Intuition in Business: Are You Your Own Best Advisor?

I received a call last week from a business owner who was looking for some advice. It seems that she had a new client (she is a service provider in the hospitality industry) who was referred by another client. She told me that right from the beginning, this new client wanted to change what her typical agreement is. He wanted to negotiate a lower hourly rate, then a shorter number of minimum hours. By the time she called me they had gone through 4 revisions of the contract (and this was only a small job, for one partial day).

She said she was worried, because she felt like he had negotiated her down to the point that she wouldn't be able to provide the level of service she was known for. She didn't know what to do.

I'd like to say I gave her some sage advice, and saved her business. I didn't though, all I told her was exactly what she already knew; she needed to fire her client. She questioned herself (and me) a bit, however in the end , did exactly that. She simply wrote to the client and told him that she would need to remove herself from the negotiations, because she felt she was not going to be able to provide the service he expected within the parameters.

A load was lifted, she no longer had this weight on her shoulders, the client quietly went away, and she didn't have to go through a miserable day working for someone that was not going to appreciate it. The interesting this for me, is why didn't she listen to her own intuition? It started with the first phone call with the client and continued to grow until she fired them - she intuitively knew it was a poor fit.

I know I have done this myself, and I bet most of you have too. These are hard times, we all want business, sometimes maybe even at our own peril. What is intuition, and why do we sometimes heed it and other times not?

Wikipedia:

Intuition:

• Intuition (philosophy), the act by which the mind perceives the agreement or disagreement of two ideas.
• Intuition (knowledge), understanding without apparent effort.

Michael Ray, PhD. taught Personal Creativity in Business in Stanford's MBA program. Dr. Ray relates five truths about intuition; he claims that if people begin to live with these truths, they begin to develop their intuition in remarkable ways-in business and in life.

His five truths are:

1. Intuition must be developed. Each of us has intuition within us, but we must accept the responsibility for our individual style of intuition and its development.
   
2. Intuition and reason are complements. It is the combination of reason, experience, information and intuition that is so powerful.
   
3. Intuition is unemotional. It is paying attention clearly to the most appropriate alternative that comes from the creative Essence.
   
4. Intuition requires action. Follow-through is key to successful use of intuition in business. It requires timely hard work.
   
5. Intuition is mistake free. There will always be "rational" reasons to support intuitive leaps. Beyond this we must have absolute faith that the intuitive part of us does not make mistakes.