Wisdom Logic: Your Authentic Pathway to Wise Leadership
Wisdom logic is like the balance that you discover when learning to ride a bicycle: you achieve balance only after mastering all the individual elements of riding a bike. Discovering and then maintaining that balance is an iterative process, just as cultivating wisdom is. You cannot become a wise leader simply by reading a book—including this book—in the same way that you can’t learn to ride a bicycle just by reading a book on it. Discovering and honing one’s wisdom logic is an iterative process. It is also a highly subjective one because one has to take time to discover one’s North Star (noble purpose) and learn to act authentically in alignment with it. Moreover, one needs to choose one’s roles with discernment and assume these roles with high integrity. Furthermore, one has to discover one’s own decision logic—that is, knowing when to let go of power and control and when to hold on to them. Finally, serving others and developing other leaders with enlightened self-interest is a significant transformation for one to go through.
No two leaders share the same wisdom logic: each possesses his own and each developed it in his own way. For instance, the wisdom logic of Bill Gates—both the process by which he developed that logic and the way he is manifesting it now—is very different from the approach that Steve Jobs cultivated to develop his own wisdom logic, which he also expressed distinctively. Whereas Jobs applied his wisdom logic mainly in the technology field, Gates slowly left the tech industry in the mid-2000s—once he experienced a perspective shift—and has since focused completely on serving his noble purpose: improving the lives of millions of people around the world. Once Gates’s perspective shifted, he began cultivating his own wisdom logic by gradually aligning and integrating his actions, role clarity, decisions, fortitude, and motivation with his noble purpose. As the cohead of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Gates is now using his wisdom logic not to build a great company but to build a better world.
To prepare yourself for a discovery of your own wisdom logic, first clarify your intent—that is, why you want to be a wise leader. You can do so by first discovering your North Star and then connecting your intent to it, which will give you a new and clear sense of direction in life (chapter 2 examined how to find your North Star). Second, pay attention to the leadership zone (blue or red) in which you currently operate and create a plan to bridge the gaps between where you are and where you want to be. Third, be clear and aware that there will be bumps and detours along the journey to wise leadership: remain humble and resilient to learn from your missteps, just as Jobs and Gates did, and enjoy the journey, which is a gift to yourself.
An effective way to speed up the discovery of your wisdom logic is to partner with others who are in the process of discovering their own. This collaboration becomes a kind of learning laboratory where you can experiment and practice what you have learned, share your experiences, and see what others are doing and learn from their experiences. Collaborating with others also involves developing your wise leadership in a wider scope of engagement with social systems, such as teams, organizations, and communities. We call this engagement across many levels of social organization the field of wise leadership.
As depicted in Figure 8.1, a spiral of development forms when leaders evolve and facilitate the growth of others at different levels, outward from the personal through the team, organization, industry, community, and nation levels. When you are developing along such a spiral, you recognize the opportunity to shift the perspectives of others around you so they can embark on their own journey to wise leadership. Depending on the circle of your influence, you might opt to focus on your team, your organization, your community, or even your nation—and keep expanding your field of wise leadership.
Figure 8.1 A “Field of Leadership” Tends to Expand Spirally.
Once you start operating as a wise leader—without any filters—you will begin to see others who operate in the red or the blue zones more clearly. Through role modeling, mentoring, and coaching, lead them toward wise leadership. When you do this in the context of a team—be it your family or a work team—you help shift the culture of that team. In a similar way, you can focus on the organization or a community, whether a parent teacher association or a spiritual community. You can even create a book club or a dialogue group to read and discuss this book with others and help each other grow. And you can join the online communities on fromsmarttowise.com where you can share your learning with others on the wise leadership journey and benefit from their own insights.