You think experience makes us wiser. But wisdom doesn’t automatically come with the number of years in post. Wisdom comes with insight into your own behaviour and how it effects others. Do you have a tendency to be impetuous, even reckless in your enthusiasm to make changes, are you so keen to convince people you’re right that you don’t listen to what others have to say, do you express your frustration quickly and openly, if things don’t workout do you believe others are to blame, are you over confident, are you unrealistically optimistic, do you believe you know more than other people, do you believe you can get away with almost anything (no matter how inappropriate) due to your position and value to the organisation? Most senior managers have these or some of these characteristics. What differentiates them is their insight into how their behaviour effects others and their willingness to modify their behaviour in view of this self knowledge.
A fool is not unintelligent or without talent what they lack is wisdom. In seeking to appoint to senior posts recruitment panels look for candidates with experience that has equipped them with the skills, knowledge and wisdom to meet the challenges of the post. Such panels frequently make two assumptions. The first is that the more years in a relevant post the more experienced the candidate. In this they are mistaking quantity for quality. There are managers with ten years in the job but one years experience times ten. They have not moved out of their comfort zone after the first year and so have learnt very little since. The second is to assume that someone with a lot of relevant experience and acquired skills and knowledge also has wisdom. But wisdom doesn’t automatically come with the years.
A large part of managerial wisdom is emotional intelligence (EI) basically insight into how their own behaviour effects others and the ability to modify their behaviour taking account of this self knowledge. So someone who recognises they tend to talk over others acknowledges this and takes action to create space for others to be heard. They ensure they open up discussion even if their natural tendency is to close it down. They know that in the past they have let their frustrations show and that this inhibits others from expressing concerns or doubts, so they learn to hid their frustration. They recognise they can be over optimistic and realise that they need to ensure their enthusiasm doesn’t lead to hasty decisions, and so must take account of the views of more cautious colleagues and those who have specialist knowledge or expertise.
If you believe that intelligence and talent are enough to be an effective leader and that you don’t need to change or adapt the way you behave you are fooling yourself.
