I get the feeling I should think this through

How often do you 'go with your gut'? How often has your intuition been correct? Intuition, today, is being hailed as some kind of magic compass, but it can also be a blindfold.

Intuition carries with it a sort of baggage. It is influenced by biological predispositions, culture, experiences and educational backgrounds. It is, in fact, a slave to what we think we know and as Edgar Morin, French philosopher and sociologist, says "everything we know is subject to error and illusion".

In some cases there are limitations to thinking with your gut and taking time to review, from all angles, is the best thing to do, especially when there are opposing views, informed by opposing intuitions.

"Thinking with your 'gut' is usually an unconscious emotional response to a surprising situation. In some instances this response proves to be enormously helpful. In others it is a huge liability," says Chris Breen, director of the executive education course, 'Leading with Intuition', offered at the UCT Graduate School of Business.

Breen says that his course seeks to ensure that leaders increase their chances of the former being true. He describes it as a course "for anyone seeking to make more informed and less emotional decisions in the moment". Delegates explore the spaces of chaos and complexity with less conventional teaching and learning methods that inevitably ask them to be more mindful and in tune with their "intuition".

"When it comes to critical moments in business, and in any other aspects of our lives, we need to identify what we're feeling, the reactions we're having to the moment, stop, become aware of our behaviour and then from a calm informed point of view, continue. This way we don't over-look possibilities and opportunities for solutions because of our natural, primitive, almost reptilian responses and assumptions," he says. "Rigidity of behaviour is not for intelligent beings."

Taking this all back to leadership, however, intelligent leaders use their intuition certainly, and should not only take time out to understand how their emotions are affecting their decisions, but also be open to testing their assumptions against others' opinions and even others' intuition and not rely entirely on themselves. Leadership, after all, is about intent, relationships and information.

Gladwell, Einstein, De Bono, Branson and grand master chess and shogi players swear by the power of intuition but "a person needs to learn to identify when intuition is genuine and when it is an egoistic judgement based on fears and assumptions and ambitions.

I get the feeling I should think about my feelings a bit more.

The course runs from 5 to 7 September. For more information about the course please contact Alison Siebritz on 021 406 1490 or visit www.gsb.uct.ac.za/intuition.