Strategic Business Intuition: How to Use Intuition to Leverage Any Business Situation
By Elise Lebeau, M.Sc.

So, you're stuck in a bad business situation? First, keep in mind that this happens to the best business people. The real question is: How quickly can you bounce back up, if at all?

If you own a business, you're already knowledgeable about your field (hopefully). When you consider a business opportunity, you do your research and find out all that you can about the deal. All these things are great, but any successful CEO will tell you that they're only part of the picture.

Trying to do business without using some form of intuition, or business instinct, is like playing a poker game with only 3 cards. No matter how hard you try, you're at a disadvantage. When you use your intuition, or consult with a professional intuitive, the missing cards are added to your hand so you can play your very best game. Just like you would not want to choose between the wheel and the breaks when buying a car, intuition is not a substitute for business knowledge or research. But using all these tools makes a winning combination.

Before you walk in a meeting, or make a call to solve that nasty problem, you can use a simple process to generate Intuitive Insights about it, so that you are better prepared when it's time to make a decision and leap into action. This process only takes a few minutes but it can make a world of difference. Make sure you will not be disturbed while you're doing in.

1) Clear your mind. You probably have been tossing all kinds of thoughts about this problem back and forth. This process clutters the mind and becomes counter productive. You end up more and more confused as you look for a way out. You can clear your mind by:

Take a short walk, even just around the office

Take a drive in your car (alone)

Say out loud: "I am clearing my mind"

2) Clarify your vision. Good business deals are made by people who know exactly what they want out of it. Never walk into an important meeting without having a clear picture of your goals. You can do this by writing your answers to these questions:

What is the end result of this business opportunity?

How will this business opportunity benefit my company? My partners?

How could it turn out to be even better than I anticipated?

3) Ask productive questions. When dealing with intuition, asking questions such as "how", "when" and "why" is totally useless. The answer to these questions will not provide anything you can use right now. The most effective questions is: "What can I do next to leverage this situation?"

4) Take notes. If you don't take notes you will not remember the brilliant insight you just had! Have a pad of paper ready BEFORE you start this process. After you ask your question, write down everything that comes to your mind. If you haven't done this often, some of it will be unusable, weird or seem unrelated. That's fine, just write it anyway. Sometime it takes a few days for an Intuitive Insight to make sense. But take notes on what comes to your mind until you feel done. Give your mind at least 2 or 3 minutes to fully download what you got.

5) Pick the winners. From this list, there will be some things that are both feasible and promising to a positive outcome. Prioritize the list by putting a number by each item. Give higher priority to things that are easily doable and feel like a good idea.

You might think that this process if iffy at best. That's fine. But when your back is up against the wall, iffy is a lot better than nothing. As you practice being intuitive, you'll get better at it. And like Trump says, you can learn to build a multi-billion empire by using this little known skill. Talk about a competitive advantage!