Questioning — while trusting my gut.
There’s a delicate, fine line between trusting your intuition (i.e. your “gut”) — fully and completely — while also questioning your actions + decisions. I think entrepreneurs, innovators, and creative thinkers are constantly in this space.
What’s the balance, though? How much do you question and how much do you take action without thinking?
I’ve been reading Adam Grant’s book, Think Again, and I find this topic so entrancing. It shows this sweet spot while also showing the importance of questioning why we think the way we do, what we know and don’t know, and how we can think more like a scientist — instead of preacher, prosecutor, and politician. Grant talks about the founder of BlackBerry and how he got lost in his way of thinking (not wanting the touchscreen, email was the way, not texting, etc), leading to the downfall of their mobile device when the iPhone came to the market. Grant also shares how opposed Steve Jobs was to the mobile market, but eventually let his team experiment to see if this was a viable market. It was. Now it’s half of their entire revenue stream year after year.
As a People leader, focused on employee experience + success via partnering with managers and other leaders, there’s a lot of attention on “getting it right” in the world of HR. I’m also a creative thinker, creating and writing songs + music outside of my day job. With so many of our work environments changing (and incredibly fast), it requires us as leaders to constantly think, act, think again, act again, and so on.
When I was moving into a leadership role, I was amazed at how often “this is how it’s always been done” was said to me, especially in HR. Eventually, I thought, “but is it done well?” Are those we’re looking to advice from doing it the way we think is the right way? What is the right way after all?
What I know about myself:
- I’m a dreamer + a futurist. I like to think about the “what ifs” and what’s possible in our futures, whether we do something different or stay the same.
- I’m an intuitive thinker. I may not be able to explain my thinking or why I think something; it’s an intuitive experience and there are sometimes no words to describe what I know to be true. I’ll try, but often, I’ve found other ways to communicate.
- I’m an experienced beginner. I’ve pivoted a lot in my career, life, and I know how to start something new. I’ve been an imposter a lot in my decades on Earth, and now I’ve gotten cozy with being the imposter in anything new I’m doing. Where I’ve been a beginner: being a manager, recording music, building a mobile app, building + running recruiting, managing customer contracts, running a Delaware C-corp, buying a house, etc.
What I don’t know:
- A lot. I may seem like I know what something means, how it works, what it does, but in fact, I don’t. I’m often going with it and seeing how far I’ll go.
- I don’t know how to build or work on my car. I don’t know how to run a farm (but I’d love to!). I don’t know much about planting trees even though I try.
- If my decisions have actually been right. I’ll never know for sure; but I do know they’re in the past and I can’t do anything to change them.
Based on what I know about me, I know I have to make “gut” decisions, trusting my intuition. I’m ruled by my creative force, which is entirely intuitive, and I often need to not think about it (easier said than done, though). If I let myself think about it for too long, I’ll get lost.
Once I make a decision, I also have to give myself the time + space to re-think. This can either be shortly after or maybe weeks/months later. If I don’t carve out this reflection time, I’ll never learn if it was right or not. It’s impossible to know if it was truly the right or wrong decision; no one will ever know because each decision we make alters our paths. We change in whatever small or big ways with everything we do. All I know is what feels good and right for me.
Even not making a decision or choice — getting stuck in think mode — changes our paths. We all have our ways of making decisions, and we must trust the way that works best for us.
If it does feel “wrong” for me, a pivot or alteration is needed. If I wait too long, the path becomes more difficult than it should’ve been. This is what trusting your gut requires — questioning after, making the change, and continuing on. Decisions will never go away or stop; there’s plenty on the next leg of any journey.
Unfortunately, we live in a world where we have to stay staunchly firm in what we know to be true, or else we’ll be seen as unsure, a flip-flopper, or that we’re not “smart.” Confidence can only get us so far, and even then, too much confidence can plague us far more than what we hold onto in our knowing.
Our future needs us to remain open, flexible, and re-thinking when new information is made available. The future will benefit from us making decisions and wondering “but what if…” to see if there’s something better instead. Re-thinking allows us to learn from our decisions so we have more to work from the next time.
It’s the same notion we take in startups — we run lean, we pivot, we retro, we are curious to see what else is out there. We’re successful when we don’t stay firm — look at Apple with the iPhone — because life is continuously changing. Being adaptable means re-thinking and letting go of what no longer works to find what does.
Imagine if more people could understand what they know, what they don’t know, and why. We’d be all the better for it, and maybe we’d celebrate the unknowing that is needed for us to collectively move forward.
