Intuition At Work

Book Notes: Intuition @ Work: Trusting Your Gut to Get Ahead in Business and Life by Melanie Barnum 

Melanie Barnum’s book Intuition @ Work, is an excellent primer for those wanting to understand the practical side of developing their intuition. She breaks down how to recognize and strengthen one’s own intuitive abilities and offers a modern path for business success by harnessing abilities that have been misunderstood, and perhaps even viewed as “off-limits”.   

There is nothing to fear and much to gain on the intuitive path.  Historically, we have been programmed to fear or reject what we do not understand. I find it helps to remind folks that early man considered fire, rain, and many other natural phenomenon “magic”. Once our minds can explain these things, we no longer consider it “magic”. The field of science around Intuition is continuing to grow and has made great strides to explain what was previous unexplainable. 

I came across Melanie Barnum’s book recently in my search for a relatable framework to explain intuitive abilities to both the teens leaders I train in my community and the professional clients I coach.  With a lot of division and twisted truths, it is becoming more and more important for us to recognize truths by learning to trust our own discernment. Work is a great place to practice. Once strengthened, our intuitive senses can play a big role in our ability to choose the best options by providing additional information and signals to us for making decisions. 

I am someone who has been tapping into my own intuitive abilities for decades. I wish I could say I have always trusted them, or been able to follow the guidance. These skills were often hidden early in my life due to external circumstances. As I learned to harness my intuitive abilities, I can confidently say they have saved me time and money, signaled to me regarding important decisions or partnerships, saved my life on more than one occasion. Always helping me in achieving my greater purpose.  

It is a very personal journey that we each take to strengthen these abilities. However, we all innately possess and can strengthen our understanding of what we call strong instincts, extrasensory perceptions, psychic powers, or intuition.  Each time I dive into this topic, more questions arise. I offer you some definitions for a frame of reference. 

What is Intuition? 

• I found many abstract definitions of Intuition, rendering it an elusive, often ethereal sense that evades concrete descriptions. Here are a few examples of what I came across: 

• According to Oxford Dictionary, Intuition is a noun and is defined as;  “the ability to understand something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning.”  

• More poetically stated by Author Paulo Coelho in his book, The Alchemist, “Intuition is really the sudden immersion of the soul into the universal current of life where the histories of all people are connected, and we are able to know everything, because it’s all written there.” 

• Author Melanie Barnum explains that “When you leverage intuition to increase your business acumen, you are simply using your gut instincts to get ahead…..Intuition is instinctive. It is an intrinsic capacity to know things through our extrasensory perception, without any concrete or conscious reason.  Intuition flows through us and is already a part of our lives.” 

• I also scanned the scholarly research journals on this topic and I found 17 separate definitions of intuition used in research since 1990. Perhaps another day we can dive deeper, but suffice it to say, there are plenty of viewpoints on the topic. Some helpful for business leaders. 

I invite you to use whatever definition you like. As you develop your intuitive abilities, you may find you have your own unique way of describing it.  I know I do. To get you started, let’s look at how Intuition at Work describes the common intuitive senses, often called “the Clairs”. Barnum’s book offers a grounded explanation of  the “Clairs”, which means “clear” in French.  

In Barnum’s words….“Clairvoyance is clear psychic sight, being able to see things in your mind that aren’t there in your physical reality. Clairaudience is psychic hearing, or the gift of hearing sounds or words or voices that are not audible to the naked ear. Clairsentience is being able to feel things about others psychically, your gut instinct. And psychic knowing, or Claircognizance, is when you know things that you have no reasonable basis for knowing. 

Research is beginning to support what many are learning firsthand, that natural intuitive abilities are accessible for anyone. Melanie Barnum’s book, Intuition at Work, paints the picture for the reader of what intuitive abilities look like in the workplace and why they should be developed.  She also offers a great roundup of simple exercises to cultivate a greater awareness as a first step.  Strengthening your intuitive abilities can support your work with others, will reduce your anxiety over planning for the future, and help you navigate unexpected challenges in your business and personal life.