Wisdom and leadership: Linking the past, present and future

Decisions taken today are driven by our visions of tomorrow and based on what we learned yesterday. This basic rule applies to all decisions, irrespective of size. Every time we take any decision we are involved in some element of leadership but the bigger the decision the more critical our leadership credentials become. The paper will discuss the key questions: What is Wisdom? Why is it important for Leadership? How is it learned? How can it be learned more effectively? - in order to improve the quality of our Leadership and hence the quality of the decisions we take every day about the way the world will be tomorrow? These issues are explored in three ways: Through historic statements about the nature of Wisdom. Through statements that we perhaps we might accept as statements of Wisdom. and through a review how this can help overcome the limitations of the Data/ Information/ Knowledge /Wisdom pyramid The paper will also explore the difference between Wisdom & being wise. In essence, the paper argues that Wisdom is the way we incorporate our values into our decision making process, and it is our values that determine the way we define that critical word 'quality'.. Finally there is a discussion of why we need to take the whole issue of the link between Wisdom and Leadership much more seriously, as well as how we might help improve that process.