The Path to Becoming Wise

If no one wants your wisdom, does it matter if you are wise?

While possible to make wise decisions that benefit only yourself, that’s not the goal of this teaching.

Giving wise counsel to others appears to be a call for Christian leaders.

In fact, it’s an imperative given the prevalence of foolishness in the world.

The basis for all of our wisdom from God is Christ:

“It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.”

Such wisdom, according to James 1:5, is readily available.  In other words, the content side of wisdom is no deep secret for you.

Where leaders need much deeper training and investment, however, is the ability to deliver wisdom in a way that the requester makes a decision that brings them life and truth.

Here are the steps:

Care

How to speak and understand in a way that demonstrates real, not superficial, caring.  After all, no one cares what you know till they know that you care.

Seems obvious, but many leaders, especially those with strong technical and execution guidance, miss this to their detriment.  In fact, getting this wrong could actually contaminate your advice.

Curiosity

Many leaders, especially those caught up in their worldly success and pride, dive into their man-man solutions.  But true wisdom comes from getting curious about the scenario in smart and Biblical ways.

Clarity

Wise counsel brings clarity where there is confusion.  Unfortunately, many would-be advice-givers don’t bring clarity but just add to the different voices and agendas tugging at the decision-maker.  Without this intentional step, you are probably making it worse. Be a trusted counselor by helping your advisee see the unseen.

Context

Poor leaders feel that they cannot give advice because they don’t have a full context the way the decision-maker has. That’s true. But it’s actually the opposite that is true: a wise counselor actual helps the decision-maker see real context by widening the aperture and facilitating connections.

Conviction 

Wise counselors often help people face a blind spot that was affecting their range of choices.  Uncovering those areas and providing both truth and grace to the one seeking advice can change lives while leading to better decisions.

These may seem simple.  But that doesn’t mean these are easy.

But if you feel your leadership — whether serving in church, working in a company, or creating powerful relationships — depends upon providing wise counsel (as I believe it does!), cultivate those five steps the next time you need to provide wisdom to another.

Want to learn more?

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