What is the Wisdom We Need in Leadership?

We love our correspondence with so many of you!

My friend and colleague Alan Harpham, from England, responded to one of our recent Wisdom Connection newsletters. He was right in questioning something we said – and did so with his customary gracious perceptiveness.

 

“Whilst I have total sympathy with your mission and would agree more women in places of power would be most helpful – I do think you have one thing slightly wrong.  I think it is just wisdom that makes for great leaders, a mixture of masculine and feminine with males listening to their female side and females listening to their male side.  Neither male nor female wisdom is better than the other a balanced combination could be best.”
 

I agree. It is a mix of wisdom – both masculine and feminine – neither is better than the other and a balanced combination is the only way we will discover ways through much of the current mess.

 

The problem is though that our feminine wisdom can’t be fully expressed, in balance with our masculine, if it is not well developed. I speak with women, and men, every day who talk about setting aside, hiding, or mistrusting their innate beautiful feminine wisdom.

 

I certainly did in the past - and sometimes I still do! Early on I told myself that to make a difference I needed to adopt the more masculine style of speaking and producing. I forgot about the power of my feminine approaches. Out of integrity, I diluted my impact and reduced my influence. It was and still is painful.

 

How about you? Email me with your thoughts, feelings, and intuitions on feminine wisdom and it’s relevance to your leadership. Very soon there will be a way for you to comment directly on these blogs. We are working on it! In the meantime: