A Story About Rocks

I heard a story some time ago about a man who came up to a border crossing riding a motorcycle. Balanced on the back of his bike, were two saddlebags.

He had all the documents required to cross the border. The border guards asked the obvious question, “What’s in the saddlebags?” The man replied, “Rocks.”

To check his story, the guards emptied the saddlebags. Sure enough, all they found were rocks. So, they allowed the man to enter the country.

The following week, the same man approached the border crossing, riding a motorcycle. Again, the guards checked his saddlebags and found only rocks. Again, he was allowed to cross the border.

The scene repeated itself over the next several months until the border guards couldn’t stand it any longer. “We know you're smuggling something across the border,” they said. “But every time we check your saddlebags, we find only rocks. Please tell us what you're up to. We promise not to turn you in.”

“Well”, replied the man. “It's simple really. I’m smuggling stolen motorcycles.”

What is intuition anyway?

As you were reading the story, I bet you sensed way before the final encounter between the motorcyclist and the border guards that something was not right. We all get those ah ha moments–a hunch not yet confirmed by facts that may even seem to contradict available evidence.

We could let months go by before acting on the hunch, waiting for evidence to make it blatantly clear to everyone. We could shake our heads and look again at the surface details. Or, we can trust our intuition and act now.

As a leader, you rely on your intuition every day. It is every bit as important as your technical experience, business acumen and education. In his book, "The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership", John C. Maxwell talks about this quality. He calls it leadership intuition and explains it in the chapter on the Law of Intuition.

When you have leadership intuition, you sense the bigger picture. You are aware of trends. You have a keen inner sense of both opportunities and threats. You don't hesitate to ask the difficult questions and you're not afraid to act on your instincts.

Using the intuition zoom lens

Leadership intuition applies to everything you do. It is the lens through which you view the world. You use leadership intuition to read the people you work with. If there is enthusiasm, you notice. If there is discontent, you notice that too, and you have strong hunches about the reasons.

With leadership intuition, you see situations as they really are and you're not afraid to deal with them. If the success of your organization is faltering, you don't pretend it isn't a problem. You see the resources that are available, and you use leadership intuition to combine them in innovative ways to get things done.

But leadership intuition is no ordinary lens--it's a high-tech, extra powerful zoom lens. One minute you take a close-up view. The next minute you go wide, thinking about trends in your industry and the world at large, and applying those trends to the specific resources and challenges in your organization. When people are with you, they too sense a wider view, and this is exciting. Is it any wonder that people like to follow this type of leader?

A great leader does not just use intuition to look outside at other people, trends and resources. A great leader directs the same clear-eyed vision to themselves and acts with conviction when change is needed.

These qualities are particularly useful in the difficult moments. With leadership intuition, comes creative approaches to solving roadblocks and conflict. Problems are just the flip side of opportunities to a person who looks at the world through a leadership lens.

Nurturing leadership intuition

Some people seem to be born with leadership intuition. From pre-school onward, they naturally attract others to their leadership abilities.

Other people need to nurture their leadership potential. A good place to start is to learn about the intuition you already have. Use the Call to Action below to explore how you already use intuition in your life. Once you know how to recognize the intuition you have, you can apply it to leadership.

An essential part of leadership intuition is being able to accurately read people. You need to be able to sense their possible state of mind so that you can find out more. The good news is that this is an ability anyone can nurture in themselves. For ideas, check out the sidebar on How to Nurture Your Ability to Read People.

It's all about how you think. Shift your thinking towards leadership and your intuition will be sure to follow. As Albert Einstein said, "The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift."

Don't get so involved in the rocks you fail to notice the motorcycle.

Call to Action:

1. Identify your area of greatest strength.
2. Participate in that talent.
3. Pay attention to the natural expression of your intuition when you use your strength. You'll know it when it happens, that gut feeling of certainty before the evidence has been found.
4. Take that same attitude to leadership.

It starts with you. You've got this!
Your friends,
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