October 2009

Mind Reading 101 for Leaders: 5 - Obey Your Instincts

October 19, 2009 - 23:03 -- Dr. Ada
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Listen to our Intuition to Make the Best Decisions. Last 10 years research in neurobiology seems to say that harnessing one's instincts and intuition helps leaders make better decisions.

Have there been times where you made decisions without thinking, decisions that might have seemed illogical, or even irrational at the time but that turned out to be not only the right ones, but life-altering? Have you ever hired someone with impeccable credentials, knowing deep down that the candidate wasn't right for the position or the organization, only to find out the hard way that by ignoring your instincts and hiring the individual you wasted time and money?

Tapping into that visceral reservoir known as intuition can be particularly difficult for leaders, whose analytical, logical minds are wired to rely on “hard” data to make decisions. But learning to harness one's instincts and intuition helps individuals make better decisions in all areas of their lives, personal and professional, says Karol Ward, a psychotherapist and author of Find Your Inner Voice: Using Instinct and Intuition Through the Body-Mind Connection.

Mind Reading 101 for Leaders: 4 - Confront your Challenges

October 5, 2009 - 20:38 -- Dr. Ada
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A few weeks back we talked about the importance for leaders to deal with reality. Dealing with reality includes not only acknowledging what is real, but confronting your challenges. Together with the courage to interrogate reality comes the courage to confront your most difficult and often recurring personal and professional issues. That is what we are going to talk about today.

One of the complaints I often hear from the leaders I work with is that they are dealing with some challenge that is taking more and more of their time without being resolved. When I start inquiring, most of the time the reason it has not been solved is because the leader is afraid to confront the problem head on for all kinds of “reasons:” “I’m too busy,” “I don’t want to loose her,” “He can be cruel,” “I don’t want to bring unnecessary panic,” “I don’t know what to do,” “I have tried before and nothing works,” etc. etc. etc.