00:08 Hi, I'm Denise Simpson, a master life and leadership coach who helps women step into their authentic and feminine power. So they can lead like visionaries influence with grace and create a legacy of contribution and service. You'll hear about real leadership clients with real problems, navigating their success in life, business, and career. If you're ready to become a masterful leader, then this podcast was made for you. So let's get started.
00:47 Welcome back leader. Happy you are here. My friend, we're gonna talk about your intuition today. It is such an important part of decision making that many, many leaders, especially my clients have neglected to use. And why is that? Why is this part of our minds and our bodies? This is what we call intuition. Why have we neglected this? Why have we put it aside? Why have we quieted down or lowered the volume of that small voice that we call intuition? A lot of us use intuition when we are walking down a dark alley. I mean, think about this. You are leaving the building and you are hauling as to your car. And there's something interesting that's happening in the body. Your brain is on alert and so is your nervous system. And you are checking in without you even knowing that you're doing this, you're checking in mind and body, and you're looking around.
01:53 It's like, it's a, it's an introspection inside of your body. And you're looking for danger. You're looking for something unusual. You are anticipating something, but you wanna be alert. And so your intuition may be guiding you down that dark alley or down that parking lot. And so that part of your mind in your body is one of the most important decision making properties that you already have. But here's, what's interesting. We have done such a great job of suppressing it, of quieting that voice of ignoring our gut responses to people, places, and things. Here's something very interesting. I had a very strong intuition about a person I was hiring as faculty. This was an, an individual on paper, had all the evidence that he needed to be in this program, teaching my students and that he was gonna be a great asset to my faculty.
03:08 The evidence on paper looked very clear to me. So I had my administrative assistant call him and tell him, come on in. We have an opportunity for an interview, come and meet, uh, Dr. Simpson. She'd love to, to get to know you, um, meet us at this time. So he shows up he's prompt. He looked at the part, he looked like a professor. He looked like someone that could fit into my program and thought, you know, he, he fits the mold. It wasn't until I started talking to him that I realized something is not right. And my logical brain couldn't pinpoint this. Why? Because I had already had a bias of the type of faculty member. I was looking for the evidence that I needed to see on paper and whether he was gonna be a good impact, a good asset and provide quality instruction in my program, all based on what my brain thought it needed, right?
04:16 It needed to see this on paper and it needed to see this person physically, but it wasn't until I sat down with him that something in my gut, and this is the only way I can describe it. Something in my solar plexes said, this is interesting. And I don't know what I'm exactly feeling, but something is not right about this person. Now, listen, your logical brain is saying, uh, yeah, he's the one. Get him in here as fast as you can. He's available. And he's interested in working for me and my students. This is the dude let's go. And I was actually in a rush to hire someone. So my logical brain was even more biased in getting him in the door, getting him hired and processed through HR, and then have him start very quickly in the program. So I was already running on a lot of bias.
05:18 I was looking for confirmation bias. I was looking for why he could fit the mold or why he fit the mold, why he was a perfect mold to fit into my program. Honestly, the brain has a list of things that it checks off automatically and immediately. And that's exactly what I had done, but it wasn't until I interviewed him that I realized so not right. And here's, what's interesting. A lot of female leaders disregard that part of their, of their signals. They disregard that part of their voice, this, the small voice in the back of their mind saying, don't do that. He shouldn't be here. Don't hire this person. Something's not right. We've done such an interesting job in suppressing that and quieting that part of our, of our systems. And we'll talk about why that is in just a minute. Let me finish. However, my story here after that interview, I was debating whether to send him into the second round that second round includes a committee. It includes faculty. It includes a program director, so that I'm not the only one making this decision.
06:36 I convinced myself that, that emotion, that gut feeling or whatever it was that I couldn't quite describe. I convinced myself that I was having a bad day. I was completely off. I gaslighted myself. I said, girl, you don't even know what you're doing. Just be quiet. Let the experts come in and have a second round with him. I chalked it off to, I didn't get enough sleep. Maybe I read through his energy very differently. Maybe I'm just completely off. It's important that we get other people in the room because I'm probably wrong about him. I convinced myself that he needed a second interview with the panel. And so I made that decision and I told my admin administrative assistant, let's get, gather the committee. We need to do this quickly. And I'm glad that something intercepted. And I don't know if we call it the universe.
07:40 I don't know if we call it source. I don't know if somebody was guiding me. If something was guiding me, an entity was guiding me, but something had happened in the program that I had to attend to. So I had to put the committee on the back burner, but we had already agreed. I had already convinced myself and I had already made plans to move him into the second phase. But there was a weak time period. There was a weak lapse where I had to urgently take care of some things within the program. And during that time period, I received very interesting news about this individual. So that's why I don't, I don't know if it was the universe, God, mother, Mary, something, some entity really looking over us in this department. Me and my, my students and my, my employees, because the information that we received was private confidential information from someone who was involved firsthand in an incident with this person a few years before there was an accusation that was made towards this individual and the police were involved, the university was involved.
