As I was watching the season finale of The Morning show, I got another burst of inspiration. (I know, another article inspired by this show 😆, I highly recommend it. It is very well executed and explore so many nuances in human connections). Like in my previous article, I will give some context before diving in. In this episode, the CEO of UBA (Cory Ellison played by Bill Ducrup), a major news company, wants to sell the company to a billionaire tech and finance mogul (Paul Marks played by Jon Hamm) who also owns an astronautics company called Hyperion. Cory is thrilled to close this deal and when he finds out his mom, a political strategist, has been making calls to the DOJ about Paul, he pays her a visit to convince her to stop digging around. During the conversation, she casually mentions to him that she saw the headlines and something the acquisition does not feel right, so she is meeting with someone in the DOJ to get more information about Paul Marks and his company. Her excitement turns to anger when she finds out that what seemed like a "I miss you mom" visit is really a manipulative tactic to get her to stop her pursuit of the truth. She then tells him "it's so interesting what happens when women get older, we carry this wisdom but no one cares, you really you just want us to get out of the way, you want us to be silent and quiet as the grave". Of course Cory later finds out his mom was right the entire time: Paul was not only doing some shady things with his astronautics company but he also planned to remove him as CEO and sell UBA for parts after the acquisition.
Cory's mom statement made me pause, and I believe it does not only apply to older women but women in general. In a world driven by achievements, metrics, numbers how often do we take the time to slow down and analyze things thread by thread? We get so excited about the end goal, the big accomplishment that we sometimes bypass every single red flag or intuitive nudge that comes our way. In Cory's case, he was so desperate for cash and relieved when a "golden" opportunity presented itself that he did not take the time to carefully investigate the man who was going to buy his company. I believe women are gifted with what we usually called "intuition" and our voices are usually silenced in a world that cares more about tangible results, data or proof. Our intuition is nothing like hard facts, for me it's usually a gut feeling, a nudge in my stomach that tells me something is not right, and I have paid the price everytime I failed to listen to it. Some people might not even know what their intuition feels like because they have not taken the time to slow down and really listen, which is a real challenge in a society where our attention is constantly pulled away from us. My practice to be in touch with my intuition is to take a couple of minutes a day to feel with my 5 senses, I take deep breaths and record what I can see, feel, taste, touch, hear and it has definitely helped increase my sense of awareness. I am definitely not perfect, I am aware that it's very difficult to slow down but I sincerely believe our intuition is a gift that should be cultivated . I hope we will get to be in a world where women will be heard in the corporate environment when they say " the numbers look good, but something does not feel right let's revisit this agreement thread by thread". I hope the women reading this trust their gut more often and the men reading this learn to trust their women's gut feeling. As I finish typing this, I am remembering the lyrics of a popular song one of my favorite coaches shared with me around this topic " Slow down, I just want to get to you know you...." , you know the rest 😉
Until Next Time,
Winnie