George Koukis Speaks Personally on
the Unexpected and Often Unimaginable Influence of Intuition

I have spoken often of the power of that strong internal feeling that guides a leader to choose one path over another—in my case often choosing a path that was in direct contradiction to what others felt I should do. I am certain that examples of this phenomenon—what we will call here “intuition” or “instinct”—fill every business story I recount, for example, those in the section on why great leaders must be non-conformists and follow their own path.

To better illustrate this concept, I would like to introduce a book many will already be familiar with, Malcolm Gladwell’s “Blink.” The subtitle for the book is “the power of thinking without thinking,” which relates closely to our discussion here on “intuition” or “instinct.”

In the book he tells a story that relates, at least to some degree, to me my homeland of Greece. In this story—which is true and well documented—what we are calling here “intuition” (rather than science or data) is credited with revealing as a forgery a marble “kouros” statue said to be from the 6th century BC that had been sold to the J. Paul Getty Museum in California for $10 million. By way of explanation, kouros statues of ancient Greece depicted a non-specific nude youth intended to represent or symbolize the “idea” of youth.

So in this story, the Getty Museum—which also has an educational center dedicated to the study of the arts and cultures of ancient Greece, Rome, and Etruria—decides to buy the statue after two years of painstaking work to authenticate it by means of scientific methods and data. For example, there was extensive legal documentation on its provenance, and scientific review that included examinations of the statue’s surface under high-resolution stereo microscope and the statue’s core, using electron microscope, electron microprobe, mass spectrometry, x-ray diffraction, and x-ray fluorescence. Expert after scientific expert examined the data on individual aspects of the statue, and each independently reached the conclusion that the statue was authentic.

Then the statue goes on display, and suddenly highly-respected authorities in art and sculpture begin to question it. They are not pointing to a data point when they question it; rather, they all are saying in one way or another that “it just doesn’t look quite right.”

A famous Italian art historian felt something amiss when he looked at the statue’s fingernails. Then the world’s leading expert on Greek sculpture saw it unveiled and instantly said that she hoped the Getty had not yet purchased the piece. Then the former director of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art saw the sculpture and said the word that came to his mind was “fresh”—which of course was not at all an appropriate term to describe a two thousand year old statue—he counseled the Getty to try to get their money back.

Finally the Getty shipped the statue all the way to its supposed homeland in Greece to be evaluated by that country’s leading art experts. The head of Athens’ Archaeological Society said when he first saw the statue he “immediately felt cold.” He was followed by the head of Athens’ Benaki Museum who noted something felt wrong about the sculpture’s style based on the source location of the marble from which it was carved. He stated—not very diplomatically—that he felt an “intuitive repulsion” upon seeing it.

For our purposes in a discussion of the power of intuition, this story—and so many others like it—reveal what we do not normally assume. That is, in some situations there is science and data and logic on the one side to support a viewpoint or a course of action—and generally there is great agreement that the “data-driven” decision is the right one.

Yet there are also times when we as leaders just “know” with certainty that another decision or course of action is the right one. We may not be able to fully articulate the source of this feeling; yet, like the art experts in the kouros story, we know with every fiber of our being the right answer—and we know it—as they did—long before the original data we were presented is discredited or found to be lacking on some way.

This power—which can seems almost magical in its appearance and clarity—is something I have allowed to guide me through some of the most important decisions of my life—and without fail it has pointed me to the “right way.” This is why, as ethical leaders, we must learn to “hear” and discern truth from our intuition, and also to cultivate the principles and character qualities that make it more powerful.

 Practical Application for Ethical Leadership

Demystifying Intuition—When to Lead with 'Feeling' over Data

Call it what you will, the concept of “intuition” pervades many of history’s most unexpected and glorious tales. From mundane decisions to unimaginable successes, this seemingly irrational asset is credited as an almost magical power for any who are able to access it. But what are we really talking about when we attribute decisions we make to the influence of intuition—that “feeling” wherein we just “know” the answer?

Described as the ability to access information or knowledge without the use of contemplation or reason, intuition has been the subject of much debate and interest over the ages—after all, if we are able to discern the right answer without obvious logic or tangible proof of our work, or identify the fraud among authentic works of art without resorting to complex technical tests and calculations, wouldn’t we want to engage this internal superpower?

This question underscores an aspect of what is commonly termed “intuition” that deserves comment from the start: that when we talk about the influence of intuition or instinct as something business leaders should be attuned to, we’re not talking about basing decisions on random and arbitrary feelings that might hit you at any given time.

What we are talking about, rather, is the combination of elements that can lead the ethically-grounded and internally aware leaders to powerfully “see” or “feel” important signals others do not, enabling them to make decisions that may appear irrational but result in success.

Many scientists suggest that what we call intuition is actually the brain’s ability to engage in an extremely sophisticated form of unconscious pattern recognition.

