“Knowledge speaks...

..but wisdom listens.”



There is little question as to how much effective communications occupies leader’s mindspace in today’s VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) business environment. Leaders in every industry, large or small, public or private, for profit or nonprofit, all face the continuous challenge to communicate effectively to their teams and successfully advance their business strategies.

It is fair to say most leaders view themselves as problem solvers. In that vein, it is easy for them to take on the role of problem solvers when issues are brought to their attention. Due to the speed of business, this, in turn, leads to directing resources, monetary or non-monetary, in the direction of the issue to resolve it as quickly as possible. What gets missed is the contextual changes occurring in real time in any dynamic business environment so that whatever knowledge the leader thinks they know in the moment may well be outdated without making the time to listen for current verifiable context. The title quote by the late great rock star Jimi Hendrix succinctly outlines the value of listening for greater leadership success.

In our leadership and business coaching practice, we refer often to the DIKW (Data, Information, Knowledge, Wisdom) Cycle to help our clients communicate more effectively. This model visualizes a progressive relationship evolving from raw data organized into information. When information is contextualized and given meaning as knowledge and then applied over time to create wisdom. When leaders communicate at the knowledge and wisdom levels, the risk of poor decisions drops significantly. As we mentioned earlier in this article, the challenge leaders face in capturing wisdom is making the time to effectively listen in the moment to resolve the issue armed with the best possible knowledge-based solution.

However, if and when the only time leaders make time to listen to gather wisdom is when there is a problem to solve, they will always be behind in a VUCA business environment. Effective leaders are listening constantly to accumulate wisdom before the issues occur. We coach them to be problem finders as well as problem solvers. Problem finders are listening for market and industry trends to proactively understand how potential problems might affect their businesses. We’ve had people tell us the chaos in Washington DC could not have been predicted. While partially true, it is not enough to have ignored signs and signals that had the potential to slow business growth so that proactive decisions could mitigate the end effects.

All of this boils down to effective communication by leaders to have their decisions executed to achieve desired results. Effective communications involves more than what the leaders say. If leaders do not listen (not just hear) to what the business environment is saying, their knowledge base rapidly grows stale. As Warren Buffet famously said, “If you can’t communicate, it’s like winking at a girl in the dark; nothing happens.”

How well are you communicating with wisdom and how do you know? If you’re not sure, we can help.

Lead Well!