career when I was presented with an “urgent” opportunity to pursue something that promised a huge windfall, and the possibility of the windfall got me salivating as I considered the opportunity. I knew in my heart that the opportunity was very risky, the windfall was very uncertain, or the people involved were less than professional, but the size of the potential windfall made me think hard. At those times, I always went with my intuition and, to my knowledge, not one of the opportunities I passed on ever amounted to anything.
When Dealing With Human Issues. Intuition is critical when dealing with human issues, such as hiring, firing, staffing, and partnering. Objective facts are very important, but as a final determinant at “crunch time,” they just don’t compete with our intuitive ability to assess another human being. I have hired people with extraordinarily impressive resumes, over intuitive objections, only to have them flame out. Likewise, I have hired extraordinary employees who had only lukewarm resumes but strong intuitive appeal.
Copyright © 2007 David M. Traversi
The above is an excerpt from the book The Source of Leadership
by David M. Traversi
Published by New Harbinger Publications, Inc. ;2007;.95US; 978-1-57224-508-2
Copyright © 2007 David M. Traversi
Author
David M. Traversi is the founder and managing director of 2020 Growth Partners, LLC (www.2020gp.com), which offers executive coaching, strategic advisory, merchant banking, and leadership development services to executives and companies across the United States. He has worked as a chief executive of operating companies, a trial lawyer, a commercial lender,