“Get me a sword.” So they brought a sword before the king. The king said, “Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one and half to the other.” Then the woman whose child was the living one spoke to the king, for she was deeply stirred over her son and said, “Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and by no means kill him.”
But the other said, “He shall be neither mine nor yours; divide him!” Then the king said, “Give the first woman the living child, and by no means kill him. She is his mother.”
1 Kings 3:24-27
King Solomon had a dream where God asked him what he wanted. When Solomon asked for understanding and good judgment, God rewarded him with WISDOM.
What is wisdom? It is discernment—the ability to know what to do, how to do it, and when to do it. Immediately following God’s gift of wisdom, God would arrange for a public demonstration. In my book PERSUADE, “The Law of the Sixth Sense” will teach you how to develop a sense of the T.I.E., Timing, Intuition, and Emotion. While emotional intelligence deals with reading emotions in yourself and others, a leader leveraging their sixth sense brings timing and intuition into the equation. With a developed sixth sense, you can read and lead a situation, assess the emotional environment, and then use wisdom to create a productive outcome.
Emotional intelligence isn’t enough. In a stunning demonstration of God’s wisdom, Solomon ordered the dividing of the baby with a sword as a way to set the stage for the emotional reaction of both mothers to be observed. Solomon knew (intuition) that the true mother would never allow the child to be killed. While one mother spoke up to protect her son, the other showed indifference to the child’s life. In that moment (timing), while Solomon observed the emotional reaction of both women, he was able to determine who the true mother was. Success in any field requires a degree of lever- aging the sixth sense, knowing how to use Timing, Intuition, and Emotion to create a productive outcome for yourself and others.
What are you doing to increase your ability to grow the T.I.E. in your leadership?
REFLECT TO CONNECT
- Whom do you know that has a sense for what to say, how to say it, and when to say it?
- Can you recall a time when you were “out of sync” with some- thing you said or “missed the moment”?
- What steps can you take to become more aware of the sixth sense in operation during meetings and conversations you attend?
A highly trained Sixth Sense (T.I.E.) is the differentiator between the talented and uber-talented.