09:02 And what was interesting is that they could not charge. This said person, this person that I was about to interview a second time, there was no case in regards to what was accused, what somebody accused him of doing there in the workplace. There were no cameras. There was no evidence. It was, she said, he said, and this information got to us in the exact time that I needed to hear this. Now, listen, there was no evidence. So there was, again, my rational brain saying, you see, he's innocent, whatever that was was in the past. You know, we can't use this as a reason to not hire him. There's no record of, of criminal wrongdoing. He did not do anything according to the courts and according to the law. So there, again, my rational brain was saying, let's move forward. Let's move forward. But something inside of me said, I don't think so.
10:09 There was restraint. There was resistance. It was, it was loud. The voice was getting louder and louder in my brain. And in my body, the emotion of discomfort of, of almost unsafe. It was a feeling of insecurity. It was a feeling of, of survival. It was a feeling of fear. There was anxiety that was coming up just so much came up that my intuition could not stay quiet anymore. It overrode my logical thinking. And I'm glad it did because here's what was interesting. A few days after that information got to my department and I, I really had to trust this decision. I had to have my own back. Like I had never had it before. This was a moment where I had to tell my rational logical brain to just quiet down. Okay. So we've got the bias. I got the confirmation bias that here's the evidence he should be in my program.
11:18 He has stellar recommendations. This person belongs here. There's nothing wrong. There's not, he's not charged of any wrongdoing. He should be here. I told my logical brain, listen, you've presented a very good case to hire this person, but my body is telling me otherwise. So I'm gonna give that part of my body and my mind equal air time. So I shelved the logical brain and I left it there. I said, I'll be back. Don't you worry, I need you. But this is something I cannot ignore. The actual feelings that I felt, the emotions that I felt in my body when he was sitting in front of me. And I have to tell you to this day, I can't tell you what exactly it was. I don't know if he looked at me a certain way. I don't know if he looked at me cross-eyed or he looked at me up and down, but it was the energy that he came to, that, that interview with, and my whole body screaming at me saying, get out of the room.
12:22 And a lot of us women neglect that gut decision maker in us, that gut alarm, sometimes it is blaring and sometimes it is a soft whisper. Get out. Now don't go down that hall. Don't talk to that person. Just keep walking. Right? Sometimes it's really faint where it's just a weird sensation. You're like, Ooh, that person just didn't feel right. Interesting. And then you ignore it. Cuz the world is so fast. You, as a leader, you've got fires to put out, you've got problems to solve. So we're always using that logical part of our minds. And we're neglecting the intuition part that is equally and sometimes even more important than that logical brain and the intuition is really a combination. I like to think of all of your wisdom, all of your ex life experiences, everything that you've been challenged with, everything that you've celebrated, all of your life gatherings is part of this signal. It's part of this internal guidance system. But so many of us are disconnected from our own bodies and our own emotional system that we have neglected ourselves. We are just running on the prefrontal cortex or at least that's what we think we are we're doing. But when that intuition gets a hold of something that just doesn't feel right, you cannot ignore it. It could save your life.
14:01 Now what happened to that individual was he did not get a second interview. After all this information was shared with the panel. And I called a meeting to discuss whether we were going formalize the second interview. And it wasn't just me who felt uncomfortable just by listening to what was shared about his AC, the accusations, right? All the information that was told to us. Again, timing was interesting. The players that were involved, I don't call this a coincidence. It landed in our laps when, when it was most important. And since this moment, since that moment, I never ever denied that voice in my head, that small voice that intuition, the gut, feel the hair raising on the back of my neck. Sometimes I get goosebumps. Sometimes my spine just tingles. There's something awry here. Something unusual that my logical brain is trying to rationalize by gas, lighting me or by telling me that I'm crazy, right?
15:20 Or that here's the evidence trying to shut that part of my mind and body that is equally important to decision making. I share this story with you because I thought about this exact situation. When a client was looking to hire an individual and their HR department found some interesting things on their social media platform. Now during hiring, you're not usually asked, what are your social media handles? Like, give me your account handle on Instagram or LinkedIn, LinkedIn. It's, it's, it's a standard. We, we like to keep things professional there, but on Instagram and Facebook and talk and Snapchat it's, you know, it's, it's, it's your personal life. And some interesting things were found in that person's personal account. And so HR went digging and I don't know if that was fair to the applicant. I don't know if that's right. I, I, my body says it's not my gut says it's not, but, but we cannot deny that part of our bodies anymore as leaders, right?
