How Inner Voice and Leadership Combine to Produce Better Decisions
We call it a sixth sense, gut feel, intuition or instinct. Are our minds attuned to hear this inner voice? More importantly, do we pay attention and listen to it?
In moments of reflection, we may recall advice from someone far removed from our decision: “I don’t know. What does your gut say?” We do not easily acknowledge the validity of that guidance. Yet our inner voice, in its apparent silence, does offer direction. Its soundness may surpass much of the professional opinion, data and research we pore over.
What Is an Inner Voice and How Does It Manifest?
Psychologists and cognitive scientists view intuition as a rigorous mental process, albeit one in subliminal form. Our brains make associations between the current problem and our memory bank of experiences, observations and information.
It is misleading to believe intuition sits separate from reason. Thoughts have been germinating in our subconscious mind all along. These may seem random because we have been unaware of the process. Tel Aviv University professor Marius Usher believes intuition is an integration of extra-sensory and rational processes. It is a fusion of the connection of scattered dots and big data brain functions.
The combination leads to better decisions. The subjects in Usher’s study, using only their instincts, made the right decisions up to 90% of the time.
What is astonishing is how this contrasts with the performance of experts. As specialists in their field, experts are highly trained, experienced and supremely smart. But in The Black Swan, Nassim Taleb distils the outcome of studies proving that their predictions are only fractionally better than random guessing. Immersed in specialist expertise, they are overwhelmed by their professional subject. They have shut down their inner voice.
“The human brain has an inherent ability to find the best solution, lightning fast.”
What’s astonishing is how this contrasts with the performance of experts. As specialists in their field, experts are highly trained, experienced, and supremely smart. But, in The Black Swan, Nassim Taleb distils the outcome of studies proving that their predictions are only fractionally better than random guessing. Immersed in specialist expertise, they are drowned by their professional subject. Perhaps a better way to put this is that they are intuitively weak. They have shut down their inner voice.
The Biological Basis Behind the Power of Intuition
The shape of Homo sapiens’ cognitive powers formed somewhere between 40,000 and 200,000 years ago. Our minds have fused an analytical gearing with an inarticulate sensibility shaped by spirituality accumulated over eons.
Richard Dawkins observes in his seminal book The Selfish Gene: “When a man throws a ball high in the air and catches it again, he behaves as if he had solved a set of differential equations in predicting the trajectory of the ball. He may neither know nor care what a differential equation is, but this does not affect his skill with the ball. At some subconscious level, something functionally equivalent to the mathematical calculations is going on.”
If our minds can solve differential equations in an instant, then subconscious analysis is surely at work in resolving other problems too. In survival situations and crises, gut feelings can become guardian angels. Time and again in great survival stories, the inner voice has served as a guiding light to safety.
In 1972 a Small Aircraft Crashed in the Andes: Inner Voice as a Survival Tool
Many of the Uruguayan rugby team and their family and friends on board perished. Miraculously, 33 people initially survived. For 72 days, their survival instincts faced tests beyond imagination. Beyond hope. Beyond belief.
In the end, 16 people returned home. This was thanks to the courage, fortitude, mental strength and wisdom of two men in particular. Nando Parrado and Roberto Canessa traversed extreme, frozen and hostile mountain terrain without equipment for ten days to reach civilisation.
More than the body, theirs is a story of the power of the mind. Nando captures it poignantly in his book Miracle in the Andes. When he woke from his coma a few days after the crash, his first thoughts were to heed an inner voice telling him not to cry. “Tears waste salt. You will need salt to survive.” Then the voice again, explaining how to respond to the deaths of his family and many friends: “They are all gone. They are all part of your past.”
“Don’t waste energy on things you can’t control. Look forward. Think clearly. You will survive.”
In Normal Life, It Is Easier and More Comfortable to Ignore Intuitive Triggers
Physically, we default to an innate stasis. It counterbalances what we may sense as a pull towards action. Our minds work the same way with thoughts.
Distinguished Jungian professor and psychologist James Hollis is concerned that modernity is causing us to lose touch with our souls. In conforming to society’s expectations and conditioning ourselves against pressures, we gradually become numb to our inner voice. This separation, he believes, is “the problem of our time.”
