Smart Yet Maybe not Wise
There's a difference and the latter, says one professional, is a problem among some leaders
It’s natural for critics to determine that incompetence is one primary root cause of significant organizational problems yet one professional says there is something more going on and it’s far different than what we assume.
“Trust in leadership has collapsed,” recently wrote Olga Hypponen at Chief Executive. “Not because we’re facing a crisis of competence (but) because we are facing a crisis of wisdom.”
Hypponen, a partner at RHR International, argues that intelligence isn’t enough.
“We need leaders who can manage complexity, tolerate ambiguity, make grounded decisions under pressure and still act in service of something greater than themselves; leaders who aren’t just clever, but wise.”
That goes without saying, of course. She elaborated however as to what is needed.
“Wisdom can be elusive to define or measure but most people recognize it when they see it,” Hypponen stated. “Building on the decades of research, the most prominent models consider wisdom to have cognitive, emotional, relational and ethical elements.”
Wisdom is often recognizable yet not always. There are people with that trait that get ignored, dismissed as less that astute — or turned away. That’s how people act.
It’s a dangerous reactivity, decision making and not the necessary risk management.
For the context of this article, however, let’s stay on the same track as Hypponen, who points to C-E-R-E as what makes up wisdom. Let’s touch briefly on those points and why they’re important.
Most leaders have the cognitive skills to think through matters of importance, great and small, yet no one is without blind spots and biases.
Thus, increasing self awareness, situational awareness and social awareness becomes critical. These skills need to be ever developing to become reliable strengths.
Emotional wisdom is understanding our reactions, triggers and the why behind them. It’s also seeking to clearly and accurately understand other people. This takes an ongoing investment of time, attention and two-way communication (listening).
The relational component has emotional threads within it. It’s includes extra though: the ability to interact sensitively, respectfully and successfully with the emotions of other people for the benefit of them and the situation.
If one isn’t ethical and also making sure that their people and the organization is governing itself in that manner, wisdom is going to be doubted, questioned and heavily scrutinized.
Wisdom regularly put in action acts as a trust driver.
It shows intelligence, yet goes way beyond it. There are many who are smart yet don’t exercise — or clearly show — that they can use it to go to the next level where thinking, decisions and actions show a high degree of sound judgment in how they carry themselves with people and into and through situations.
Michael Toebe is a reputation and communications specialist at Reputation Intelligence and writes the Reputation Intelligence newsletter here on Substack and on LinkedIn. He helps individuals and organizations proactively and responsively with matters of trust, stakeholder relationships and reputation.
He has been a reporter for newspapers and radio, hosted a radio talk show, written for online business magazines, been a media source, helped people work through disputes, conflicts and crises and assisted clients with communications to further build, protect, restore and reconstruct reputation.
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