Balancing Knowledge and Wisdom
Join us this month as we unpack various dimensions within our leadership bandwidth, exploring limiting dichotomies and biases that may impact our full expression. This journey will help us better understand and access the full range of our leadership resources.
We begin by unpacking the dimensions of Knowledge and Wisdom and encourage you to reflect on your current relationship with knowledge and wisdom in your leadership practice.
A Bias Towards Knowledge
We have been heavily socialised to be better, know more, and improve ourselves, leading to a bias towards knowledge and skills in many areas of our lives. While knowledge and skills are critical for our leadership growth and impact, the never-ending pursuit of them can reinforce a paradigm of deficiency, focusing on what's wrong with us and often leaving us feeling lacking.
The Call to Wisdom
One of our teachers Steve March (Founder of Aletheia Coaching School) has been taking us on a journey to explore an alternative paradigm that sees personal growth as a process of uncovering and expressing our innate wisdom. Instead of trying to fix ourselves, this paradigm encourages us to deepen our connection with our inner knowing and the outer world in a way that enables us to feel more complete and resourced.
The Deficiency Trap
It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking that if we lack a skill, we're lacking as a person. For instance, struggling with communication, planning, or influencing might lead us to believe we're not good enough overall.
While we value, encourage, and support self-improvement in skills, competency, and knowledge, the often-felt sense of personal deficiency stems from a disconnection from our innate resourcefulness and wisdom. Addressing this requires moving toward self-connection rather than self-repair.
Reflecting on Your Experience
Think about the last time you felt well-resourced to address a challenging situation, such as influencing challenging stakeholders, aligning your team behind a tough decision, or overcoming internal political hurdles. Reflect on what truly helped you make progress or achieve your goal...
What role did your knowledge, skills and competency play? Consider elements like data/information, planning, communication styles, problem solving and time management.
What role did your inner wisdom play? Through the quality of your presence, listening and connection, which innate human qualities emerged for you? Consider attributes like compassion, courage, perseverance, calm, and conviction.
In recent coaching conversations many of our clients discovered that it was indeed wisdom that played a significant role in overcoming their challenges. They shared stories about how being more present, relaxed, noticing more, and connecting deeply had a positive impact on themselves and others.
Nurturing Our Inner Wisdom
Remember this is not an either/or dichotomy. Our knowledge is deeply important however it can only equip us to an extent. The overwhelm and complexity of many of our leadership challenges are screaming for more wisdom. So how can we more fully and consciously connect and access our inner wisdom? Here are some suggestions to spark your own exploration:
- Regulating Our Nervous System - Managing our body's stress responses is crucial. Techniques such as deep breathing, mindfulness meditation, and physical exercise can help calm the nervous system, making it easier to access our inner wisdom.
- Deep Participation - Fully engage with the present moment just as it is. By being present, listening deeply, and connecting meaningfully with others and ourselves, we experience life's richness more profoundly.
- Embracing Humility - Actively embracing the unknown can be freeing. It opens us to new perspectives and allows us to approach situations with curiosity and openness.
- Reflective Practices - Regularly engaging in reflective practices like journaling, meditation, or contemplative walks can help us process experiences and insights at a deeper level.
As we wrap up our brief exploration of Knowledge and Wisdom, it's clear that both elements play crucial roles in our leadership journey. By balancing our pursuit of knowledge with accessing the deep, often untapped well of inner wisdom, we can navigate the complexities of leadership with greater presence and awareness.
We encourage you to reflect on your experiences and consider how you can cultivate a richer connection with your inner wisdom while continuing to build your knowledge and skills.
Join us in our next blog as we explore more dimensions of our leadership bandwidth. Stay tuned!
Photos by Josh Hild and Jon Fiobrant on Unsplash
