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To follow your knowing as a leader, you first have to recognise that your body has been giving you data your mind has been trained to override. There is a signal most leaders have experienced but few have learned to trust.
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A moment of deep certainty that arrives without a spreadsheet behind it. A pull toward a direction that your logic has not yet validated. A physical response, goosebumps, a settling in the chest, a quiet clarity, that shows up before the analysis is complete. Most leaders have felt this. And most have learned to dismiss it. The alignment signal was there. They chose not to follow it.
The Alignment Signal Your Body Is SendingYour body responds to alignment before your mind has finished processing the options. This is not abstract. It is physiological. When something lands in a way that is deeply congruent with who you are and where you are heading, the body registers it. Sometimes it is goosebumps. Sometimes it is a warmth in the chest. Sometimes it is a pull that does not have a rational explanation but carries more weight than the spreadsheet. Science describes part of this as kama muta, a Sanskrit term for the feeling of being deeply moved. It involves a sudden sense of closeness, connection, or recognition, and it is often accompanied by tears, goosebumps, or a sensation of warmth in the centre of the chest. This is not sentiment. It is information. It is one of the clearest alignment signals available to you.
Why Leaders Override the SignalHigh-capacity leaders are trained in analysis. They are rewarded for logic, rigour, and evidence-based decisions. And that training serves them well, until it becomes the only channel they trust. However, the body’s signals are not the opposite of logic. They are a different layer of intelligence operating alongside it. The issue is that most leaders have spent decades prioritising one channel and dismissing the other. When you follow your knowing alongside the data, the decision carries both rigour and resonance. The result is decisions that are technically sound but feel flat. Directions that look correct on paper but carry no energy behind them. Strategies that tick the boxes but do not generate momentum, because the leader’s knowing was not consulted in the process. When leaders stop following their knowing, the decisions lose something logic cannot replace.
The Difference Between Instinct and KnowingThis distinction matters. Instinct is the reactive pull toward safety. It contracts. It avoids. It protects you from perceived danger, and it served you well in earlier chapters. Knowing is different. It does not contract. It settles. It arrives with a quiet certainty that is not defensive or reactive. It is the signal that something is aligned with who you are and where you are going, even if the path forward is not fully visible yet. Learning to distinguish between the two is part of the deeper work of leadership at this level. It is what allows you to follow your knowing with confidence rather than confusion.
What It Looks Like to Follow Your KnowingI have been tracking these moments since 2009. Not every one, but enough to see what is consistent. What themes keep surfacing. What direction the body keeps pointing toward when the mind is quiet enough to listen. Some of the messages have been profound. Directions that seemed bold at the time but turned out to be precisely where the next phase was waiting. When you follow your knowing and align it with the work you do, something shifts. Decisions carry more weight. The work feels purposeful. You stop performing and start leading from a place that is congruent with who you are.
How to Start Reading Your Body IntelligenceThis does not require a new system. It requires paying attention to what your body has been telling you. Notice when something lands with weight. Notice when a conversation, a direction, or a decision produces a physical response that goes beyond intellectual agreement. That is data. That is your body intelligence at work. And begin to record it. Over time, the pattern becomes visible. What your knowing has been pointing toward starts to form a picture that your mind could not have assembled on its own.
If you have been overriding these signals and the decisions have felt heavier than they should, that disconnect is worth exploring. Book a 15-minute Strategy Call and discover what shifts when you follow your knowing instead of overriding it.
To your brilliance, Tanya Cross Industry Leader Coach & The Coaches’ Coach BAppSoSc (Counselling) |
