Chad Silverstein explains when to trust and when to check your intuition: competent, practiced intuition raises your odds, but gut reactions can be wrong—especially on major decisions. He advises pausing, seeking others' perspectives, learning from past successes and mistakes, and building the discipline to slow down when necessary.
Chapters
I would like to think that if you have a real good sense of your intuition, it's because hopefully you're competent, whatever it is that you're feeling, because a lot of times your intuition is going to be that gut feeling. And I've learned that a lot of times you can definitely trust your gut, and a lot of times you can't. So you really don't know. It's always going to be a gamble, but the more competent you are, hopefully you're going to increase your odds and your chances of being right. And so it's important to go with your gut, but then check it. And I think that's important that you don't react too fast when you have that gut feeling, especially when it comes to dealing with issues in your problem, putting out fires with clients. There's always another side. And I think the. The discipline is to kind of study the people around you, study your situations, learn from the experiences, and then when things happen, just make sure you pause to think about something before you take the quick action. I like to move really fast, a lot faster than most people that I work with. And I just had to build the discipline to not go too fast. And so I've had a lot of people, you know, slow me down. And I think that's a healthy thing when I'm working fast and I'm in a flow, and I just want to get things done and solve problems, especially if I think I can do it. But many times, you know, I could be wrong, and I rush into things too fast. And then once I commit into something, that can kind of start off and kick off a process that's not so easy to unravel. So, you know, I think it's important for you to know yourself and to know how much your gut has served you. If you look back in your past and think about times where it served you well and also the mistakes that you've made, hopefully that'll help prepare you for the next time that you want to feel like you want to make a big decision fast by going on your gut. And I would say that anytime you have a really big decision, you should never go on your gut, because your emotions could definitely be lying to you. And usually when you're so engrossed into a situation, there's always something to benefit from, another 24 hours or another person's perspective. And so I don't know, you know, I'm not sure exactly how much of an emphasis I'll put on it or not, but I think, you know, depending on the context of your situation that'll hopefully help you make your decision, for making quick decisions and going on your gut and knowing when not to go on your gut. So I think that's. That's a powerful skill that leaders have to build.
