With business and society merging, it is important for managers to go beyond numbers into rich, deep, and substantive understanding of society and its needs. “Aside from basic survival, the pursuit of happiness is arguably one of the most fundamental concerns of every human being on the planet.” If happiness is what society ultimately striving for, how can a leader tap into that insight? Firstly, it is important to clarify what happiness is. According to the research, 50% of our happiness is determined by genes. The surprising part is that only 10% of our happiness comes from external circumstances. The products we buy, our financial resources, looks, environment where we live – all these things determine just 10% of ongoing level of happiness. Most importantly, the remaining 40% of happiness comes from our intentional activity: what we do and how we think. This percentage, which is in our control, is tied to living one’s authentic aspirations and sharing them with others.

In the economy of yesterday managers could only focus on the 10% – financial drivers and consumerism – and produce thriving organizations. Intellect and reason were enough to sustain and grow businesses. This is no longer the case. Nowadays, business, social, and global landscapes are seamlessly and complexly interconnected, and managers start paying attention to the most important source of society’s happiness: authentic self-expression and alignment. These deeper buried 40% of happiness become hardly accessible to an outward-looking intellect and it alone is unable to provide sustainable, considerate, and successful results. Intuition, on the other hand, speaks directly to the inner source of happiness as its center of gravity is authenticity and essence of life. Thus, in order to prosper and welcome a more sustainable and brighter future, modern business leaders need to recognize the language and core of human life and match them in the way they run their businesses. More specifically, leaders should open up and embrace the totality of their human essence, while organizations need to project authenticity, clear core, and awareness in their relationship with the customers.

If manager’s task is to speak the rich language of essence, authenticity, and alignment in order to create prosperity, then intellect won’t be of great help here: there is nothing authentic about intellect. “If you follow logical mind, then anybody who follows the logical method can catch you anywhere.” Intellect can get managers profits. From that point on, the law of diminishing returns applies. To reach for sustainable prosperity, a totality of human essence needs to be utilized.

Lend your intellect a dose of authenticity. It will thank you for that. Society will thank you for that. Hone your awareness. Observe intently. Stay open-minded. Listen to yourself first, data second. Go on intellectual detox. Come back sharper, more aware, and deeper.

When speaking about relevance to the society, innovation is the key. Continuous innovation is what creates and keeps the customer. Great innovation, however, is possible if leaders welcome uncertainty, transcend established ideas, pursue creative new alleys, and are in tune with their time. Innovation based on intellect won’t get you far: more of the “better sameness”. Innovation based on intuition and insight will, in turn, result in meaningful breakthroughs that speak to the 40% of customer’s happiness, because the resulted product/service is authentic and aware. Here are two reinforcing examples from the world business leaders:

• Steve Jobs believed that “customers cannot tell you what they need.” Customers can articulate their desires based on their current knowledge, but that would not lead to insight and result in great innovation, would it? Jobs did, however, focus on delivering value to the customer and he did it through intense observation and intuition among others.
• David Holder revived a “sleeping beauty” Ladurée (French luxury bakery, famous for its macarons) and positioned it as a premier Parisian experience. Mr. Holder is known to follow his intuition and he did by developing a unique brand concept “beyond the diktat of current trends.” He followed the principle of “beautiful place, beautiful people”, establishing Ladurée shops in places aligned with the core of beauty of the brand, where meaningful connection with local managers was established. By aligning spirit of the brand with the destination he believed customers could receive the most authentic Ladurée experience.

To conclude this series of posts on human essence as a key prosperity, my engagement in Global Drucker Forum 2014 made me think how far we have come and what is next for management. In 1959, Peter Drucker coined the term “knowledge worker” to signify our transition from industrial-based era to knowledge-based are. Considering current turbulent economic climate where business and society have merged, the next era might as well be the era of human essence.

Consider exploring next: A New Breed of Business Leaders: Intuitive Principles for the New Millennium

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A blog following the Global Peter Drucker Forum 2014. An opportunity to share experiences and learn from one another in the context of The Great Transformation.

