet you", just a somber, "we are deep in the woods with no way to know if she will find her way out or not - it is up to God". Scary, anytime you hear that. Weird, when the person they are talking about is right there, awake and listening. At the time of this posting, while somewhat still touch-and-go, it appears we are making it out of the woods. I don't know what the final outcome will be. However, I've found myself thinking about that nagging feeling I had 48 hours ago. It has guided me though this situation, but it also has played a vital role in my professional history. Intuition in the Workplace Early in my career, I navigated the landscape by listening to that "gut feeling". Often asked by co-workers why I made certain decisions, which I sometimes couldn't explain. Then, I was introduced to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) questionnaire. It is designed to understand preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions. This was my answer. It explained me, to me. One section of the test, the Information Section, assesses whether you prefer to focus on the basic information you take in or do you prefer to interpret and add meaning? This occurs on a sliding scale between Sensing and Intuition, where you can glide between the two. Well, I was so far on the Intuition end, they had me retake the questionnaire. When the retest yielded the same result the instructor harrumphed and went on with the analysis of the assessment. (I'm not sure why I was instructed to retake the test, as one score isn't any better or worse than another score.) If you haven't taken the test, take this test to learn your MBTI type. Here are several situations where I've depended on intuition:
When you have a natural skill, use it. Then, find a way to talk about it. We have to work on many areas to be ‘well rounded'. Take advantage of areas where you have a natural skill. The more you flex that muscle, the more you will be able to use and adapt that muscle for other situations. Clearly, don't just leave it at work! Tell us about your natural skill below. The author, Diahann Boock, is the founder of Women's Ally. For information about working with Diahann, check out our Programs. blog comments powered by Disqus |