This morning I was listening to Tami Simon of Sounds True talk to Dr Dilip Jeste, Professor of Psychiatry and Neurosciences and Director of the Center for Healthy Aging at UC San Diego. The topic was his new book titled Wiser, Faster: The Scientific Roots of Wisdom, Compassion and What Makes Us Good.
We don't often talk about wisdom and yet it is the very essence of what we need in leaders today. You need it, I need it, our business, societal and political leaders need it. But how can we become wiser, faster?
We know when we are in the presence of someone who has it, but how did they cultivate it? What makes one person wiser than the next? Which parts of our brains are involved in wisdom and can we take a pill for it? The answer to the latter is an interesting yes. But not yet - apparently we'll need to give it fifteen to twenty years for science and technology to get there. But, it will.
To distil, there are six parts to wisdom, all of which you can develop once you know where you need to focus:
We don't often talk about wisdom and yet it is the very essence of what we need in leaders today. You need it, I need it, our business, societal and political leaders need it. But how can we become wiser, faster?
We know when we are in the presence of someone who has it, but how did they cultivate it? What makes one person wiser than the next? Which parts of our brains are involved in wisdom and can we take a pill for it? The answer to the latter is an interesting yes. But not yet - apparently we'll need to give it fifteen to twenty years for science and technology to get there. But, it will.
To distil, there are six parts to wisdom, all of which you can develop once you know where you need to focus:
Take a minute to really step into each and every one of these elements and give yourself an honest assessment out of ten. How are you doing? Are you wise enough for the challenges and complexity we are all working with in our day-to-day lives?
Fortunately we can measure a lot of this. I work with Lumina Learning, which measures your dynamic personality under different circumstances. And yes, we do behave differently when we are stressed and under pressure vs when things are going well. We know this, and yet, being able to pinpoint exactly how and when is the key to our leadership growth and becoming wiser.
If you'd like to cultivate your leadership wisdom, I have a 4-In-4 Coaching Intensive, which includes a Lumina Assessment available right now. Learn more here.