The father of modern philosophy, René Descartes , said “I think therefore I am”. He was half right. The best thinkers and leaders, employ a few other powerful tools: Intuition and Emotions.
Fifteen years ago, I took a new job with a firm, which I was extremely excited about. When my wife met my new boss at a business event, she told me that he was not a good person and she had a “bad vibe” about my new role. As usual, she was right, and the new job did not go as originally planned. So what happened? Why did my wife pick something up that I didn’t?
Intuition is our body and mind using all its well-honed evolutionary sensors to allow us to make quick decisions. Signals are sent to our brain that it can only process at a deep level, which we can’t understand. My wife’s instinct or intuition sent her a signal of fight or flight, which she acted on by telling me what she felt (which is what we do in a civilized world). In hindsight, I think I had the same feelings but was so invested in the promotion and accomplishing my personal goals, that I ignored my intuition. I was almost over thinking the job in a logical way, which overcame my ability to intuit and feel.
Equally as powerful in decision making are our emotions, which allow us another innate sensor of evaluation. Emotional intelligence is a powerful tool which every leader has and relies on. Think of last time you walked into a meeting room and recall what you felt. If people were happy, you likely felt happy. If people where intense, you felt that too. Recall a time you became anxious or overwhelmed. You likely felt it somewhere in your body first which added to the context of your decisions. I can argue that emotions are more powerful then logic in certain situations, which overly logical people will rebut. But if we look at most significant accomplishments in history or our lives, there were intensely emotional feelings attached to them.
Plato referred to a priori knowledge, which meant the ability to just know certain things that where common to all of us. This is like a collective wisdom that is innately part of us, like the difference between right and wrong. Descartes understood that our ability to think was powerful and evident. But it is our ability as humans, leaders and decision makers to bring both perspectives to bear. We have to process vision, knowledge, experience, intuition and emotions in any order that works to make better decisions. I feel and think, therefore I am.