Recently I was researching the word "gut".
I couldn't find what I was looking for. I had always heard to follow my gut. To me it means to follow my instincts. Then I looked up "intuition". The Webster Dictionary definition for intuition is "instinctive knowing
(without the use of rational processes)".<

For me, my instincts, my antenna for opportunities is in my gut. I get agut feeling; I just know and it is never a rational process.Interestingly, I also know that to follow my gut, my instincts, I have to
have guts, the courage to follow through.

There are many, many times that I followed my instincts, as hard as thesituations looked, as much fear that I felt, I shrugged my shoulders andjust did it. The results were usually different than I expected, in a goodway.

So often common sense tells us that what we may want to do, say or ask fordoesn’t make any sense. But your gut, your intuition, tells you different – it is like this whispering voice in our mind, our heart and our gut that says “Go for it – trust me.”

Many times the message and your subsequent actions work out really well, other times maybe not so well.
It is when things don’t work out that people will say, “see it didn't work, I tried and I failed, I shouldn’t have done that”, and they stop listening to their gut. The next time they get a hunch their fear of failure (based on a one incident in the past) is so strong that they may
not take any action, so they stay stuck and don't get to experience success.

I love watching kids eight and younger trying new things.
Toddlers learning to walk, a young child learning to write, a kid learningto ride a bike...they don’t give up.It is as thought each moment of the experience is really important. Thereis an important piece to the puzzle that they have to learn or get beforethey can walk, write their name or ride a bike. Would you ever say to achild, “Wow, that is really scary, I wouldn’t try to walk if I were you,you will fall down and fail!”.To someone learning to write would you say, “Wow, what letter is that? Itis awful, give up, you’re a failure!” Would you tell a young child learning to ride a bike, “What a mess up, you can’t ride your bike the first time, what a loser.” You wouldn’t say any of those things. You would cheer the youngster on. “Come on, walk to me”, “What a great letter, that is the best ‘M’ I have ever seen.” Or “Look at you, peddle, peddle you can do this”.

Each one of these children has a gut feeling that they can accomplish their task and they are supposed to do this, even if they fail the first or second time. They know they are learning something that will help themachieve their goal.>

What happens to us when we become adults? We decided that common sense, following the rules someone else imposes on us, and being okay with average is good enough, even if our gut and sometimes our mind says that isn’t so. Sometimes it feels as though our gut and mind are screaming – "DON'T GIVE
UP!"

Often, common sense prevails and people ignore their gut for long periods
of time. They participate in behaviors that aren’t healthy or good for them.

I know I’ve done that.There were times when I ate more than my fair share, because I was nervous, scared, or fearful of the unknown. It takes willingness to change your thoughts, perceptions, and ideas about yourself, your life and your
potential. I learned that I had to retrain my thoughts and perceptions about my life. I had to learn to applaud myself, to ask for what I needed and wanted. I learned that I also had to be willing to change.

I started smoking cigarettes when I was 13. By the time I was 18 I was smoking 3 packs a day. I did that until I was 24, when I met the man who would eventually become my husband. He didn’t date smokers.
Until he told me that, it never occurred to me that I was limiting my opportunities by smoking.It just never dawned on me. It wasn’t until that day that I noticed that my clothing smelled, that my breath probably smelled and that I wasn’t presenting myself in the best
light. I stopped cold turkey – almost 27 years ago. Was it easy...absolutely not...was it worth it ... absolutely yes.I had to be willing to change.

Leadership is the same way.How many times have you read a leadership book, been inspired, declaredthat you were going to change, knew in your heart that it was the right
thing to do? As you began to implement the changes, challenges arose, did you give up? Most people do. You may have given up the process, using a multitude of excuses and rationale -- "It can’t work in this culture", "These people don’t get it" and "Why bother?"

Did you give up on yourself when you were learning to walk?
Think of all the activities and knowledge you have gained... did it come to you easily?

Leadership is not easy. It requires you to feel the fire in your belly, listen to your gut and do the next right thing, even if it is tough, rough and uncomfortable. Your gut knows what the right thing is to do.

It knows that you should acknowledge your staff, even if you are struggling with your own stuff.

Your gut knows that you have to ask questions of your staff, ask them for solutions, ask their advice even if you think you have all the answers. As a leader you are there to inspire and draw out their intellectual genius, because they too may have stopped listening to their gut. They too may have stopped growing because of fear, they too may have stopped coming up with solutions because it is hard.

As leaders we are the cheerleaders of our team, helping our staff master new skills, grow in confidence and cheering them on when they bring innovations to our organization.

So as leaders we have two roles:

1. Listen to our gut and have the courage to do what we know we must do.
   
2. Be the encourager of our teams, so that our individual members have the courage to listen to their gut and accomplish what they are capable of achieving.

Pegine Echevarria, MSW, copyrights all material on this site. Information from this site may be reprinted or quoted by members of the media, provided a specific credit to Pegine Echevarria, MSW is included.
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