“The Six Abilities of Wise Leaders”
Posted on May 30, 2011
The Harvard Business Review’s May issue has a great article on “The Six Abilities of Wise Leaders.” Leadership is extremely important when you are running your own non-profit organization, heading a team project, or are running a fundraising event. These six should be taken into consideration and applied to ourselves when considering our own leadership abilities and when wanting to improve the impact we have on those we work with and on our organization or companies mission.
1) Wise leaders make decisions only after they figure out what is good for the organization and society.
2) They can quickly grasp the essence of any situation or problem and intuitively fathom the nature and meaning of people, things, and events.
3) They constantly create informal as well as formal shared contexts for senior executives and employees to construct new meaning through their interactions.
4) They know how to use metaphors and stories to convert the essence of their actual experiences into tacit knowledge for individuals and groups.
5) They exercise political power to bring together people with conflicting goals and spur them to action.
6) They encourage the development of practical wisdom in others, especially employees on the front lines, through apprenticeship and mentoring.
