You’re a successful person. You’ve worked hard to get where you are! Although many different factors have helped you along your path to success, one part that shouldn’t be overlooked is that you have learned how to listen to and analyze your intuition. You probably have employees that you rely on to help you finish projects and handle various tasks and, I’m sure that there are one or two that you would like to mentor and teach some of your “secrets” to so that they can find success too. Well, one of the things you’re probably going to have to teach them is how to hone, listen to, trust and communicate their intuition.
Here are a few tips to help you get started:
Let them know you want to help. How can you mentor someone if you don’t let them know you’re going to do so? Also, you’re going to want to make sure that the person you’d like to mentor is actually up to and ready for the challenge and wants your help.
Periodically “check in.” The best way to find out how someone is feeling is by scheduling mini meetings to just check-in on how your little “grasshopper” is doing. Talk to them about how they feel their intuition has helped and/or hindered them in the past week or two.
Encourage their thoughts and feelings. In order for your employees to rely on their intuition, they have to feel comfortable expressing their emotions at work. An environment that discourages emotional connections is not the best place for people to learn how to rely on their intuition.
Run situations by them. Just like many other career paths, students often don’t learn skills until they are forced to use them. Rather than talk at your employees, ask them what their gut says to do in a given situation. After they say what their reaction would be, talk about it. What ideas were good and what might not work for each situation. Above all, be gentle. You’re dealing with a delicate area for some people and you don’t want to do more damage than good!
Listen to YOUR intuition. It does no one any good if you aren’t listening to your own intuition. If you feel like you might have made a mistake or someone is ready for more responsibility, listen to your gut. It is, after all, what you’re trying to teach your employees.
Are you listening to your intuition at work?