Leaders who ignore their inner guidance could risk losing trust, clarity and alignment. Unsplash

This Q&A is part of Observer’s Expert Insights series, where industry leaders, innovators and strategists distill years of experience into direct, practical takeaways and deliver clarity on the issues shaping their industries. Leaders are taught to prize data, KPIs and quarterly results above all else. Yet for Mory Fontanez, a former corporate crisis manager turned intuitive leadership advisor, the most overlooked tool in a leader’s arsenal is also the most human: intuition.

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Fontanez has spent her career guiding Fortune 500 executives through high-stakes moments—from brand crises to cultural fractures—where the noise of competing pressures often drowns out clarity. Her core belief: every leader possesses an internal guidance system, but too few are taught how to access and trust it. Ignoring that inner voice, she argues, not only increases the risk of reputational missteps and lost trust but severs the authentic connection leaders need with their teams and customers.

Rather than positioning intuition in opposition to data, Fontanez frames it as a partner: a hypothesis that data can support, or a compass to navigate when metrics conflict. She has seen how cultivating intuition—naming it, practicing it and distinguishing it from impulse—enables faster alignment, stronger decision-making and deeper trust across organizations.

Intuitive leadership isn’t a soft skill but a practical, learnable competency. In an era of A.I.-driven decisions and mounting external pressures, leaders who reconnect with their inner wisdom will be the ones shaping the future.

How do you define “intuitive leadership” in practical, day-to-day terms?

Intuitive leadership begins with turning inward—checking in with oneself before taking action or seeking counsel from others. It requires deep self-trust and the belief that within each of us is a well of intuitive wisdom that holds the answers we seek. From this grounded place, intuitive leaders speak and act with clarity, confidence and decisiveness. 

Equally important is their willingness to name this process—whether by saying, “my gut tells me” or “I sense we need to move in this direction.” By openly using the language of intuition, they normalize it, giving their teams permission to do the same. In doing so, they encourage others to access and trust their own inner guidance. In my experience advising hundreds of leaders and teams, I’ve seen that when leadership embraces this approach collectively, alignment comes more naturally, decisions happen faster, and—perhaps most importantly—leaders cultivate stronger connections with their employees, inspiring greater motivation and engagement.

You argue that intuition is an undervalued leadership tool. Why do you think so many leaders today are disconnected from it?

We haven’t been taught to take our intuition seriously or work to cultivate it.  Most of us have grown up in societies that teach us that wisdom is external—that it comes from an expert, a guru or a teacher— rather than coming from within each of us. The world around us, particularly corporate culture, further drives home that message by being overly........

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