Intuition and inner voice should not be confused with impulse, or the fight-freeze-or-flight response. That is an instantaneous reaction to danger. In decision-making terms, impulsiveness carries a degree of recklessness. It is prone to all sorts of skews, including the biases of availability, confirmation and recency, or influences like the bandwagon and halo effects.
Our inner dialogue, by contrast, is a questioning process. Although sometimes burdened with self-doubt, it is an inner guidance system towards better outcomes.
We Routinely Doubt Our Inner Voice Because We Crave Certainty
Certainty seizes us more than truth does. Loud, confident assertion captures attention ahead of thoughtful consideration.
Without the supposed reassurance of data or rationale, we feel something is missing. Trusting our judgement requires belief. And without certainty, we also seek affirmation from others as a kind of security blanket.
The duality of human nature is at work here. Sometimes we feel fearful. Our instinct tells us to keep asking questions, to press pause on the decision. But paradoxically, we may then ignore our intuition by racing ahead anyway.
Our uncertainty becomes a trap precisely because we struggle to accept vulnerability and trust our ability to forge a path through difficulty.
High-Performing Leaders Cultivate a Keen Perception of Their Inner Voice
"If our intuition, gut feel and inner musings are valuable, how do we shape and nurture them?"
More specifically, how do we know when to trust their accuracy, or recognise when they may represent a false signal?
This is not as difficult as it sounds.
Find a way to be still. An openness to finding the voice is the first step to being able to hear it. This is particularly important in times of stress or high emotion. For some, this involves quietude and serenity, a form of mindfulness or meditation. For others, it requires intense concentration. In a crowded, cluttered modern world, we hear ourselves better when we put distractions aside. Make time to think. Make time to be quiet.
Look for inspiration. Reading the wisdom of others can unlock neural pathways. If you are wary of self-help books, rich guidance exists in great literature such as Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, or Do Not Say We Have Nothing, a 2016 Booker Prize finalist by Madeleine Thien. Consider this from The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho:
“…intuition is really a sudden immersion of the soul into the universal current of life, where the histories of all people are connected, and we are able to know everything, because it’s all written there.”
If you are a person of faith, you may find guidance in religious texts or the power of prayer. Prayer is often described as powerful because its process and intent align naturally with finding that inner voice.
Exercise the ability. Once you have awakened to your inner voice, hearing it resembles building a muscle. Like deliberate practice, the more it is developed, the easier it becomes to access.
Externalise. Intuition is a guide rope. While we can flex the cord and tighten the strands, no guide is ever without room for improvement.
Let go of the demand for certainty. One of the mindset shifts this process requires is accepting that very few issues can ever be reduced to a black-and-white outcome.
Implications for Business, Leadership and Decision-Making in South Africa
Especially in times of crisis, chief executives need to think differently about managing adversity. Those who use emotion and intuition alongside practical rationalisation and data achieve better results. This more humanly holistic leadership style drives collaboration and nurtures creativity, producing a virtuous circle of high performance.
One of the clearest recent examples of the benefits of intuitive thinking in business is Paul Polman, who retired as chief executive of Unilever in 2018. He was named CEO in 2009, at the harshest point of the 2008 financial crisis. Unilever faced daunting challenges to its brand strengths, revenues, profits and share price.
His appointment was expected to produce tightened strategies, slashed expenditures, brand sell-offs, factory closures and workforce cuts.
Instead, he shocked the business world by launching a radical sustainability initiative as the new mission and heartbeat of the company. Unilever’s Sustainable Living Plan was to be its reason for being. Not revenues, margins or profits. Polman saw these as flowing naturally from his vision of Unilever as a human-centric company that would prioritise advancing the health and well-being of the billions of people who used its products.
He also announced the cessation of Unilever’s quarterly financial reports, believing these harnessed the company to short-term thinking. The immediate effect was an 8% fall in Unilever’s share price. But he persevered and inspired the company to embark on a genuinely transformational journey. By the end of his tenure in 2018, Unilever had generated shareholder value increase of almost 300%. The company is now admired as a pioneer in redesigning supply chains around green, sustainability and people-first agendas.
