Friday 30 July 2010

Lead by intuition

Chris Blackhurst (Evening Standard) says we need more ‘people who intuitively realise what is required of them, who connect naturally with customers, staff and yes, shareholders’. I couldn’t agree more. He also says you won’t learn this stuff through an MBA ‘They did not manage by machine, where personality is extinguished. They weren't armed with MBAs. They ran their companies by feel and touch. If it seemed right to them, they did it; if not, they didn't. There wasn't the appliance of management science we see today’.

Fantastic, someone shouting out that MBA’s and other formal business, management and leadership education isn’t the answer. It just doesn’t prepare leaders for the kind of complex challenges they have to face so often. We’ve been trying for years to get this idea across, but it’s tough. Some people feel you can’t learn this kind of intuitive leadership, but I think you can. You need support, you need to have some experience of it, sometimes you need to discover this intuition and sometimes you need to nurture it, but it can be done.

Take a look at this piece in European CEO for a bit more on this ….