You’ve probably heard the usual advice on how to be a good leader: Praise your people, take seriously what they suggest, encourage them to train and learn, use confident body language, practice “soft” skills like empathy and problem-solving, and admit mistakes. The Wall Street Journal, which has researched leadership, adds cultivating kindness.
The London School of Business Administration mentions self-awareness, emotional intelligence, effective communication, vision and strategic thinking, adaptability and resilience, integrity and ethical behavior, and empowerment and delegation. All this is important for becoming an effective leader wherever you do it. We teach it in our Transformational Leadership specialization.
Table of Contents
- The Missing Element: Wisdom in Leadership
- The Role of Passion in Wise Leadership
- Qualities That Define Wise Leaders
- Traditional vs. Transformational Leadership Styles
- Envisioning the Future: The Power of Wise Leaders
The Missing Element: Wisdom in Leadership
But as I mentioned in a presentation to the Teton Leadership Center last year, one capacity seldom comes up that proves essential for good leadership: wisdom.
“Wise” comes from a root that means “to know.” Authentic wisdom is not impractical or abstract. It sees under surfaces and appearances, reflects before taking action, tends possibilities and potentials. It demonstrates humaneness, caring, and openness to change. Wisdom learns continually, appreciates complex consequences, and pays attention to surroundings near and far. It learns from mistakes and tries again.
Stephen Tang, a seasoned CEO, and transformative leader expert, defines wisdom in the context of leadership as “the knowledge gained through experience, reflection, and contemplation.” Often overlooked in favor of more tangible capacities, wisdom guides good decision-making, including assessment of potential consequences.
The Value of Practical Wisdom
According to Oxford Review, practical wisdom is enjoying a research resurgence, partly because of public ethical failings in business and other arenas. Wise leadership includes transforming information, knowledge, beliefs, values, and decisions into achievable outcomes, keeping an eye on social responsibility, and prizing cultural heritages and diverse viewpoints. “The researchers have been able to provide a framework from which practical wisdom can be conceptualized and understood more fully, in the hope that practical wisdom becomes more achievable.”
Forbes Best Business Influencer and leadership speaker Jordi Alemany offers this definition: “Leadership wisdom is the ability to understand how people, events, and situations affect your position and vice versa, combined with the courage to apply the right actions in order to deliver the correct outcome.” In short, “Wisdom = Knowledge + Action. (W = K + A).”
Mike Thompson, professor of Management Practice and Director of the Centre for Leadership and Responsibility at the China Europe International Business School, teamed up with the University of Queensland Business School to analyze responses from a wide-ranging inquiry sent to executives in Western countries and in China to ask them to define wisdom. “…We discovered that wise decision-making is like a three-dimensional prism of three human faculties: rational capability, intuitive insight, and humane character.”
The Role of Passion in Wise Leadership
Wise leadership also depends on passion, a capacity not always associated with it in the public eye. Sandra Schultz Hessler, Director of the Teton Leadership Center, insists on its importance for wise leaders. “If you’re not so passionate, then when the first obstacle comes up, you’ll pack up your tent and go home.”
Health Benefits Linked to Wisdom
Wisdom can even increase the health of the leader. In a 2021 study at UC San Diego, “Lower levels of loneliness and higher levels of wisdom, compassion, social support, and social engagement were associated with greater phylogenetic richness and diversity of the gut microbiome.” Per a 2019 meta-study, “Wisdom is linked to better overall health, well-being, happiness, life satisfaction, and resilience.”
Wisdom and Aging: A Lifelong Journey
Although wisdom and aging aren’t synonymous, growing older allows the time needed for gaining wisdom. According to a 2023 study, “Wise older adults implement developmental tasks more efficiently and assess their subjective health more favorably, which may strengthen their personal well-being and prevent depression.” Research suggests that older workers can equal or surpass their younger counterparts in productivity and performance; wisdom studies underline the importance of this for older leaders seasoned with experience and maturity.
“The journey to wisdom is not one that a leader undertakes alone,” notes psychologist and leadership expert Kathy Miller Perkins. “It is a collaborative effort involving teams, stakeholders, and communities. It requires communication, empathy, and the ability to listen and be challenged.”
