with Britt Reints
Forget the 9 to 5; Full Time, All the Time is a blog about the mobile working life - when you have the freedom to work from anywhere and the responsibility of always having your smartphone turned on. Britt Reints works as a freelance writer while traveling fulltime in an RV with her husband and two kids. She explores balancing real-life bills with an unconventional work life, and finding time to maintain relationships with family and friends.
You can also find Britt at InPursuitOfHappiness.net.
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I was talking strategy with a female colleague recently, and she gave me a piece of advice that struck me as being something that could only come from a woman.
“I think the important thing is to enjoy yourself,” she said, “because that’s when your intuition comes out.”
We weren’t talking about relationships. We weren’t talking about office politics or how to treat people in the workplace. We were talking about money and business strategy and things that could be profitable vs. things that may not be.
Things that have not, at least in my professional experience, always been associated with intuition.
The word intuition comes up a lot in my personal conversations with female friends. We talk about needing to listen to it more or lament the times we have not listened to it enough, or perhaps were misdirected by it. We are, as women, very familiar with the concept of a gut feeling acting as a guide - in our personal lives.
But the idea of intuition being a tool in business is new to me.
I’ve spent the bulk of my career working almost exclusively with men. I have had a female boss for only a handful of months in the last ten years, and I can count the number of female co-workers I’ve had using only the fingers on my hands. The men I’ve worked with do not use the word intuition. Not personally, and absolutely not professionally. Occasionally they will mention “killer instincts”, but that isn’t exactly the same. Intuition is a gut feeling that nudges you in one direction or another, whereas “killer instincts” usually refer to the ability to be decisive and aggressive and quick all at once. These men haven’t been guided by intuition, but rather by experience and logic and reasoning.
Of course, the few women I’ve worked with - and even this woman I spoke with recently - use experience and logic and reasoning in their professional decision making as well. And some women I’ve worked with have undoubtedly possessed “killer instincts”. But it’s this addition of intuition as a reliable resource that intrigues me. i think that it’s new to me because I haven’t worked with women, but perhaps it’s just a coincidence that the men I’ve worked with in the past aren’t big on the idea.
What do you think?
Are women more likely to rely on their intuition in their professional lives than men are? Is that a good thing?
I don’t necessarily agree that it’s a gender difference. I’ve worked primarily for men, and I’ve seen intuition come into play occasionally. I know that if I can’t decide what path to take, the deciding factor will be what feels right.
Avitable | July 28th, 2010 at 6:06 am
I’ve spent my career in a more “feminized” business than most; there are a lot of women in advertising and communications, but I have not heard the word “intuition” used much. But I do use it a lot. And perhaps it is informed by experience, but it is absolutely “going with my gut.” It’s an almost every day thing.
Finn | July 28th, 2010 at 7:07 am
I believe that intuition really is experience, logic, and reasoning (and maybe a little instinct). Maybe you can’t point to the exact experience you had in your life that taught you something. Maybe because females internalize their experiential learnings in a more complex manner (and perhaps retain more as a result) from a very early age. Maybe something you experienced while babysitting at age 12 is what informed your “intuition,” but isn’t that still experience?
Only thing is, it may not be helpful to call your wisdom “intuition” at work, depending on your work environment. That’s OK. Instead of “my intuition tells me,” just say “in my experience . . . .”
SKL | July 28th, 2010 at 1:49 pm
I have never heard anyone saying that they’re listening to, or trusting in, their intuition here…
But killer instincts aren’t so different, nor is going with your gut. And we rely on gut instinct all of the time in my career - as well as logic and reason.
I think intuition is just a softer word used to describe “gut”, “instincts”, and all of those other less rational, logical, yet somehow just as effective, decision making tools we employ in all aspects of our lives each day.
Phe | July 29th, 2010 at 8:47 am