Lead with Wisdom

A practical guide for leading others with wisdom, integrity, and humanity

This book argues that great leadership requires wisdom. Rather than a formulaic managerial approach to leadership, Lead with Wisdom presents the case for leadership based on our shared humanity and the stories that unite us. What emerges is a model of leadership based on learning to read key patterns of human experience: the way language shapes our reality, how we form new meaning through conversation, how relationships determine influence and how we deal with uncertainty.

It presents readers with the tools and illustrated examples to implement the four arts of leading wisely: how to draw out and create a new story in the organization, how to find and leverage the brilliance of people, how to speak with promise to restore meaning and hope, and how to show grace in dealing with the most demanding people and circumstances.

• Offers a leadership approach rooted in our shared humanity and the stories which unite and define us
• Ideal for corporate leaders, middle managers, administrators, and anyone else with management responsibilities
• Written by a popular speaker on leadership and the author of Arts of the Wise Leader, with personal CEO experience and a PhD in the history of ideas
• Structured as one key idea per page or double page spread with funky line drawings supporting the concepts and skills

For anyone who wants to lead with wisdom, integrity, and humanity, Lead with Wisdom offers a welcome alternative to traditionally robotic and formulaic leadership strategies.

Introduction xi

PART I: WISDOM AND LEADERSHIP 01

The Story Behind Wisdom and Leadership 3

Chapter 1: Wisdom 5

Chapter 2: Leadership 27

PART II: PATTERNS 47

The Story Behind Patterns 49

Chapter 3: Naming 51

Chapter 4: Conversation 71

Chapter 5: Influence 95

Chapter 6: Character 113

PART III: ARTS 131

The Story Behind Arts 133

Chapter 7: Story 135

Chapter 8: Brilliance 155

Chapter 9: Promise 175

Chapter 10: Grace 193

PART IV: APPLYING THE PATTERNS AND ARTS 211

The Story Behind Application 213

Chapter 11: Leader's Journey 215

Chapter 12: Leading One 227

Chapter 13: Leading Many 243

Conclusion 257

Acknowledgements 259

Endnotes 261

MARK STROM, PhD, has delivered keynote addresses, seminars and retreats for thousands of leaders around the world. He consults to corporations globally on issues where leadership intersects with strategy, innovation, and engagement.

"Mark Strom accomplishes a truly extraordinary task: illuminating how wisdom drives leadership. His approach is intellectually fascinating and practically simple, and reflects the impressive existential depth of his own life's course."
—PIERRE GURDJIAN Senior Partner, McKinsey & Company, Brussels

"A powerful, compelling and beautifully observed map of leadership."
—SIR ROBERT 'BOB' HARVEY, KNZM, QSO Chair, Auckland Waterfront Authority

"Poignant, elegant, substantive, profound, simple."
—THEARY SENG President, CIVICUS, Phnom Penh

Wisdom is the ability to discern and act on meaningful patterns in human experience. As philosopher of leadership Mark Strom explains, it is the defining quality that makes the difference between a good leader and a great one.

Lead with Wisdom draws upon the richest ideas from history's greatest thinkers, showing how we can shape our lives through words, relationships, conversations, stories, and much more. This results in powerful lessons on how to leverage the insights of wisdom for deep, even game-changing, results.