Experience Leadership - Using Wisdom to Lead In Challenging Times

As I read the papers these days and look at the challenges facing so many organizations and their leaders, I am struck by a bit of an incongruity between knowledge leaders and Experience Leaders.  We often find that leaders in organizations have confused knowledge and wisdom in choosing how to next direct their organization.  Too often we are just looking at what we have learned, done before, trends, and other past activities we set forth, to “lead” our organization.  I am not sure that in the current world of challenge that this is sufficient or the way that will make a strong future.  There is a famous quote that I think gives us a better idea of what is needed in today’s extraordinarily challenging times.  This quote, “We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future.”  by George Bernard Shaw,  shows what a true Experience Leader knows, that we must be working toward true wisdom, using insight to create the future.  Our capacity to be wise, finding out what is true, what is really right for our organization and what will last has more power than knowledge alone.

Experience leaders find that wisdom or being wise encompasses the capacity to take a broader view of the current challenges and circumstances.  Rather than paying just the bills that are due today, dealing with just the crisis of today or worrying about the quarter, the experience leader is looking at the experience of the organization, its clients, customers, and employees for a lifetime.  They have the capacity to call upon and utilize the skills, talents and abilities of everyone in their organization for current challenges while simultaneously building the future.  The Experience leaders who are going out to their own employees and other leaders and saying, “help us create the future.”  These wise Experience Leaders are the ones who are making it through these challenging times.

 The Experience leader’s vision and wisdom is not created in a vacuum, but with the wise input of many, many people stretching even beyond their own organization.  Vistage, the largest CEO organization in the country, is well aware of the power of this collective wisdom and thus creates an environment where 12-16 leaders can join together to use collective wisdom to meet challenges and create the future.  They provide one of places Experience Leaders can go to get the common sense and good judgment of many and create powerful futures for their organizations.

These are challenging times, there is no doubt about that.  These are also the times of great opportunity.  The times for Experience Leaders to make use of the knowledge we have gained in the past and from others to become wise about the future of our organization.

Experience Leaders also make good use of “Leadership Masterminds” to collect this wisdom in their organizations.  I am convinced that where these collectives exist you will find that not only are the challenges met, but the future is being created.

To find out more about “Leadership Masterminds” email barbara_j_brannen@yahoo.com.