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Are You Listening to Your Intuition?
In a world overwhelmed by data, logic, and relentless decision-making, one essential leadership faculty is often neglected — intuition.
Yet some ofthe greatest minds across time — poets, philosophers, musicians, and mystics —have pointed again and again to a deeper intelligence within us. A source of creativity, foresight, and innovation that cannot be accessed through reason alone.
Claude Lévi-Strauss, the French ethnologist and founder of structural anthropology, coined the term “Wildes Denken” — “wild thought” — to describe the kind of thinking that is intuitive, associative, creative, and non-linear. It contrasts with modern scientific thinking, which is structured, ordered, and analytical.
But here’sthe truth:
Great leadership needs both — structure and wildness. Vision and instinct. Strategy and spirit.
The Forgotten Genius Within
Arthur Rimbaud, the French poet, believed that the artist must become a seer through a "long, immense and rational derangement of all the senses". This wasn’t madness, but a conscious surrender to deeper inner currents — a process of unlocking what lies beneath the rational mind.
Socrates, arguably the father of Western philosophy, spoke often of a "daimonion"— a spiritual voice that warned and guided him. He claimed this voice never told him what to do, but it always warned him of missteps. It was his moral compass, his inner guidance system — a deeply intuitive presence he trusted without question.
Rumi, the Persian mystic, said it simply:
"There is a voice that doesn’t use words. Listen."
Intuition Is Not Opposed to Reason — It Complements It
Jean-Jacques Rousseau distrusted the coldness of logic detached from feeling. He wrote:
"Books taught me little. The woods and fields are my tutors. I learned more from my own feelings than from all the learned men."
This is not anti-intellectualism — it’s the wisdom of embodied experience. Of being present. Of knowing not just with the head, but with the heart and gut.
Goethe echoed this when he described inspiration as something that comes unbidden — a mysterious energy that flows through him, not from him.
Lao Tzu,writing over 2,000 years ago, said:
"The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao."
True knowing — the kind that leaders need when they enter uncertain terrain — cannot always be explained. It must be felt.
The Case for "Wild Thought" in Leadership
Claude Lévi-Strauss' concept of Wildes Denken — sometimes translated as "the science of the concrete" — refers to the intelligence of the intuitive mind, the type of knowing used by ancient and indigenous peoples to make sense of the world through pattern, metaphor, symbol, and instinct.
In a corporate context, this might sound foreign — but it shouldn't be. Here'swhy:
Lévi-Strauss argued that wild thought isn't primitive — it’s foundational. It is the raw material of innovation, and in many ways, more flexible, imaginative, and resilient than ordered, institutionalized thought.
Isn’t that exactly what today’s leaders need?
Why Leaders Must Reclaim Intuition
In the past, leaders were rewarded for decisiveness and control. Today, leadership is being redefined by complexity, fluidity, and uncertainty.
The leaders who will thrive are not the ones with the best answers — but those who know how to listen:
Beethoven once said:
"I carry my thoughts with me for a long time... until I am satisfied: then, in my head, I begin to elaborate the work... All this fires my soul."
He describes something many creators know: the process begins not with action, but with contemplation, waiting, sensing — allowing inspiration to ripen.
This is intuition in action.
How to Reawaken Intuition
Most people are born with intuition. But leaders are trained to suppress it — in favor of performance, predictability, and proof.
But you can reawaken it.
Here’s how:
As Tagore wrote:
"The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough."
When you lead from this place, your presence changes. Your decisions are wiser. Your team trusts you more deeply. And your vision becomes magnetic.
Are You Ready to Lead from Within?
If you’re a leader looking to enhance your capacity, unlock your full creative intelligence, and tap into a deeper kind of leadership — I offer 1:1 and group trainings focused on intuitive leadership development, based on ancient wisdom, science and systemic business frameworks.
✅ Build sharper instincts
✅ Make clearer decisions
✅ Inspire with authenticity
✅ Integrate intuition with strategy
✅ Cultivate presence, inner clarity, and trust in the unknown
🌀 Your intellect will always serve you. But your intuition? That’s your edge.
