From Smart to Wise: Acting and Leading with Wisdom

The Limits of a Smart Action Orientation

Many functional smart leaders are challenged to act authentically and appropriately because they generally focus more on doing things “the right way” rather than doing “what is right.” Risk averse by nature, they prefer to play by the book by following predetermined processes or their own proven best practices. Such action orientation serves them well when the goal is to optimize the performance of an existing system or function—say, a sales department that has been selling the same products for the past twenty years.

But these leaders are at a loss when the external context changes and the playbook itself needs to be updated or even replaced. Due to their static notion of what is appropriate, they can’t ...