The Gift of Gut Intuition
Liz Needham 
An exploration of gut intuition as vital leadership intelligence, encouraging leaders to trust embodied signals and logic when navigating uncertainty.
The gift of gut intuition
It might not be your first thought when you imagine a 🎁 especially in a leadership context. But I think it’s becoming more important than ever and I'm learning every day to ignore mine at my peril.
Recently, I had the privilege of listening to Gabor Maté, a leader in trauma and childhood development. His work always leaves me feeling inspired and 'seen'. He spoke about fear and intuition.
His reminder was simple but powerful:
👉 Gut feel is real intelligence.
It’s rooted in how we evolved and is a way of us knowing what is real and what isn’t. Intuition is a deeper knowing that goes beyond what we are taught or learn. It often arrives with us before we can explain it with words and logic.
But we have learnt to override it. We prioritise logic, data, and evidence over what we feel in our bodies. We’re taught from a young age to doubt those instincts, to bury them rather than learning to read them and use them well.
We’re told:
🔹 Don’t be rude.
🔹 Don’t rock the boat.
🔹 Don’t speak up unless you have proof.
But what if ignoring your gut is the bigger risk and you’re shutting down a fundamental source of knowing that you can turn into wisdom in your work and life?
I’ve worked with leaders who:
👐 Sense when a change will land with their team harder than it looks
🫤 Feel a shift in team morale before anything is said
🧭 Know something’s not right, even when metrics say it's fine
And they doubt themselves because… where’s the evidence?
But here’s the thing:
🧘♂️ Our bodies send more messages from our gut to our brain than the other way around.
🧪The gut is rich in neurons, chemicals, and information and shares the same nervous system.
🚅 Our gut is fast. It’s sharp. It’s trying to keep us safe.
🧠 We celebrate IQ.
📊 We validate logic.
But intuition is just as real and just as needed, especially in complex, fast paced leadership where there are fewer and fewer right answers and an avalanche of data.
A few years ago, a friend told me how she taught her daughter to trust her gut:
“If something feels wrong, you don’t need to explain it. You can say no. You can leave. Tell me, and I’ll listen.” That’s leadership too.
A gentle nudge. If you lead others, or lead yourself:
💬 Pause and try to listen to what your gut is telling you in different situations, like when you make your next big decision.
🧭 Trust the knowing that you can’t fully explain.
🫱🏽🫲🏼 Encourage others to listen to their gut, too.
When we honour our inner signals as much as the technical competence we develop in our careers, we become more grounded, more connected and more human leaders.
If you want to know more, Gavin De Becker's book is a great place to start.
Or get in touch ✉️ and we can explore how you can access more of your inner wisdom over a ☕ . There is a whole treasure chest of resource waiting for you.
Categories: : Embodied leadership, Executive coaching, Leadership development, Leadership systems and relationships, Leadership under pressure, LeadFromWisdom, Self trust and awareness, Sustainable leadership