In my extensive career and coaching practice, I’ve had the privilege of working with numerous leaders with a distinctive leadership style. These styles were shaped by various factors, such as different personalities, beliefs, role models, cultural influences, local environments, and professional backgrounds. Over the past three decades, I’ve witnessed several leadership trends – from traditional autocratic approaches to pragmatic goal-oriented methods and finally to inclusive servant leadership styles. While none of these styles alone define successful leaders, I have observed that success often lies somewhere between leading for selfish purposes and leading for the greater and common good, heavily depending on the leader’s personal motivation and purpose.
The core of many leadership challenges we encounter today is selfishness. Whether it’s prioritizing job security over moral principles or disregarding the impact of their actions on others while driving organizational values – selfishness often leads to detrimental outcomes.
My intention is not to dwell on selfishness but rather to shed light on what truly makes a leader wise and, therefore, successful – wisdom in balancing self-interest with moral principles for the greater good. This involves understanding the distinction and managing the balance between leading with one’s mind and leading with one’s heart. Let’s delve deeper into both concepts.
Leading with the Heart
Leading with your heart is a crucial aspect of wise leadership. It embodies compassion, empathy, nurturing, building rapport, and seeking to understand the emotions of others. To truly bring people on board with your vision requires genuine empathy and engagement. However, it’s essential to recognize that solely opening your heart to people is not sufficient.
Conveying individual perspectives through active listening, non-judgmental thinking, finding common ground, and respecting differences in other people’s views are all vital in moving others from passivity to activating their will. This shift is instrumental in motivating individuals to work for the greater good rather than being only driven by personal interests.
Leading with the Mind
Leading with your mind is often associated with a systematic, analytical, and rational approach rooted in testing and proven facts. It prioritizes results and is supported by various methodologies focused on measurement, efficiency, productivity, and performance management. This approach revolves around constant improvement, effectiveness, growth, and optimization.
While leading with the mind is closely associated with intelligence, emphasizing reasoning ability and good judgment, it’s imperative to delve into what makes someone wise. Wisdom entails self-awareness—knowing oneself profoundly to shape thoughts—and opening up to conscious and unconscious awareness as a path toward wisdom.
Wise leaders are purpose-driven individuals connected deeply to their “why”. Understanding the purpose behind leadership is not just crucial, it’s empowering. It’s the key to measuring success and impact within the social environment. Evaluating how others perceive you as a leader also plays an essential role in aligning leadership actions with purposeful intent.
So before delving into wise leadership, let me ask you: What is wise leadership for you?
Leading with Wisdom
In the realm of wise leadership, a genuinely savvy leader balances thoughtfulness, the broader perspective, and remains open to diverse viewpoints. They also demonstrate empathy, foster connections, and engage with others non-judgmentally. This ability often manifests through purpose-driven actions, humility, ethical conduct, curiosity, and a genuine desire to contribute to the greater good.
When I am engaged to assist experienced leaders in enhancing their further leadership success, I typically start by exploring their definition of success. Understanding their current leadership style and their growth goals is crucial. It’s important for them to articulate the reasons behind these goals. These fundamental questions help us address and clarify their current circumstances while acknowledging their desired destination. Often, leaders struggle with these questions due to a lack of proactive self-awareness.
- People become wiser through reflection.
- People become wiser through developing the ability to see challenges from different perspectives.
- Wisdom can be triggered through creativity.
- Wisdom can be fostered through the use of stories.
- People need a safe environment to come up with their own answers.
Coaching serves as a medium for creating such an environment and empowering and supporting the development of wise leaders. Let me explain how.
1. Wise Leaders are self-reflective
Wise leaders are embracing a culture of continuous learning. Learning is not merely an activity but a way of life. A wise leader remains open to new experiences, maintains a sense of curiosity, and welcomes diverse perspectives. They are exploratory and constantly seek to delve deeper, discover new insights, and gain a comprehensive understanding.
Furthermore, wise leaders recognize the value of introspection and understand how to reflect on their experiences to enhance self-awareness effectively. By doing so, they can derive valuable lessons that support their future actions. These leaders prioritize delving into the deeper meanings of events and adopt a non-defensive, self-critical approach with an openness for personal growth and development.
So, let me ask you: How well do you think you know yourself? What are your unique strengths that support you in your leadership? Are there any emotions that pop up uncontrolled? What are they? What do you think these emotions represent?
2. Developing Sophisticated Self-Awareness
In the world of wise leadership, self-awareness is a fundamental cornerstone. To truly understand and navigate the complexities of the world, one must first embark on an exploration of oneself within that world. This journey towards sophisticated self-awareness requires a leader to comprehend their true essence and consistently align their actions with this authentic self.
Authenticity, in this context, is not a destination but a continuous journey. It extends beyond self-understanding and encompasses how different facets of an individual’s personality harmonize and collaborate cohesively. A wise leader, therefore, is someone who possesses an intricate understanding of themselves, remains adaptable, and can effortlessly bring forth their most effective selves in any given situation.
The coaching process serves as a guiding light on this journey by providing multifaceted reflections aimed at disentangling self-limiting beliefs and delving into unconscious behavioral patterns.
3. Transforming yourself
The journey towards transformation begins with the ability to detach from our worldview. This detachment lets us reflect objectively on our circumstances while disentangling ourselves from deeply ingrained beliefs and emotions. Transforming oneself necessitates recognizing not just who we are but also comprehending how we came to be and continue evolving. Our various “selves” are molded over time through interactions with others – some formed in childhood while others emerge throughout life’s experiences.
Becoming more aware of oneself within the context of others is pivotal for wise leadership. It entails embracing diverse perspectives, values, and life experiences without defensiveness but instead with curiosity. This collision of different viewpoints presents an opportunity for mutual exploration – it’s about understanding what aspects of our approach trigger reactions in others while remaining open-minded. Fostering sophisticated self-awareness sets the stage for transformation for oneself.
4. Embracing Unconventional Thinking
In the realm of wise leadership, there is an essential focus on cultivating a mindset that challenges conventional thinking. This requires a leader to delve into introspection and embrace change, uncertainty, and ambiguity. They excel at tackling poorly defined challenges with innovative solutions and possess unique strategies for guiding change. Wise individuals understand how unstable, uncertain and uncontrollable the world is. They maintain a positive outlook by focusing on the good in life, which in turn, helps them trust in their capacity to engage with others in managing whatever may come along.
5. Engaging through dialogue
Wise leaders prioritize engaging in meaningful dialogues where they actively listen to others without bias or preconceptions, setting aside personal convictions to gain diverse perspectives. They approach discussions empathetically, managing their emotions while respectfully expressing their views. Dialogues empower leaders to effectively influence change by creating an environment where individuals can independently make sense of things.
From my perspective, it’s clear that genuine dialogue is a rarity in most workplaces. Instead, we often find ourselves in monologues, whether in debate or skilled conversation. In these situations, the focus is on defending a position rather than truly listening to the other person. However, when true dialogue occurs, it opens the door to new, unforeseen ideas, creating a more innovative and collaborative environment.
In conclusion, wise leadership embraces a culture of continuous learning, fosters self-reflection by delving into introspection, and relies on unconventional thinking and the ability to engage in meaningful dialogue to influence positive change. A crucial component of nurturing these qualities is through coaching.
Through my coaching techniques, I can provide support and guidance for leaders to develop their awareness in setting themself up to become wise leaders.
