OPINION: When leaders seek wisdom

Intelligence, brilliance, diligence, charisma, vibrancy, competitiveness, and acumen: these are the traits of leaders who stand out. These are qualities of leaders who rise and shine. Most studies say that leaders need to have a mental agility that is able to make them see a diverse range of challenges. Leaders need to have a fierce desire to outdo competitors and benchmarks.

Leaders need to have a charm that helps in dissolving opposition and opponents. The hallmarks of successful leaders entail all these elements. Leadership literature is rightly focusing on how to make leaders adopt these traits to overcome the challenges they face.

Strangely enough, the more people talk, research and write about leadership, the more the deficit of leaders who actually make a mark in the hall of great leadership. If you look around the world, we find very few leaders who can really pass the test of true leadership.

Times have changed. Times are changing. They are changing so fast that most leaders caught in the whirlwind of headwinds finds it difficult to carve a path away from the storm that they are into. The situation in most countries and companies is of turbulence and disturbance. Technology is racing ahead. Business rules are an overnight game. Employees are facing generational wars at workplaces. This has made the ship of leaders unsteady.

In such an environment where everything is swirling, how to keep steady is a huge task. That is where the wisdom of a leader counts. Wisdom is something that has always been relegated to philosophers. Say the word ‘wisdom’, the image of Aristotle comes to mind. When you look at the fact that wisdom is not something restricted for the few but is required in every aspect of life, we need to cultivate a disposition for it. In today’s world where the pressure to take decisions driven by trends is a trend, more wisdom is required.

Another perception is that wisdom comes with grey hair. Not really. If we look at some aged leaders ruling top countries and their highly unwise behaviours, we know that wisdom is a choice; a choice that you can make at any age or stage. Like every choice, choosing wisdom would require a path that is not easy and patience that is hard to come by.

We see the social media driving the most stable people to do unstable things. We see leaders focusing less on investing in inspiring respect to investing in the number of likes on Instagram. If ever the need for some sanity, some wisdom to prevail in leadership was required, it is now. Wisdom is the ability to use your knowledge and experience to make sound judgements and decisions. That seems easy. Not so. It requires the will to resist the waves around you and do what other leaders scarcely do these days, i.e., work on the four pillars of wisdom:

Pillar#1— wise leaders know that they do not know - Leaders have an auto default. They become successful and rise. This rise makes them feel they are above others. This rise makes the ego block the learning channel. This rise makes them blurred to the dangers around them.

Wisdom means that leaders when rising become conscious about the need to be grounded. They recognize their limitations. They are cognizant of their shortcomings. They seek knowledge that they do not know. The best way is to form a Personal Advisory Board. This is not a Board of Directors forum that looks for results. This is a select panel of people, who are more knowledgeable in different areas, are credible and willing to be your unwritten advisor. For example, if you are aware that supply chain is not your expertise, get a supply chain advisor and seek his advice when you need to make a sound decision.

Similarly, have a conflict management advisor, a people potential advisor etc. This is a very wise way of learning, and making judgement calls on informed and thought through processes.

Pillar#2— wise leaders are not genius but genius makers - While leadership is mostly about grandstanding displays, wisdom goes beyond that. A wise leader knows that growth is not about his or her ability to grow, but about his or her team’s growth. The ability to resist being garlanded as “the genius” who solely made the company a success is essential to being foresighted. The test of a leader is not how good he became, but how many other good leaders he developed. The leader is wise to gauge that the best way to be successful is to ensure your team is successful. They give this feeling to people around them that they have a path to grow. They devise strategies to make them feel and look good. They create aha moments for them. They appreciate their efforts. They celebrate their small victories in a big way.

Pillar#3— wise leaders do not direct, they involve-The first thought of a leader is of somebody leading from the front and giving direction. While that is true many times, it minimizes the role of the team to take initiatives. The followers remain followers, waiting for directions from the top. This may give a great boost to the image of the man in charge, but is a self-defeating strategy in the long run. Famous people quote, tell and answer. Wise people ask, observe and listen. The best form of engaging, empowering and enlightening a mind is by asking the right questions. Wisdom demands that the best way of involving people is to provoke their thinking by insightful questions. Wise men astutely make the solutions come from those who have to implement them. This brings learning. This brings elevation. This brings ownership.

Pillar#4— wise leaders demonstrate and illustrate behaviours - Leadership is about persuasive influencing. The minute you mention persuasion, the image of a mesmerizing speaker comes to mind. That may be true too. However, the wise leader relies less on words and more on actions. In a recent coaching assignment a leader, who was finding it difficult to create a culture of respect and dignity especially in lower ranks, was asked to demonstrate it rather than remonstrate it. He would ensure that instead of having lunch with his own team, he would go and sit around with juniors and feel at home with them. This demonstration of a week was more effective in making others do the same than lectures given over many years.

Can wisdom be acquired? Yes, if you have the wisdom of knowing that you need wisdom. The ability to seek knowledge, the ability to embrace vulnerability, the ability to be curious and question rather than dismiss and assume is what leads to the wisdom journey. As they say the art of wisdom is the art of accepting ignorance and rejecting arrogance.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2025