Conclusion
Smartness is indeed vital for success in today’s knowledge age, though it appears increasingly insufficient in itself. Yet for many leaders, the unrelenting and single-minded pursuit of smartness has a shadow side on a personal level: they risk losing their ethical clarity, authenticity, and sense of meaning, purpose, and happiness. Smartness is like a double-edged sword: with discrimination, you can wield it to cut through mountains of data to find nuggets of knowledge and insights; without discernment, you risk falling on your own sword. Intelligence, when combined with discrimination and discernment, leads to wisdom.
Traditionally there are two approaches to finding wisdom: a spiritual path and a practical one. Spiritual wisdom is typically transmitted through mystical religious traditions, such as Vedanta in Hinduism, Kabbalah in Judaism, or Sufi in Islam. The other kind of wisdom, generally known as practical wisdom, is developed through personal experiences, with action and reflection feeding one another.36
These two approaches to gaining wisdom are not mutually exclusive; they are actually complementary.37 Practical wisdom begins subjectively, with personal benefit as the driving force, whereas spiritual wisdom begins objectively with common good as the driving force. It is principles—what in this book we call capabilities—that serve as the bridge between the spiritual wisdom and practical wisdom. The six foundational principles presented here as the six leadership capabilities are derived from both spiritual and philosophical texts from both Eastern and Western traditions and from our decades of working with leaders on their journey from smart to wise leadership.38
The journey to wise leadership can start anywhere. You can begin by reading this book and adopting the best practices of wise leaders we have profiled here. Or you can try to develop the six capabilities outlined in chapters 2 through 7 one at a time. But mastery comes only when you develop your own wisdom logic—your unique path to wise leadership. Along the way you will discover your North Star (your noble purpose), begin to act authentically and appropriately, gain greater role clarity, learn to make decisions with discernment, develop flexible fortitude, and cultivate enlightened self-interest—all of them critical elements of acting and leading with wisdom. Once you have developed your own wisdom logic, you will be able, as a wise leader, to leverage your smartness in an ethical manner for the larger good by balancing smarts with reflection and introspection.
Becoming a wise leader is not an individual act performed in isolation. Part of your journey involves helping others on your team or in your organization to find their authentic selves, creating a field of wise leadership to help unleash collective wisdom for the greater good. Nipun Mehta did this with ServiceSpace, establishing compassionate communities using the power of social networking tools. King Wangchuck of Bhutan did this by attempting to increase the level of happiness in his community (a nation, in this case), finding ways to enhance the well-being of its members.
We hope you will use this book to accelerate your own transformation into a wise leader and infuse wisdom into your teams, organizations, communities, and country and that you’ll share your experiences on fromsmarttowise.com, contributing to a global virtual field of wise leadership.
Notes
1. We found the following book and initiative to be excellent resources you can use to help create a field of leadership around you. Briskin, A., S. Erickson, T. Callanan, and J. Ott. The Power of Collective Wisdom: And the Trap of Collective Folly. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 2009. For the Collective Wisdom Initiative, go to http://www.collectivewisdominitiative.org/
2. Campbell, J. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. New York: New World, 2008.
3. Huspeni, A. “Meet Behind-the-Scenes Mentors of Fifteen Top Tech Executives.” Business Insider, July 11, 2012. http://www.businessinsider.com/meet-the-mentors-behind-the-visionaries-of-tech-2012–7?op=1
4. The organizational evolution framework was developed by Prasad Kaipa, Chris Newham, and Russ Volckmann. We draw on the work of Ken Wilber, a leading thinker and author of over twenty books, who is known for his integral frameworks to create a unified approach to every field of discipline. In particular, we use the Wilber III framework set forth in his book A Theory of Everything: An Integral Vision for Business, Politics, Science and Spirituality. Boston: Shambhala, 2001.
5. Hanna, J. “Terror at the Taj.” Working Knowledge, January 24, 2012. http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/6602.html; Deshpande, R., and A. Raina. “Ordinary Heroes of the Taj.” Harvard Business Review (December 2011): 119–123.
6. Karambir Singh Kang, interview with Prasad Kaipa, May 15, 2012.
7. Since November 2008, we have conducted several interviews with H. N. Shrinivas, senior vice president of human resources at Taj Hotels, and the Taj Hotels case study in this book was developed with his input.
8. For information about B Corporations, go to www.bcorporation.net. So far, 558 companies, including Patagonia and Method, have received B Corporation certification.
9. David Murphy, interview with Prasad Kaipa, June 4, 2012.
10. For the Tata Code of Conduct, go to http://www.tata.com/aboutus/articles/inside.aspx?artid=NyGNnLHkaAc=§id=1JjGM1BSf/c=
11. Kaipa, P., and M. Kriger. “The Inner Sides of Leadership and Lessons from the East: An Interview with Peter Senge.” Journal of Management Inquiry 6 (2009): 183–193.
