The World desperately needs Wise Leadership. It needs to move from its obsession with the Knowledge Economy and the Knowledge Society, to a much greater emphasis on the Wise Economy and the Wise Society.
 
But what is Wisdom? What do we mean by Wise Leadership?
 
Wisdom can be considered to be a useful 'truth' with a long shelf life that 'has stood the test of time' - and also checks out with our own experience. It relates to insights that are useful in understanding the relationships that work well within ourselves, and in our relationships with each other, and with the universe as a whole. As a result the insights are usually globally recognisable. But, while all Wisdom is based on well founded information, it is certainly it is not the case that all well founded information is Wisdom. Wisdom is not just a technical insight, where there is no values dimension.
 
Although it is relatively easy to recycle Wisdom, the hard thing is to put it into practice; and it is those people who put it into practice that are considered Wise. Being Wise is the ability to put information/knowledge to good use. Hence the importance of the link with Wise Leadership.
 
Wise Leadership is nothing more than: ‘The well-informed, Responsible use of Power’. Too often Leadership is primarily concerned with the use (and, unfortunately, abuse) of Power. Making things happen doesn’t make someone a Leader; Power also needs to be well informed and responsibly used.
 
In the end, the quality of our decisions depends on the quality of the dialogue we have with each other and that is not only dialogue about information, but perhaps even more important, it is about the best way to use that information – in other words it is about our values. Effective dialogue assists becoming well-informed, as well as being an invaluable part of personal development. But having a quality dialogue over values is not only often the most important issue, but it is frequently the most difficult.
           
Wisdom is a word/concept in urgent need of rehabilitation. It is rare to find anyone who is not interested in Wisdom, but it is unusual to find that either Google (see www.theWisdomPage.) or Wikipedia has been used to help with the journey of discovery. The search for Wisdom is not an obscure philosophical academic subject; it should be at the core of all our decision-making if we want the world to be a ‘better’, more sustainable, place in the future. We urgently need a greater emphasis on Wise Leadership and the conditions required for the development of a Wise Society.

Dr Bruce Lloyd, Professor of Strategic Management, London South Bank University