Quote-A-Day: Day 199

While our gut is often right, checking your thinking with a colleague is never wrong. #QuoteADay #Day199 #edchat #edu #ThinkFirst

How often have we "gone with our gut" when making a decision?  Quite often, right?

For many of us, going with our gut is something we do regularly, and something that is rarely a wrong decision made.

Yet, there is nothing wrong with checking our thinking before making a decision.  In fact, our gut should never be the sole determinant of a decision.  Rather, we should always be consulting deep data and "checking in" with colleagues.

Leading can be lonely.  At times, we may think like we need to know everything, or at least pretend that we do.  But, nobody wants an uninformed leader, and more than that, nobody wants an uninformed leader who is afraid to admit that he/she doesn't know everything.

That's why checking your thinking is so important and necessary.

In my current position, my supervisor and I regularly check our thinking with each other.  We might get a gut instinct about a choice to make, and in the majority of instances, we're running that gut instinct by each other first.

This accomplishes two things.  First, it provides additional thoughts and different viewpoints to what may be a very complicated scenario.  There can never truly be too much data when making a choice.  The more we have, the more informed we can become.  Second, it helps us equalize and provides for some decision reliability.  While we might not always see things the same way, we can at least begin to know deeply how we think.  Understanding the thinking patterns of those you work is so important.

So go with your gut, but before you do, give your gut the chance to speak.  Check your thinking with a colleague and do so regularly.