New Thinking For A Better Futureনমুনা
Some of us are highly intuitive; some are more analytical. In fact, the most important decisions in our lives are led by our “gut,” not our heads: who we marry, our choice of a career, the house we buy or rent, the car we drive, the church we attend, the doctor we visit, the vacations we take, and the restaurants we frequent. These choices have a modicum of reasoning attached, but we make these decisions largely by what we feel, by intuition. The person we ask to give the eulogy at our funeral may be our best friend, who knows our heart, rather than the church pastor. The friend may not be as articulate, but we’re convinced they will represent us well.
Think back on a time when you weighed the pros and cons of an important decision. Something inside may have screamed, “No! Don’t do it!” but your reasoning prompted you to go ahead—and later you realized your gut was right. Some people insist that we shouldn’t go by our feelings, but our feelings and intuition are part of our God-given nature. We certainly shouldn’t depend on our feelings alone, but they are more important—and more accurate—than most people believe.
People in your community make decisions about your business or organization based largely on their feelings. In an article titled, “Trust Your Feelings, Now More Than Ever,” Robert Safian, editor of Fast Company, writes: “Business isn’t always about numbers. Actually, it rarely is. It’s about people and emotion. What about the dollars? The cash flow? The share price? Don’t kid yourself. Those are the by-products, the results. Anyone who is truly sophisticated about business recognizes this essential truth.”
Safian describes some colossal failures when companies didn’t connect emotionally with their customers and lists some stunning successes when they went beyond reason to provide products and services to meet real needs in underserviced parts of the community.
When we’re in the middle of the journey, our minds may tell us to bail out, but our gut reminds us that it’s worth it. And throughout the journey, we need to remember that we’re not the only ones who depend on our feelings to give us signals of meaning and direction. The people on our teams, our customers and clients, our volunteers, and the people in our communities make their decisions based on their feelings, too. We’re wise to connect our purpose and our passion to their purpose and passion.
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About this Plan
With candor, humor, and personal stories, Sam Chand peels back the layers of our assumptions to challenge us to think more deeply, more clearly, and more productively than ever before. He addresses fundamental topics all leaders instinctively address, including security, location, ownership, team, growth, and benchmarks of success. And he provides questions that leaders can ask themselves to develop New Thinking for a New Future.
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