One of the big steps in personal development and indeed leadership is our ability to access wisdom which the dictionary defines as ‘the ability to make good judgments based on what you have learned from your experience, or the knowledge and understanding that gives you this ability’.
This definition though feels somewhat narrow as it tends to take us toward tried and tested practices, things we’ve seen or done before with the attendant risk that in fact it’s not wisdom, but a recasting of rational insight gained from past experience. Nothing wrong with that of course. Past experience can save the day in many situations – when the factors present in those situations are sufficiently similar.
Today however, leaders are facing many new scenarios and changes – each with many recognisable elements but with key differences. Increasingly, the pace of change in the contextual landscape, the volume of factors that need to be considered, the range of human, political, environmental, economic considerations and so much more, conspire to create a level of uncertainty and volatility that make past experience less useful.
So what if we expand the definition of wisdom and take ourselves into less prescriptive territory. Territory that relies more heavily on building a new level of understanding and insight and accessing our sensing, feeling, intuition. Territory that also accepts the fundamental principle of not knowing…of stepping into the unknown and the unseen and being comfortable with that – indeed dancing with it.
We might call this type of wisdom a high level of emotional maturity or a deep level of self-trust. We might also call it consciousness. If we consider wisdom to include our ability to navigate the unknown with courage we might consider where that courage comes from. Here we might recall times in our childhood when we ‘left the shores’ of safety – learning to ride a bike or reading our short story in front of the class for the first time. In these situations, we may have had to gather up all our courage and surrender to the experience – often discovering that in fact we not only survive but often thrive.
As adults we often lose this capacity of fearlessness preferring things we know, can control and which have been tested. This can limit creativity and create stuck-ness in uncertain and challenging situations. Opening to a deeper, higher wisdom bring us new resources. We become open to, and eventually familiar with, listening differently, noticing differently, seeing with fresh eyes. A new form of wisdom emerges that is rooted in a freedom, a revised ‘truth’, a fundamental openness and a willingness to be in relationship with the situation. Building this type of wisdom muscle does take courage but the good news is that we all have the resource within us if we are prepared to open to it.
Our world needs leaders who are prepared to enter a new field of being, of learning and of creativity that can transform our organisations and create a better world for all – it’s time to dance with a new wisdom.