THE only real valuable thing is intuition, according to Albert Einstein, but does intuition have value in a business context? Or is it simply too wishy-washy as something on which to base a decision-making process?

According to Joan Charles, if you are in tune with your intuition then things flow naturally and you move in the right direction. Charles, based in Gourock, Inverclyde, is an author and coach who delivers intuitive leadership courses for entrepreneurs.

She says: “If you truly go with your first gut instinct, then this can have amazing results on business and, in turn, the bottom line.

“People like Conrad Hilton used gut instinct when bidding for a hotel and got it, and there are loads more like him.”

So what is intuition, or gut instinct? And why don’t more of us embrace it?

Charles says: “A gut feeling is that very first sense you get that something is either right or wrong. It’s your internal compass that guides you if you listen to it.

“People often ignore it because they put intuition down to coincidence, worry about what others will think, or simply just dismiss it as nonsense.”

We are born with the ability to intuit but gradually, over the years, it’s taught out of us.

You know, never judge a sausage by its skin or a book by its cover. But just as easily as we are taught not to listen to our gut feelings, we can learn to tap back into them again.

Charles says there are many tools that can be used to train individuals to re-connect with their intuition, which is there under the surface.

“It’s a muscle that just needs a bit of exercise to help kick start it back into working for you,”

she explains. “This is what I train leaders and companies in.”

Intuition can be harnessed in a number of business contexts. For example, a business Charles was working with used intuition to help other make a decision on which business to merge with.

And it was the right decision, since it was later discovered that the other company would have taken them down a path that was not in line with its own.

Another business used intuition to determine why a particular team was not working and how to resolve that. The outcome was a far better performing team that worked in sync to produce results.

Charles says: “You know, intuition is that flash, spark, hunch that you get when thinking about a business idea, solution and so on. Once you have that, it’s a matter of working backwards to fill in the logical steps in order to make it happen.

“This is the proof and evidence that’s needed to back up intuition. Many great scientists have used this method including the likes of Edison and Einstein.”

Charles says it’s about taking a leap of faith in order to get you to where you need to be: “Entrepreneurs use it all the time, they don’t stop to ask why, they just do it.”

Michelle Rodger is a communications consultant