DOES YOUR LEADERSHIP LACK WISDOM?

Explicit knowledge doesn't help in a time of discontinuity and constant change. Explicit knowledge is defenseless in slowing the rate of change as it sprints across your industry. Explicit knowledge is past-based, measuring what happened yesterday. Decisions based on the past might be wrong for the future. The use of explicit knowledge as the only compass might take you in the wrong direction.

Explicit knowledge is needed, but by itself results in inadequate solutions. Leaders need an additional kind of knowledge - leaders need wisdom. Never has wisdom in leadership been so needed—and never has wisdom in leadership been so lacking.

Many leaders rely solely on explicit, tacit knowledge because it can be codified, measured, and widespread. Leaders mistakenly believe they can manage the risk and cause effective action using numbers, data, and scientific formulas instead of making judgments that would be far better made by wisdom.

The business literature, my direct experience, and the experience of my clients and colleagues conclude that highly successful leaders consciously draw on this other kind of knowledge called wisdom in the face of destabilizing change.

Wisdom is a kind of knowledge gained from experience and fierce honest self-examination that enables leaders to make prudent judgments and take wise actions based on actual situations and circumstances, firmly guided by their values and ethics.