Human essence, as I shall refer to the question of what makes us who we are, is often and conveniently diminished to human character, aptitudes, and virtues. Largely speaking, to intellect, knowledge, and reason. If managers adopt this consideration, they only see the tip of the iceberg. The larger, deeper, and more profound part of human essence remains unseen. Therefore, no matter how many and how promising initiatives management implements, if they are based on the surface manifestation of human essence, they will soon be rendered ineffective and unsustainable: more of Band-Aid fix rather than core-deep solution. To understand the wholeness of human essence, and thus the path to business prosperity, is to understand the “underwater” part, which is insight and intuition.

Why insight and intuition? And what makes them the core part of human essence? To start afar, according to Osho, “the reality is your interpretation of truth”, created through the mind and thought mechanism. Thus with intellect, surface manifestation of human essence, business, social, and global landscapes are not “what you see is what you get”: where some leaders see obstacles, others see opportunities. Insight, in turn, comes from the place of resting mind, active awareness and openness. While intellect is the periphery of human essence, insight has its roots in intuition, the center of your being. Once mind is exhausted, intuition steps in. Therefore, insight and intuition are the therapy for the current state of business frustration, answering questions that intellect alone is unable to do.

Further zeroing in on the initial question, there are great endorsements of insight and intuition as an essential part of human essence by business leaders, such as Steve Jobs and Angela Ahrendts. Jobs said:

“Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

Angela Ahrendts, in turn, is credited with remarkable revival and growth of British luxury brand, Burberry. I am an avid fan of her leadership and core principles. One of the lessons she teaches us is about intuition:

“Intuition is a form of wisdom, a gift of knowing without reasoning. When you’re not forced to over think things it’s amazing the clarity that emerges and how rapidly you can adapt. Intuition is usually more right than wrong. Why is it that we value thinking over feeling? Why aren’t we taught to follow our natural inclinations to protect the possibilities instead of just accepting the probabilities?”

From the above two quotes, we see both leaders embracing a wholesome understanding of human essence: intellect and intuitive insights. It is also important to note here that both leaders managed their organizations to prosperity, beyond profit. Therefore, while intellect and reason in business environment result in profit; insight and intuition lead to prosperity (more on this in Part 2).

Peter Drucker always strongly emphasized an “integrity of character” as a central factor in the tomorrow’s manager. In The Practice of Management he also addressed a presence of intuition in business:

“They [objectives] must not be based on the expedient or on adaptation to the economic tides. Managing a business cannot, in other words, depend on ‘intuition’. In fact, in the modern industrial economy with its long time-span between a decision and the ripening of its fruits, the intuitive manager is a luxury few companies, large or small, can afford.”

Drucker was right about sole reliance on intuition. He, however, gave it a dismal role to play. His statement “I believe in intuition only if you discipline it” in our time would sound like: I believe in intellect only if you discipline it. Nowadays we see everyone on the business scene is touched in one way or another by high levels of uncertainty, turbulence, high velocity, stalled revenues, and a shrinking customer base. With a short-time span between a decision and a result, managers and leaders are looking for ways to stay afloat and succeed by different means: from integration of big data at the heart of the organization to building transient competitive advantages. Intuitive manager is thus no longer a luxury but a necessity. In order for business to prosper, it needs to be anchored in the society and business leaders need to become role models of human essence-based management. Successful interpretation and application of human essence in business expression and initiatives, in turn, will lead to prosperity.

Read Next Part II of II: Human Essence Application Lessons in Management and Prosperity Creation

Author Biography

Ellina Watanabe, the Founding Director of Heresmé, is an intuitive consultant and brand strategist who helps individuals and businesses to (re-)discover their essence and master an “enhanced” decision-making process. She’s currently at work on her first book.

Follow her on Twitter @heresme_fr | Facebook.com/heresme.fr | Slideshare.net/Heresme

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A blog following the Global Peter Drucker Forum 2014. An opportunity to share experiences and learn from one another in the context of The Great Transformation.