Leading with Emotional Intelligence: Hands-On ... - always yours

SELF-CONFIDENCE TOOLS AND STRATEGIES 137
of our unconscious to fi nd patterns in situations and behavior based
on narrow slices of experience.”
Thin-slicing, snap judgments, and intuition all describe this
phenomenon that happens unconsciously, behind the “closed door.”
Researchers from Harvard suggest that people can intuitively
sense, in the first 30 seconds of an encounter, basic impressions
they have about a person. People watching 30-second snippets of
teachers giving a lecture can assess each teacher’s proficiency with
approximately 80% accuracy as well. 11
“In a study of three thousand executives, with regard to decisionmaking,
those at the top in various fields were most adept at utilizing
intuition in reaching their decisions.” 12
This nonlinear type of knowing is a good complement to the
tried-and-true systematic thinking prevalent in traditional problemsolving.
QUESTIONS AND ACTION APPLICATIONS
• Do you know when you are having a gut reaction?
• How good are you at identifying your gut reactions, on a
scale of 1-10, 10 being the highest?
• How good are you at honoring your gut reactions, on a scale
of 1-10?
• What helps you get in touch with and listen to your gut?
• How often do you communicate these gut reactions to
others?
• What do you need to do to utilize your intuition more?
STAR PERFORMER ACTION PLAN
The Star Performer Action Plan helps you integrate some of the
learning from this chapter’s Star Secrets and Coach’s Corner into
your overall development plan.