From Smart to Wise: Acting and Leading with Wisdom

What Is Wisdom?

Wisdom is traditionally associated with spirituality and religion and with abstract concepts such as truth, knowledge, beauty, and the right path. The path of pure wisdom might lead one to become a philosopher, a guru, or a monk—someone who practices or contemplates wisdom in a state detached from the world. In this view, wisdom is the gift of sages and spiritual leaders.⁸ This picture is woefully incomplete. In fact, wisdom is our birthright. We all are born with the seeds of wisdom, but we sometimes don’t cultivate or nurture those seeds to let them flourish, focusing instead on tending to our smartness—the acquisition and use of new knowledge for primarily personal benefit. In the organizational context, wise leaders are people ...