What If Your Best Instinct Is Actually Your Worst Advisor?
Updated: Sep 18
A number of years ago, I had a career decision to make. It was the kind that lands in your lap on a Tuesday and demands an answer by Friday.
My gut spoke up immediately. Loud, clear, and confident.
"You already know what to do."
So I listened. I didn't run the numbers, didn't sit with the tension long enough to ask a second question, and didn't stop to consider whether the certainty I felt was wisdom or simply comfort dressed up as courage.
It cost me. Not catastrophically. I'm still here. But it was enough to stop me in my tracks and force me to confront something uncomfortable. The instinct I'd been calling my greatest strength was actually running on outdated software.
My "gut feeling" wasn't some mystical inner compass. It had been shaped by limiting beliefs, old assumptions, insecurities I hadn't examined, and experiences I was still replaying in my mind. I reacted instead of responding, and there's a world of difference between the two.
If you've been following this series, you know we've already explored awareness, recognizing what's happening beneath the surface, and acceptance, the discipline of meeting reality without flinching. This post is about what comes next: Conscious Choices, the third COR.E Dynamics discipline. It may be the one that changes how you lead more than any other.
Why Do Smart Leaders Still Make Bad Decisions?
One of the biggest lessons I learned through coaches training is that the quality of your decisions is directly connected to your energy in the moment you make them. Not your IQ. Not your experience. Your energy.
When your energy is low, you're stressed, reactive, and running on fumes. Your brain narrows its focus and defaults to survival mode: fight, flight, or freeze. You might call that "going with your gut," but what's really happening is that your most anxious, least creative self has taken the wheel. It’s the reason every time I was not in an income producing job, I panicked, called my realtor, and said I needed to sell my house. Or when I had that one bad day that was the tip of the iceberg on a bad job, I immediately starting looking for a new gig.
When your energy is high, something different happens. You're present, grounded, and fully engaged. Instead of relying on one way of thinking, you can access logic, emotion, and intuition at the same time. They begin working together like members of a great team instead of competing for control.
That's what it means to be a 7th Level Leader making conscious choices. You're not ignoring your gut, and you're not trying to suppress your emotions with spreadsheets. You're integrating data, heart, and instinct so you can make decisions from the fullest version of yourself.
How Do You Actually Use Logic, Emotion, and Intuition Together?
Think of decision-making as a triangle. Each corner contributes something valuable, yet most of us naturally overuse one while neglecting the others.
Logic gives you facts, patterns, and evidence. It's the part of you that says, "Let's look at the data before we decide." That's essential. But logic alone can become paralysis because there's always one more report to read or one more scenario to analyze.
Emotion tells you what matters. It reminds you that every decision affects real people, including yourself. Leaders who dismiss emotions as weakness often overlook one of the richest sources of information they have. At the same time, emotions without perspective can easily hijack good judgment. When I sent that angry late-night email that was exactly the case. I’m sure you know what I am talking about.
Intuition is your brain's ability to recognize patterns beneath conscious awareness. It's fast and often incredibly useful. But here's the catch. Intuition is only as trustworthy as the beliefs underneath it.
That was my lesson.
If your intuition is rooted in fear of failure or the need to prove yourself, it isn't guiding you toward growth. It's trying to keep you safe, and safety and growth often point in different directions.
The conscious choice comes when you pause long enough to check all three perspectives. It doesn't have to take an hour. Sometimes thirty seconds is enough to ask:
What do the facts tell me?
What am I feeling?
What is my instinct saying, and where is that instinct coming from? Is it coming from a place of fear?
What Does "Being at Choice" Actually Look Like?
Here's the insight that changed everything for me.
Being at choice doesn't mean you'll always make the right decision. It means you're aware that you're making one.
Too often we move through life on autopilot. We react to the loudest voice, whether it's outside of us or inside our own heads, and then explain our actions afterward by saying, "I had no choice."
Most of the time, that's simply not true.
Between every stimulus and every response is a moment where we get to choose. Viktor Frankl wrote about this, and I've seen it play out repeatedly in great leaders. That space is where your power lives.
When you recognize that you always have a choice, even if every option feels difficult, you stop being a passenger in your own leadership. You begin taking ownership of your decisions instead of making excuses for them.
Here's what that looks like in practice.
Pause before the pivot. When a high-stakes decision arrives, resist the urge to answer immediately. Even ten intentional seconds can shift you from reacting to responding. Simply naming what you're feeling changes your perspective.
Run the triangle check. Ask yourself: What do the facts support? What does my gut say, and what belief is driving it? What would I decide if fear weren't involved? If time allows, write your answers down. Seeing them on paper creates enough distance to think more clearly.
Name your autopilot. We all have default patterns. Maybe yours is saying yes to avoid conflict. Maybe it's making quick decisions so people see you as decisive. Whatever your pattern is, identify it before it makes the decision for you.
Choose and own it. Once you've considered logic, emotion, and intuition, make the decision and commit to it. Conscious choices don't guarantee perfect outcomes, but they do ensure you showed up as your best self. That changes how you handle whatever happens next.
What Is Your Gut Instinct Actually Telling You?
Looking back, I can clearly see why my instinct failed me. It wasn't broken. It was simply operating from an old story.
It was a story that told me I didn’t belong where I was. A story that equated success with departure.
Awareness would have helped me recognize that story. Acceptance would have helped me admit it without beating myself up. Conscious choices would have given me a practical way to write a different ending.
The good news? There's always another opportunity. That's one of the gifts of leadership. It keeps presenting us with new moments to choose differently.
What Choice Are You Making on Autopilot Right Now?
The 7th Level Leader doesn't face fewer difficult decisions. They simply have a healthier relationship with making them. They understand that every decision is an opportunity to lead from the fullest version of themselves, where logic, emotion, and intuition all have a seat at the table.
So let me leave you with one question.
What decision are you making on autopilot right now?
What would change if you paused long enough to check all three corners of the triangle before moving forward?
You might surprise yourself.
Let's Talk About It
If you're realizing that some of your biggest decisions have been driven by autopilot instead of intention, let's have a conversation. I offer a free discovery coaching session where we can explore what making more conscious choices could look like in your leadership.
No pressure. No sales pitch. Just an honest conversation about where you are today and where you want to go next.
Check out our other posts in this series:
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