“Intuition is the highest form of intelligence, transcending all individual abilities and skills.” – Sylvia Clare
(This is taken from my first and best-selling book, Lead the Way: Inside Out Principles for Business Owners & Leaders)
We need our heart to lead our head, not the other way around. When we let our intuition inform our intelligence, this is leading from the inside out. As a result, leaders and teams are able to make quicker and more accurate strategic decisions.
Intelligence relates to the ability to understand, whereas leading from the heart is the ability to understand and share in the feelings of another—true empathy! This allows for much more powerful leadership.
According to the 2017 Businessolver Workplace Empathy Monitor:
- Almost one-third of employees (30 percent) don’t feel the company they work for is empathetic, and about half (51 percent) feel that organizations and companies as a whole are not empathetic.
- Six out of 10 employees (60 percent) would be willing to take slightly less pay if their employer showed empathy, and 78 percent of employees would leave an employer for equal pay if the other company was empathetic.
A few years ago, my company was gearing up to host a large regional leadership conference. I had the joy of leading a substantial team through a 6-month planning process. The event sold out a week before it was to begin.
But just a few days before the event, I received the worst possible news. Find out what this tragic news was and how it forever changed how I live and lead from the heart!