An experience I had today makes me ask the question: Should you follow your gut instinct?
Over my years in sales & marketing, I have met and worked with numerous people and have gone against my gut instinct a handful of times. One of these gut instincts that I went against occurred recently when I appointed a Distributor for a product through a consulting engagement I am currently running, who when I first met him I had a feeling he was not the right fit. Then he showed his real colours for the first time which led me to let him know he was no longer welcome at a meeting I was holding with a customer, which I put down to poor communication on my behalf.
Following a face-to-face meeting and given I really like his business partner with whom I had started the engagement, I decided to give him another chance. This was also reinforced and strongly encouraged by the CEO and a Board of Directors who were looking for something to announce to the Stock Exchange. Even though my gut was telling me ‘he is not the right fit and he is going to be more trouble than he is worth’ I gave in to the pressure and told myself that I am being paranoid and appointed his new organisation as a Distributor.
Well, you guessed it, it turns out my gut instinct was right and he became more trouble than he is worth. The events of today are now the third or possibly fourth time he has shown me who he really is; someone who talks a good talk but is full of ____. This serves as yet another reminder that you should always go with your gut instinct.
I think people can change their behaviours and actions if they consciously want to, through training. What I also believe is that the core beliefs that someone has will never stray far from their origin, or in other words, people can’t substantially change who they are under the covers.
What do you think?