A leader must be a person of wisdom.
Photo Credit: Carli Jean Millier
Wisdom is too lofty for fools. Among leaders at the city gate, they have nothing to say. – Proverbs 24:7 (NLT)
This verse provides a reminder that fools do not have wisdom but leaders do. In fact, when fools are around leaders they do not have anything to say because leaders live lifestyles different from fools. The wisdom leaders have has places them in a different position and social level than fools. Again, leaders must be men and women of wisdom.
What happens when leaders have wisdom:
- people are led well
- organizations thrive
- organizations endure
- money is correctly used
- employees stay and do not leave
But, what is wisdom? Wisdom is:
- knowing the difference between right and wrong
- being a good listener
- having integrity in difficult situations
- having emotional intelligence
- spending less money than you earn
My Story of Seeking Wisdom
My story of seeking wisdom started when I was leading a nonprofit program called A Day of Hope in 2007. I had led A Day of Hope for three years attempting to serve people in need in our community.
The first year we had done a good job of serving families. The second year we more than doubled the amount of families we served. So, the third year we set a goal to serve more families than the second. However, we served less families in year three than we did in year two.
Serving less people than we had served the year before was devasting for me. I had worked extremely hard and had wanted to do more to help the families in our community. As a result, I began my search for wisdom.
I made it a goal to read lots of leadership books. I was able to gain wisdom and learn how to be a leader thanks to reading the Bible (a fantastic tool to learn leadership) and books by John Maxwell (my favorites being 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, The 360 Degree Leader, 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader, and Leadership Gold), Mark Sanborn (The Encore Effect and You Don’t Need a Title to Be a Leader), and Aubrey Malphurs (Building Leaders).
After my reading and being mentored as a leader by an older man I was able to gain the wisdom I needed to be an effective leader. Thankfully, this helped me to be a leader that could get A Day of Hope to grow again.
Question: Why do you think leaders must have wisdom?
