ABSTRACT
Intuition became the focus of my attention in fulfillment of an undergraduate “leadership” assignment set by Professor Peter Miller, a prominent leadership expert in Australia. We had been tasked to interview a leader we admired, find out what we could about his or her leadership, and then compare the findings to theory. I had recently completed a “Men in Separation” workshop (for men recently divorced or separated) led by John. In his 60s, gray, but still well muscled from daily surfing, John impressed me with his confidence, compassion, and wisdom. I remember the moment well when the word “intuition” popped up. I asked him “You have a diverse bunch of men-different ages, backgrounds, experiences, personalities, and so on; how do you know what technique or strategy to employ”? He said, “Intuition.” As have most people, I had heard the word used before, but not given it much thought; the focus was usually on what the intuition was about, rather than the concept itself. When I later came to look for
2.1 Introduction 21 2.2 What Is Intuition? 23
2.2.1 Definition 23 2.2.2 Role of Intuition for Leaders 24 2.2.3 Complementary Use of Intuition and Analysis 28
2.3 Intuition as a Secret Practice 30 2.3.1 Interiority and Its Implications 34
2.4 The Way Forward 35 References 37
the topic in leadership and management theory, I could not find it. There seemed to be an assumption that leaders exclusively used analysis for their decision making. I had to seek out books and articles specifically focusing on intuition to gain an understanding. Thus, intuition immediately came to mind as a topic for postgraduate research.
