Trusting Your Gut: Intuition in Firefighting and Business

Trusting your Gut. Do you know that instinct you feel when making decisions? 

It turns out it's not just random; it's actually your brain and experiences working together. Today, we'll explore how studies support the idea that our gut feelings are really a blend of our past experiences, knowledge, and even a bit of what we call "the force" - being connected to everything around us. We'll look at how listening to your gut can lead to making great decisions, whether you're leading a team through a fire or making big moves in business. 

Transcript

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Welcome to today's episode. We're diving into a super interesting topic, trusting your gut, you know, that instinct feel that you get when you're making decisions. It turns out it's not just random. It's actually your brain and experiences working together. Today, we'll explore how our studies support the idea that our gut feelings are really a blend of past experiences, knowledge, and even a bit of what we call the force being connected to everything around us. We'll look at how listening to your gut can lead you into making great decisions, whether you're leading a team through a fight or making big moves in business. So if you've ever had a moment where you just knew what to do but you couldn't explain it, this episode is for you. Let's just jump in and learn how trusting your gut can be your secret weapon in becoming a better leader. Your gut is more than woo woo. It's leading you from experience, your history, your upbringing, the force being connected to all other things. Hey, we're all electricity after all. Scientifically put, intuition involves the brain's ability to draw on internal and external cues, memories, and experiences rapidly often without conscious awareness. This process is rooted in the brain's neural networks and is the subject of psychological and neurological research. Everything you have, everything you learn comes into play when you make decisions. You take all that learning and experience and distill it down into that one second in time. You might hear people say things like, I don't know why I did it. Just seemed like the right thing. We've all heard the sayings like they had a gut reaction. They reacted on gut feeling. I just knew down deep inside it was the right thing to do. Gut check time, have guts, and gut wrenching. Some of these refer to how our stomach reacts, but the overriding thinking is the same. Make a decision, deal with the decision. There are all sorts of pseudoscience around gut feeling being related to shared consciousness. This concept asked us to consider that our intuitive insights might be part of a larger interconnected web of understanding influenced by the collective experience and wisdom of the community or group that we're part of. For now, that should just stay in the realm of speculation. Trusting your gut is a final step to making a decision after you've exhausted all your data, your mapping, your reports in the field, predictions, and advice. We make rational decisions. Emotional decisions are fought with danger as our emotions override what needs to be done. That said, we are emotional leaders, and you need to realize that it is important to consider the effects of your decisions and how they might affect others. Sometimes the greater good argument has a place, but it is rarely applicable on the scale that you'll work with. I believe that trusting your gut is about doing what is right in the ethical sense as well as the practical. Consider all the information, make lists, consult with experts or others, then make that call. As a leader, it's your responsibility and job to make the decisions that help your team achieve their mission within specific time frames. Ask yourself, will this positively affect the outcome allowing us to achieve our goal within the time limit safely? What you're worrying about might be irrelevant to the outcome. Be warned. Your gut isn't always right. You must be prepared to accept responsibility. No one gets it right a 100% of the time. Studies have shown that expertise can significantly improve decision making, potentially leading up to a success rate of over 70 to 80%. So what does that mean for you? Well, individuals a team with a higher level of expertise and experience in a particular area tend to make more successful decisions. The availability and quality with information or data on which those decisions are based can significantly affect the outcome. The method you use in making decisions, including problem analysis, evaluations or alternatives, risk assessment, all can affect the success rate. Human decision making is subject to various cognitive biases such as confirmation bias, overcompetence, or aversion to loss. These biases can improve your decision success. The ability to adapt decisions based on new information and to learn from past decision outcomes can also enhance your likelihood that your future decisions will be right. It's always better to discuss your decisions with mentors than to just jump. Time frames matter. You won't always have time to get help to make a decision, and let's face it. There are not that many big decisions. Mostly, you'll make a series of small decisions. My wife always says I get to make all the big decisions in our family. Luckily, there are very few of them. Call someone who has more experience than you and run it by them. A good mentor will ask you the right questions to allow you to get to the decision yourself. As a leader, you need mentors in all different areas of your life, family, business, physical, spiritual, etcetera. Find people to bounce ideas off. Sometimes you just need someone to listen even if they're not even in your own field. Businesses are increasingly relying on interdisciplinary teams to drive innovation and to solve complex product development challenges. Studies such as those published in the journal of product innovation management have found that combining team members from research and development, marketing engineering design backgrounds can significantly enhance the creativity and the market success of new products. Why? Because everybody sees a problem differently because of their personal experience and knowledge. You might solve a problem one way, but your mom might do something completely different. Both achieve the same outcome, but at the same time from different viewpoints. This is why mentors help you make better decisions. You always need to do what you feel is right. Doing what you feel is right embraces the philosophy of trusting your instinct and your moral compass when making decisions. It accepts that beyond logics and advice, there is true value in listening to your inner voice, your gut. In the end, you need to do what is right ethically and practically. Do the right thing by your people in a way that allows you to complete your mission successfully. You've heard the saying, he did everything right and he still failed. Well, sometimes circumstances change or stuff just doesn't work out. At least if you did the right thing, you can hold your head high. The moments when leaders like you trust their gut can lead to transformative outcomes. It brings authenticity and can build a leadership style that is not only effective but deeply human and empathetic to what's going on around you. It's a reminder that the essence of a true leader often lies in the courage to stand by your convictions, especially in the face of uncertainty. So today, we've talked all about how your gut feeling is a really cool part of being a leader. It's not just some strange hunt. It's actually your brain pulling together all your experiences and knowledge to help you make quick choices. Science even says that our gut feelings are super important for making the big decisions, whether you're in a tough spot, fighting fires, or making important calls in business. Thanks a ton for listening. If you liked what you heard, please hit that like button, Share this with your friends, and don't forget to subscribe to our channel. Your support means that we can keep bringing you more podcasts like this. If you know someone who could use a little push to trust their gut and their leadership, go ahead and share this episode with them. And, hey, always remember, lean into your gut feeling. It could be just what you need to be an even better leader. Remember, always run towards the flames.