Wisdom in Leadership

I was sitting in a coffee shop talking with a friend of mine who will be 90 years young in the next few months.  I asked him this question:  “What is the wisest decision you have made in your life?”  I was surprised that the question stumped him. This is a man who served in WWII, was married for over 50 years, and had a successful business career.  Over the next thirty minutes he continued to wrestle with the concept of wisdom.

During his life he made a series of choices that impacted his family, business and other relationships.  He made those choices based on his knowledge of the circumstances.  Sometimes they were good decisions and sometimes they did not work out so well.

Was he just lucky that some of the decisions he made worked out?  Was wisdom at play whether he realized it or not?  The question for me is what might he have accomplished had he given more intentional thought to wisdom along the way?

During my study of wisdom leadership I have quickly found that it transcends self.  It is compassionate, insightful, gracious, and charitable.  It is confident without being arrogant or self serving.

Many wish to be wise. Yet there are wrong concepts of what wisdom is. Having large amounts of knowledge is not wisdom. Knowledge is the accumulation of facts.  Yet knowledge is worthless if it is not correctly applied.

Understanding is a critical aspect relating directly to knowledge and wisdom. Understanding is said to be a step beyond knowledge. It requires seeing the big picture, to see how the knowledge fits.

How can you apply wisdom to your leadership?

1. Listen- this is how you acquire knowledge
2. Learn- this is understanding
3. Apply- this is Wisdom

Wisdom does not come overnight; you have to seek it out like treasure.  When you find it, you will achieve a level of leadership that will have a powerful impact on the people you lead.