So when examining decisions that feel “instinctive” yet may have no seemingly logical source or explanation, they would say the phenomenon is the result of the adaptive unconscious portion of the brain acting as a sort of personal supercomputer.

At these moments, they suggest, we are using something akin to an algorithm to almost instantaneously compare a pattern or set of patterns we see before us with a vast subconscious library of other, similar patterns, and making lightning-fast determinations about characteristics such as authenticity, value, or credibility.

As it turns out, these instantaneous determinations are remarkably accurate
despite their apparent lack of evidentiary data and deliberation.

So in today’s business landscape, “intuition” is credited in situations in which a seemingly instinctive decision is reached—without what we would consider to be logical inputs—where that decision leads to success. Deviating for a moment from the hard science, consider two hypotheses that may prove valuable for us as business leaders:

  • If “correct” or “accurate” intuition results from the brain instinctively comparing a current pattern or set of patterns against past patterns, then developing and increasing our internal “library” of patterns (on a certain topic or area) should result in an increased ability to correctly “intuit.”

  • If common wisdom favors evidence-based decisions made exclusively by the logical brain, then we must as leaders be sufficiently aware of and open to the additional layers of accurate decision-making capability that can be afforded by the well-schooled instinctive brain. In other words, we must be able to “hear” the voice of the instinctive brain amid the myriad flavors of “noise” that surround us.

As to the first hypothesis, it stands to reason that there is some connection between our quest for continual learning and excellence in our craft and our ability to move in the right direction through intuition. As we consider the almost endless subconscious library of information each of us brings to the decision-making table, the more astute business leader will have honed his craft more diligently and better perfected his skills in his areas of expertise—broadening and deepening his “library” of background data and patterns.

As the Greek art experts demonstrated, this pursuit of knowledge and excellence in our field should allow us not only to leverage greater logical assets to make decisions, but also enable us to take advantage of the immense power at work instinctively in our subconscious to “feel” whether a seemingly logical decision is fully sound or has hidden minefields that cause an almost visceral tension or concern.

The takeaways for today’s new breed of ethical business leader? (1) Two brains are better than one when it comes to complex decision making and (2) The value of constant, authentic diligence in the pursuit of excellence in one’s craft cannot be overstated when the goal is to nurture effective intuition.

As to the second hypothesis, it’s no secret that in business, it’s the rational and logical mind that typically dominates—more data plus more time deliberating should result in a better decision as an outcome. We arrive at meetings armed with spreadsheets, budget reports, customer reviews, databases, and documents filled to the brim with facts, analyses, forecasts, and statistics telling us where to put our dollars, how to direct our employees, and which products to pitch next.

Innovations in machine learning—while innovative and incredible—presage further removal of the human element from the equation. In fact, unless great change is on the horizon, we’ll fairly soon be able to reduce many logical company decisions to data output by a gadget much sleeker, brighter, and faster-thinking than we could ever dream of being.

In an age of artificial intelligence and machine learning, what will become of our power of intuition?

The key will lie not in dismissing the value of facts and figures, logical thinking, or tools of technology. The key will lie in making sure that as much as our businesses invest in the latest devices and data, we’re equally committed to seeing that our employees become everything they are capable of being—that they are supported in becoming authentic masters of their craft, thinking for themselves, trusting their “instincts,” and challenging the status quo in environments that encourage such thoughts and behaviors as not only acceptable—but laudable.

The mandate for ethically-driven leaders will be to ensure that they are not only masters of their “craft,” or area of expertise, but that they are also sufficiently well grounded and firmly rooted in principle, values, and convictions that they are able to “feel,” among the data, debate, and distractions, the subconscious intuition directing them in one direction over another.

They will need to be able to identify what resonates with them internally and what does not in order to capture the value and magic of the influence of intuition.

Regardless of what we call it, “intuition” is a common thread seeking to explain unexplainable outcomes—the internal nudging toward what we not only think to be true, but in feeling it, know to be true, with a confidence so fierce that even the strongest forces of opposition cannot drown it out. And the result of following this nudging? It often leads to unprecedented reward, even if the action is not initially supported or even understood.

So as business leaders, what does all of this mean for us and for our teams? As we work to nurture the powerful influence of intuition in our own decisions, how do we also enable our teams to use this “sixth sense” as a powerful decision-making tool?

We must allow and advance ideas, thoughts, decisions, and actions that are aligned not only with knowledge, skills, and expertise, but also with the powerful intuitive sense of a well-informed and well-directed internal compass.

Letting intuition take a powerful role in our decisionmaking process doesn’t eliminate the presence of reason or mean we are abdicating our responsibility to fully examine the logical. These formidable forces are not, and should never be, mutually exclusive.

Rather, they should work in tandem, leading us to sounder choices that more fully resonate with us internally. Working together, they should leave us feeling integrated and peaceful, appreciated by even history’s most impressive logical and data-driven minds.

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"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."

—Albert Einstein