One of my clients had worked on a deal for 2 years when the decision maker changed.
Every time she was around the new CTO, she felt anxious. Her neck would breakout in a red rash. Meanwhile, the rest of her team was focused on closing the deal and felt like the new CTO was a pretty normal “dude”. They ignored her comments or reminded her this would be “the biggest deal” of her career.
Low and behold, that team suffered during the next year because the client changed the scope of work over 3 times and, each time, circumvented paying for change orders by threatening they were ‘out of contract’.
Luckily, my client had actually stepped away from the deal a few weeks before it closed.
"I've noticed when the anecdotes and the metrics disagree, the anecdotes are usually right," Jeff Bezos noted. "That's why it's so important to check that data with your intuition and instincts, and you need to teach that to executives and junior executives."
Intuition, the ability to understand something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning, can be used with co-workers, bosses, forecasts, deals, projects, opportunities, or customers. But for many of us, we’re so busy or distracted by all the external information that we can’t tap into this vital internal information.
Mindfulness is a tool for helping us be more self-aware and trust our intuition because we learn to focus on the present moment and any feelings, thoughts, or situation without judgement.
Through her mindfulness practice, my client became more self-aware of her intuition and instincts. Her gut told her the work environment was not worth the big paycheck.
How can you strengthen your intuition through mindfulness workplace techniques?
Be in the present moment:
Simply notice how you feel, not what you think, when you meet people.
Notice how your body reacts. (Are you crossing your arms and closing off? Or smiling?)
Notice the emotions you feel. (Do you feel energized or drained?)
Do you want to reduce your sales cycles? Or trying to decide on a new career/job? Becoming more self-aware will help you pick up on hidden dynamics and insights.
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