12. For information about Communities of the Future, go to http://communitiesofthefuture.org/
13. Block, P., and J. McKnight. The Abundant Community: Awakening the Power of Families and Neighborhoods. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 2010.
14. Mastery foundation does seminars, workshops, and community building around the world. See http://www.masteryfoundation.org/ for general information.
15. “Peter Block and John McKnight with Wayne Hurlbert: Part One.” Abundant Community, November 24, 2010. http://www.abundantcommunity.com/home/print_interviews/peter_block_and_john_mcknight_with_wayne_hurlbert_-_part_one.html; “A Conversation with Peter Block, Organizational Development Legend and Recipient of Linkage’s Lifetime Achievement Award.” January 12, 2011. http://mylinkage.com/blog/a-conversation-with-peter-block-organizational-development-legend-and-recipient-of-linkage’s-lifetime-achievement-award/; Peter Block, interview with Prasad Kaipa, October 3, 2010.
16. Nipun Mehta, multiple conversations with Prasad Kaipa between 2006 and 2012.
17. For information on Karma Kitchen and ServiceSpace, see, respectively, http://www.karmakitchen.org/ and http://www.servicespace.org/
18. Raj Sisodia, interview with Prasad Kaipa, June 4, 2012.
19. “Can Technology Eliminate Poverty?” December 16, 2005. http://www.nextbillion.net/newsroom/2005/12/16/interview-with-mohammad-yunus
20. “What Is Conscious Capitalism?” Conscious Capitalism Institute. N.d. http://consciouscapitalism.org/learnmore/
21. Sisodia, R., Wolfe, D., and Sheth, J. Firms of Endearment: How World-Class Companies Profit from Passion and Purpose. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2007.
22. “What Is Conscious Capitalism?” http://consciouscapitalism.org/
23. Ura, K., S. Alkire, T. Zangmo, and K. Wangdi. “A Short Guide to Gross National Happiness Index.” Thimphu, Bhutan: Center for Bhutan Studies, 2012. http://www.grossnationalhappiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Short-GNH-Index-final1.pdf
24. Ibid.
25. Kamenev, M. “Rating Countries for the Happiness Factor.” Bloomberg BusinessWeek, October 11, 2006. http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2006–10–11/rating-countries-for-the-happiness-factorbusinessweek-business-news-stock-market-and-financial-advice
26. Herrera, S. “Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise?” Technology Review (August 2005).
27. Stiglitz, J. E., A. Sen, and J.-P. Fitoussi. “Report by the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress.” 2010. http://www.stiglitz-sen-fitoussi.fr/documents/rapport_anglais.pdf
28. Ryback, T. W. “The U.N. Happiness Project.” New York Times, March 28, 2012.
29. Bahadur, B. “Should My People Need Me.” Ms (Winter 2012). http://www.msmagazine.com/winter2012/theladytakesofficeinburma.asp
30. Ibid.
31. “Full Text: Suu Kyi’s Nobel Prize Speech.” June 16, 2012. http://ibnlive.in.com/news/full-text-suu-kyis-nobel-prize-speech/266407–2.html
32. “IBM 2010 Global CEO Study: Creativity Selected as Most Crucial Factor for Future Success.” IBM, May 18, 2010. http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/31670.wss
33. “Charlene Li: Leading by Letting Go.” Management Innovation Exchange. http://www.managementexchange.com/video/charlene-li-leading-letting-go.
34. Radjou, N., J. Prabhu, and S. Ahuja. Jugaad Innovation: Think Frugal, Be Flexible, Generate Breakthrough Growth. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2012.
35. Radjou, N., J. Prabhu, and S. Ahuja. “More for Less for More: How to Disrupt in the Age of Scarcity.” Harvard Business Review (blog), February 22, 2010.
36. Aristotle called practical wisdom phronesis—in contrast with sophia, which represents spiritual wisdom.
37. Nonaka, I., and H. Takeuchi. ”The Big Idea: The Wise Leader.” Harvard Business Review (May 2011): 59–67; McKenna, B., D. Rooney, and K. Boal. “Wisdom Principles as a Meta-Theoretical Basis for Evaluating Leadership. Leadership Quarterly 20 (2009): 177–190; Miller, W., and D. Miller. “Wisdom Leadership: Exploring Its Relation to Spirituality.” Australia, 2005–2006. http://www.globaldharma.org/Files_-_Adobe_Acrobat/Publications/SBL_Wisdom_Leadership_and_Spirituality_(Paper).pdf
38. The six wise leadership capabilities discussed in this book are independently identified in both wisdom traditions and empirical research. The Holy Gita Commentary by Swami Chinmayananda, Central Chinmaya Mission Trust, 10th Edition, 1996; Krishnamurthy, “Live Happily: The Gita Way,” Readworthy Publications, 2008; Adams, J. “Building a Sustainable World: A Challenging OD Opportunity.” In B. Jones and M. Brazzel, eds., The NTL Handbook of Organization Development and Change. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer, 2006.