How to Know if You Can Trust Your Gut Instinct as a Leader
4. Ask yourself, “Five years from now, what will I wish I had done?”
OK, that’s a lot of verb tenses in one question, but I love this question.
This has become one of my favorite questions to ask when I don’t know what I should do or what our team should do.
It’s a particularly helpful question for leaders who overthink issues. It’s easy to get into a state of paralysis of analysis when you have multiple voices weighing into a conversation or when you’ve been thinking about something for a long time.
So just ask yourself … ”Five years from now, what will I wish I had done?”
Often, asking that question clears away the fog and you know, you just know, what you’ll wish you would have done.
Asking that question has led me to make some life changing decisions about everything from diet and exercise, to starting new things, to staying at something longer than I wanted to. I love that question so much, I spent an entire post unpacking it here.
So, when in doubt, ask yourself, “Five years from now, what will I wish I had done?”
5. What are other people’s gut instincts?
Sometimes you get so far into a meeting or series of meetings on an issue that people are drowning in confusion. You can barely remember what you were talking about.
As a leader, that’s a great opportunity.
Here’s what you can do: Reframe the question as clearly as you can state it and then say:
“I know we’ve talked about this a lot, but what’s your gut instinct: do it or not do it? Everyone weigh in, one by one. One word answer only: yes or no.”
Then go around the room and get everyone to answer ‘yes’ or ‘no.’
Sometimes I’ll go back around and ask for a one-sentence reason why they answered yes or no. Just one sentence. Not a paragraph. Not an essay.
I’ll look for something as simple as, “I say yes, because if we don’t do it, who will?”
And that’s it.
This can be tremendously clarifying. And it can cut through hours/days of discussion, considerations and meetings with surprising efficiency.
If most people’s gut reactions line up in the same direction (and they’re consistent with scripture), that can be a great sign.
And if you’re wrong, at least you were wrong together.
