Whether you are aware of it or not, you use your intuition in decision making every day, several times a day:

During conversations with your suppliers and/or with your clients (either internal or external), during performance conversations with your direct reports, during decision-making meetings, etc.

The fact is, most everybody uses his or her intuition all the time.

But, what exactly is “intuition”?

What does “intuition” mean?

According to Webster's dictionary, intuition is immediate cognition—quick and ready insight.

According to Wikipedia, intuition is the ability to acquire knowledge without recourse to conscious reasoning.

According to most managers—when I ask them for their definition of intuition—intuition is, they say, "a gut feeling”

These definitions are well and fine, but they are far from being a leadership tool.

Since you use your intuition all the time, you need a definition that is specific and useful.

Here is the definition I highly recommend you use instead.

It is short, concrete, and empirical:

Intuition in decision making: There are two reasons why this definition is a practical and powerful leadership tool:

If you are a leader—at any level in your organization—you need to make decisions all the time. And more often than you would like it to be, you must make those decisions without enough information.

The fact is, you don’t always have all the information you require, and information—remember—is THE MAIN ingredient in good decision-making.

In other words, you must use your intuition, whether you like it or not.

Your experience develops your intuition.

The more experience you obtain, the better your intuition—and viceversa.

The more experience you have, the better your ability to make good decisions with little information.

There are several competencies you must use everyday to do your job—your intuition in decision making is just one of them.