Here's the moment that derails most conversations I’ve had about intuition vs. data: someone on the data side says, "But gut feelings are full of bias," and they're right — intuition absolutely can be contaminated by bias. Confirmation bias, recency bias, overconfidence. The research on this is solid. But here's the part that doesn't get said nearly as often: so is your data. The datasets you're analyzing reflect the biases of the people who decided what to measure. The metri

We’ve all seen it: the person who seems to be the VP’s golden child gets the promotion, while the quiet, high-performer stays exactly where they are. I coached a Director of Engineering (let’s call him Tim) who was deeply frustrated after watching multiple promotion cycles pass him by. He had been asking for the next level for nearly two years, with no clear answer on when or even if it would happen. Over time, the uncertainty began to erode his satisfaction with a job he