“A wise person has a capacity to look at issues from a variety of perspectives” Ceannas Wise Leadership
There is something incredibly appealing about the leader who sees things with absolute clarity and who expresses their point of view with complete certainty.
The upsurge of populist global politics has created a race for leaders to find ever more singular ways of describing a problem and then presenting themselves as a person who has the silver bullet to resolve that problem. Employment, immigration, economic growth, extremism, etc., can all be fixed by adopting the perspective that represents their singular view of the world.
Given the complexity of society such simplistic solutions appeal to those of us who struggle to come to terms with the ever-changing world and who hark back to times when things seemed to be much less complex (if ever that was really the case).
It’s against this backdrop of certainty that the wise leader must compete – for if there is to be a distinctive feature of wise leadership it is surely the ability to adopt multiple perspectives when considering difficult problems.
In their search for certainty those who adopt a singular perspective refuse to recognise that there are any other vantage points that might shed alternative light on an issue. By adopting the singular perspective the leader creates a force field around their opinions characterised by:
- Self-deception and delusion;
- Partial truths;
- Self fulfilling prophesies;
- Dogmatic opinion;
- Selective attention;
- Intransigence;
- Arrogance;
- Inflexibility;
- Defensiveness;
- Over assertiveness
Despite these handicaps the world of the ‘certain’ leader can be very appealing, so why on earth would anyone want to even consider adopting the multiple perspectives of the wise leader? Surely certainty and clarity are prerequisites for good leadership? Imagine the military leader who, facing an emergency situation, took an approach that was characterised by “on the one hand we could do this, and on the other hand we could do that” – and by the time they had taken action they were overtaken by the circumstance.
However, in reality, most leadership situations don’t have the demands of immediacy – although my military friends would say that even in times of emergency they are trained not just to approach a problem from a singular point view, i.e. their own.
The problem with the singular view is that it starts with a selective stance, which filters and constrains available information. If I decide that there is only one way to look at a problem then I am immediately cutting myself off from fresh and novel insights generated by an alternative point of view.
Where a leader defaults to a singular and preferred perspective they are at risk of being subject to unconscious biases, both in terms of how they look at things (perception) and how they think about things (reasoning).
By recognising the limits of any single perspective the wise leader frees herself/himself from a partial and fragmented viewpoint and creates a much more three dimensional and big picture view of the world – from which comes behaviour that is understood to be ‘wise’.
Not only does the wise leader have a capacity to adopt alternative perspectives, but they can connect and integrate them to generate even more complete insights on problems and leadership challenges.
It is this three-dimensional and inter-connected perspective on leadership that is at the core of the Ceannas Leadership Index, whereby the leader is enabled to reflect upon their own leadership from seven alternative yet inter-connected lenses on their behaviour.
By looking at leadership through the eye of the Sculptor, the Scientist, the Builder, the Gardener, the Parent, the Conductor and the Villager, the leader begins to appreciate their own default perspectives – and how these shape, inform and control their behaviour.
It is a privilege to observe, even the most experienced and effective leader, begin to shift from their established perspectives by looking at their own leadership from different points of view to generate new and revealing insights on their own behaviour – and in turn experiment with new and alternative solutions that fulfil the definition of – wise leadership.