Who you are defines what you see.
We don’t see the world as it is, but as we are. Every leader has a gut instinct shaped by life experience – and it can be reshaped when needed.
The law in detail
Four steps through the law: understand, check, connect, apply. Open any topic to read more.
The core messageWhat the law says – and what it doesn’t
Your experience and your personality shape what you notice in a situation. If you have seen a lot and learned from it, you sense earlier what is coming.
- It does not say
- That your gut feeling is always right. It is condensed experience – and can just as well condense prejudice and blind spots.
- That intuition is innate. It grows out of experience and can be reshaped by new experience.
- Strictly speaking
- Intuition is only reliable where a situation has stable patterns and you have practiced for a long time with feedback. In new or chance-driven situations, systematic errors of judgment loom.
- The title and the core statement mean different things: intuition is the quick judgment, “what you see” is perception. That experience shapes your perception does not mean your judgment is right.
- Applies to
- Every task in which you have gained experience: in your own field, at work with staff and customers, in church and clubs with the mood of a group, in the family with a feel for a child.
The explanationUnder pressure, people in positions of responsibility often rely more heavily on intuition.
Under pressure, people in positions of responsibility often rely more heavily on intuition.
It combines facts with experience and with intangibles such as mood, relationships and the dynamics of a team, project or organization.
This isn’t pseudoscience: intuition is condensed experience – the rapid recognition of patterns. It is most reliable where you have gathered long experience with honest feedback; in new, unclear situations it needs to be checked against facts and other perspectives.
The signs3 signs the law is at work · 3 that it is missing
- You notice early when the mood in a group is turning – in a team, a project, or a board – and address it before it escalates.
- When you have a gut feeling, you check specifically which facts support it and which speak against it.
- In new fields, you deliberately listen to experienced people instead of relying on your instinct.
- Problems catch you by surprise, although others saw the signs long ago.
- You decide from the gut and justify it afterwards with convenient reasons.
- After moving into a new role, a different area, or another organization, you carry over old experience without checking it.
The research5 sources · 1973–2009 · with the limits of the research
- low
- moderate
- high
Moderate – Expert intuition as experience-based pattern recognition.
- 1973William G. Chase & Herbert A. Simon
Chess masters recognize meaningful board patterns faster than novices; expertise rests on stored patterns.
- 1974Amos Tversky & Daniel Kahneman
Heuristics lead to systematic biases in judgment.
- 1998Gary Klein
Experienced professionals decide under time pressure by recognizing patterns.
- 2007Erik Dane & Michael G. Pratt
When intuitive decisions in management are effective: expertise and type of task.
- 2009Daniel Kahneman & Gary Klein
Conditions for reliable intuition: a valid environment and sufficient opportunity to learn.
Intuition is reliable only where the environment offers stable regularities and there was long practice with feedback. Otherwise systematic errors of judgment loom.
The originJohn C. Maxwell · “The Law of Intuition”
- 1998OriginJohn C. Maxwell
The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, Law 8
- The Law of IntuitionIn essence: Leaders evaluate everything through the lens of their leadership experience.
- todayWEGVISOR: The Law of Intuition
The WEGVISOR version of the Law of Intuition puts it this way: “Who you are defines what you see.” In light of research, intuition is reliable where experience has grown with feedback in a stable environment – otherwise it needs a cross-check.
The related laws and qualitiesQ07 Discernment
Discernment is the cross-check for your intuition. It sorts out which half of your gut feeling holds up and which is just habit.
The action points5 stages of growth – from first awareness to passing it on
- Become aware Pay attention to your gut feeling in one conversation today and afterwards note in one sentence what you sensed, without judging it.
- Lay the foundations This week, write down your gut feeling in one sentence before an upcoming decision, and check afterwards whether it was right and what you missed.
- Make it a habit Before every important decision, briefly note what the facts say and what your feeling says, and once a month compare both with the outcome.
- Deepen deliberately Deliberately look for cases where your gut feeling was wrong, and ask someone with a different background to challenge your read of a delicate situation.
- Pass it on Once a month, share with people you work closely with which early signals you notice in mood and in your environment, and invite their observations so you learn to read such signals together.
The reflection questions5 questions for you or a conversation with others
- In which situations has my gut feeling guided me reliably so far – and where has it not?
- Where does my experience come from in the field I am deciding in right now?
- Which influences from my past color what I see in certain people?
- Whom do I ask before I follow a strong hunch – and who sees signals that my role keeps me from noticing?
- How do I check afterwards whether my intuition was right?
Take your time with one question. Write down your answer – or talk it over with someone you trust.
The picture to rememberOut of apparent noise, a clear direction suddenly emerges – gut instinct reads the situation.
- Out of apparent noise, a clear direction suddenly emerges – gut instinct reads the situation.
What the Law of Intuition looks like in practice
Upside down to an emergency landing
When his plane suffers mechanical failure, Captain Whip Whitaker flips it upside down: unorthodox but lifesaving, rooted in years of experience. Yet the film also shows how his alcohol abuse undermines his credibility.
Do the opposite of the industry
In 1976 Anita Roddick opened the first Body Shop in Brighton: natural cosmetics without animal testing while the market relied on chemicals. Her feel for this gap led to over 3,000 stores in more than 60 countries.
The warning no one wanted to hear
From 1933, Winston Churchill warned of Hitler’s rearmament while others still saw Hitler as an “ordinary politician.” Many called Churchill a warmonger, yet he kept pressing for Britain to rearm.