Qualities That Define Wise Leaders
My own definition of wisdom—insightful, holistic, and deep knowing; true understanding—includes these qualities essential for good leadership: awareness of consequences, emotional intelligence, and maturity, open-mindedness, humility, love of learning, care, virtue, accountability, nonjudgmental mentoring, reflection, humor, self-knowledge, collaboration, balance, prudence, and inspiration.
Important Leadership Qualities
- Awareness of Consequences: The ability to anticipate how actions impact the team, organization, and community. Leaders with this awareness make responsible, thoughtful choices that benefit all involved.
- Emotional Intelligence and Maturity: Recognizing and managing one’s own emotions and understanding those of others. Emotional maturity means handling situations with composure and empathy, building a positive team atmosphere.
- Open-mindedness: A readiness to consider new perspectives and ideas without immediate judgment. Open-minded leaders embrace diversity of thought, making them adaptable and effective problem-solvers.
- Humility: Staying modest about one’s accomplishments and open to feedback. Humble leaders recognize their limits, give credit to others, and earn respect and trust.
- Love of Learning: An ongoing drive to gain new knowledge and skills. Leaders with a love of learning remain up-to-date and inspire their teams to grow and adapt.
- Care: Genuine interest in the well-being and success of the team. Leaders who care build trust and loyalty, making team members feel valued and supported.
- Virtue: Leading with integrity, honesty, and strong ethics. Virtuous leaders make principled decisions, serving as a credible moral example.
- Accountability: Taking ownership of actions and decisions. Accountable leaders build trust by acknowledging mistakes and encouraging responsibility across the team.
- Nonjudgmental Mentoring: Providing guidance without bias or criticism. Leaders who mentor with openness create a supportive space for personal and professional growth.
- Reflection: Regularly assessing one’s own actions and learning from experience. Reflective leaders continuously improve, refining their approach over time.
- Humor: Bringing lightness and positive energy to the workplace. Leaders who use humor well relieve stress, foster connection, and maintain high morale.
- Self-knowledge: Understanding one’s own strengths, weaknesses, and values. Self-aware leaders lead authentically, setting an example of integrity.
- Collaboration: Engaging others in working toward common goals. Collaborative leaders value input from the team and encourage a cooperative, inclusive environment.
- Balance: Setting a healthy example of work-life integration. Leaders who prioritize balance encourage sustainable productivity and well-being in the team.
- Prudence: Making cautious, well-thought-out decisions. Prudent leaders assess risks carefully, avoiding impulsive choices that may impact the team.
- Inspiration: Motivating others toward shared goals and visions. Inspirational leaders bring purpose to the team, encouraging them to strive for excellence.
That last quality is particularly important. If we look at the etymology of “lead” for a story or two behind the word, the verb points back to “travel” and “go forth.” Leadership as breaking new ground with our team. The noun comes from “weight” and “plummet.” Anyone stuck in a badly led, uninspiring meeting that goes nowhere can understand the noun form.
Traditional vs. Transformational Leadership Styles
We can train, empathize, and communicate all we want, but if what we do is leaden, routine, cliché, or uninspired, no one will be roused. We can’t ignite a fire with no spark. As for the traditionally heroic style of leadership—top-down deciding, micromanaging, withholding, and patriarchal pushing and shoving—it only produces the opposite of what it desires: resentment, rebellion, and attrition.
In the Way of the Sage course I’m putting together, I also bring in mythology because of what we might learn from the actions of wisdom deities around the world: Sophia, Athena, Nuwa, Ma’at, Amaterasu, and many others. Sacred texts offer much as well: the biblical Chochmah as the master builder of everything, for example, or the Quranic image of wisdom as a seed in the heart that needs watering and soil. The Bhagavad Gita describes wisdom as a space of refuge to be sought.
Envisioning the Future: The Power of Wise Leaders
All these sources and many others can inform the leader who understands the how of things but inquires also into the why. This, in turn, involves exploring in oneself and in others what Abraham Maslow called “the farther reaches of human nature.”
Wise leaders encourage us to imagine not only what is, but what could be. Such leaders see the potential in the actual, the vision behind the everyday. They ask continually: Where are we headed together? What is the highest we can achieve? That kind of leadership inspires.