16:39 If you're feeling something unusual and this is what happened was with this client, they showed her some interesting things, pictures of this person. And immediately she felt that they were not safe to work with that. They would not be a good asset based on personal decisions they had made. And so she followed her intuition. And I have to honor that even though I may not necessarily agree with what HR did, but this could have saved some future problems could have saved the physical safety of the team and that organization. There's no telling no telling what could have happened. And that's the decision I made in my case was there's no telling what can happen in the future. There's smoke. And sometimes , there's a big burning fire that our logical brain likes to turn away from. And so I made the decision with the committee that we would not move forward.
17:46 And I had to do the explaining and I was fine doing that. I was fine doing that. I said, we came across some information. And at this time we will not be considering your application and maybe in the future, we'll see if that changes and trust me, that wasn't, that did not sit well with this person. It did not. It, it went all over the place after that but there was no telling what could have happened. If he was hired. There was no telling if one of my students would've been subjected to something very dangerous. There is no telling how this was going to impact those of us. The panel who knew that other, that information, we didn't, we had no idea how that was going to affect us in the long run. And I, as a leader, had to make the decision, not only the rational one, but also not neglecting the intuition part of that decision.
18:56 I needed to bring it in and I needed for others to also talk about how they were feeling and thinking about that information they received. So the committee and I moved forward with just eliminating that opportunity for this person, but that intuition your intuition, my friend is that small voice is that gut feeling do not deny it. And the reason why we have denied it is because the culture of leadership has said that emotions do not belong in the boardroom and that you should never have feelings about your employees and that you should never take any of this personally. And that you should treat your employees like the robots that they are that's bullshit. This is why we, women in leadership have neglected that part of ourselves because of the culture of leadership, denying us the opportunity to use that very important part of our mind and bodies called intuition.
20:10 And there there's plenty of research. My friend, I'm not even gonna bullshit you here. There's so much fucking research out here that shows that intuition is what makes a lot of us leaders successful. Ask a lot of corporate men, corporate executives, they say, oh, that that just didn't feel right. It was a, it was just a gut ex gut feeling. So we asked it and for those of us on the other going, what do you mean? Uh, the evidence shows this is gonna be a success in the market. How can you this? Well, just years of experience and I follow my gut. Oh great. You can follow your gut, but the rest of us, can't no bullshit. This is part of your competitive advantage. My friend is using that intuition trust that your life experiences, trust that your mind and your neurology and your nervous system is on board.
21:04 And yes, including your unconscious mind, it is all on board to help you make decisions. So the last thing I will leave you with is this practical strategy that you can do every day to tap into your intuition. It is taking 10 minutes of your time before you get started on your emails and putting out the fires, it could be in your car before you enter the building. It could be at your desk with a blank screen and just sit there. And I want for you to settle into your body. I want you to ground your body. I want you to connect with your tissues, with your muscles, with your joints, with your cells and your body. And you do that through imagination. You do that through your mind's eye. You close your eyes. If that's helpful and you settle in and you can picture a guiding golden light, just coming from the top of your head, down into your entire body and out your feet and just let it warm your body.
22:16 That way the, the logical brain has something to focus on. Okay? That's how we're gonna please that part of our brains. We're gonna imagine that light, golden light going down from the top of your head, down to your feet, into the earth. So the logical brain says, okay, great. I have something to do. Good. Keep it occupied that way. Your intuition brain, that part of your brain that wants to help you make decisions comes through. Cuz when you quiet that logical brain, when you have it, do something, that's not calculating math, that's not putting out fires. It's doing something at the same time, pleasing your neurology and your nervous system. It is occupied and your intuition can come through 15 minutes, max, 10 minutes minimum and just sit there. Okay? I want for you to connect to your body. Cause when you start connecting to your body, you'll start connecting to your, to your emotions because your emotions are a physi physiological output of all the neurochemicals that your thoughts are having.
23:31 And so when we neglect our emotions, we're neglecting our intuition. All right, my friend, I know this was pretty heavy, but I wanted to share this with you because this could save your team. It could save your psychological and your physical safety. It could save you my friend in your leadership. Don't deny this part of your decision making process. Yes. Use your, your beautiful logical brilliant rational brain. Listen, I am a researcher. I use evidence every day to make decisions, but I will never, ever, ever neglect the intuition that is as important. Maybe even more than that rational brain of yours, reach out over an IG, DM me and Dr. Denise Simpson. Let me know what your thoughts are on your intuition as a very important part of your decision making process. Take good care of my friend. I'll catch you on the next episode.
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