Polman’s inner voice urged him convincingly in 2009. How he must have fought the doubts and the doubters to stay true to it in the years that followed.
Sharing Your Inner Voice Helps Finetune It
Sharing what we are hearing with trusted others guides the subconscious thought process towards better decisions and action. It subjects intuition to productive scrutiny without dismissing its value.
It’s up to us to govern our actions with our heads and hearts
Governing Our Actions With Head and Heart: The Leadership Synthesis
"Especially in times of crisis, the optimal mix of logic, emotion and intuition could be our best bet towards high performance and optimal outcomes."
World-renowned psychologist and research professor Brené Brown specialises in understanding the interrelationships between courage, vulnerability, authenticity and shame. She believes the dictionary’s definition of intuition, “direct perception of truth or fact, independent of any reasoning process,” is one-dimensional.
She offers a broader and more useful version:
Finding our inner wisdom does not mean replacing research, smart thinking, data or logic. It means having the openness, humility and humanity to listen to all authentic voices.
“Learning to listen to and trust that inner voice can be integral to becoming our best selves.”
At LRMG, we believe that the best leadership development helps leaders develop not only analytical capability but also the self-awareness and emotional intelligence to hear and trust their inner voice. Through talent advisory and talent development solutions designed for South African and African organisations, LRMG helps leaders make better decisions under pressure. To find out how, contact the team.
It’s up to us to govern our actions with our heads and hearts
What is the inner voice in leadership and why does it matter?
The inner voice in leadership is the integration of subconscious processing, past experience, emotional intelligence and pattern recognition that produces intuitive judgements. It matters because research shows that people relying on their instincts make the right decisions up to 90% of the time. Tel Aviv University professor Marius Usher found that the human brain has an inherent ability to find the best solution quickly, often outperforming the predictions of specialists who are overwhelmed by their narrow expertise. For South African leaders navigating complex, high-pressure environments, developing the ability to hear and trust this inner voice is a genuine performance advantage.
What is the difference between intuition and impulsiveness in decision-making?
Intuition and impulsiveness are often confused but operate very differently. Intuition is a subliminal integration of experience, observation and reasoning that surfaces as a clear sense of direction. It is a guidance system, not a reflex. Impulsiveness is an instantaneous reaction to external stimuli, driven by the fight-freeze-or-flight response and prone to cognitive biases such as availability bias, confirmation bias and the halo effect. Good leadership decision-making uses intuition as a complement to analytical thinking, not as a replacement for it.
How does Paul Polman’s leadership at Unilever demonstrate the power of inner voice?
When Paul Polman became CEO of Unilever in 2009 at the height of the global financial crisis, his inner voice told him to lead with purpose rather than with cuts. Against all conventional expectations, he launched the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan and stopped the company’s quarterly financial reporting. Both decisions were widely criticised. The share price dropped 8% immediately. But Polman persevered. By the end of his tenure in 2018, Unilever had delivered shareholder value growth of almost 300% and is now regarded as a global leader in sustainable business. His story is one of the most compelling demonstrations of what trusting your inner voice can produce.
How can leaders develop their intuition and inner voice?
Leaders develop intuition by practising stillness, creating regular time for reflection without distraction or the pressure of immediacy. They also broaden their intuitive base by seeking vicarious learning, reading widely, studying how other leaders have navigated complexity and actively exposing themselves to perspectives beyond their professional domain. Externalising their intuition, sharing what they are sensing with trusted advisors, helps finetune the signal. And letting go of the demand for certainty, accepting that most complex decisions do not resolve to a clear-cut right or wrong answer, creates the mental space that intuition needs to surface clearly.
How does LRMG help South African leaders develop better decision-making capability?
LRMG helps South African leaders develop stronger decision-making capability through leadership development programmes, executive coaching and talent advisory engagements that address both the rational and intuitive dimensions of good judgement. In practice, this means developing self-awareness, emotional intelligence, the ability to manage uncertainty and the habit of reflective practice that allows leaders to hear and act on their inner voice. With nearly three decades of experience across 800 organisations in Africa, LRMG builds leaders who make better decisions under pressure. To find out more, contact the team through our contact page.
