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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”. Such an interesting topic and discussion – links below👇
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 and slightly alarming “yes”. But not yet. Apparently, we’ll need to give it fifteen to twenty years for science and technology to get there. And, according to Dr Jeste, it will.
To distil, Dr Jest outlined six parts to wisdom, all of which you can develop once you know where you need to focus:
Self-reflection, ability to analyse our own behaviours
Pro-social behaviours (empathy, compassion, altruism)
Ability to regulate our emotions
Ability to accept uncertainty and diversity of perspectives
Decisiveness (we accept uncertainty and are able to make decisions in the moment)
Spirituality (a belief in something greater than oneself)
Q: 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?
A note here: as with all self-awareness Q’s, suspend any self-judgement! This isn’t about making yourself wrong, it’s simply about creating an awareness of that which needs your attention.
Fortunately, we can measure a lot of this. I work with Lumina Learning, the award-winning suite of integrated psychometrics, models and tools. The beautiful thing about these tools is they measure 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.
Being able to pinpoint exactly how and when gives us clarity. And clarity is the key to our leadership growth and ultimately, 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.
Links
Listen to Tammi Simon’s interview with Dr Jeste
If you enjoyed this note on wisdom, why not share it?
Until next time, take good care of yourself.
Best, Louise