Leadership — intellect or wisdom?

Intelligence matters for leadership. Its presence is seen as a guarantee for good leadership to prevail.

The premise of this thought relies on the hair splitting of intelligence into social, practical business intelligence, and emotional intelligence.

In a study it was discovered that ‘Actual Intelligence was found to have a positive relationship with effective Leadership’. But that co- relation was fairly low and other characteristics like extraversion and conscientiousness correlated higher to leadership.

A philosopher of the East had said, ‘you don’t need intelligence, all you need is ‘temporary schooling’. Intellect alone doesn’t allow for ability to deal with different situations and different people.

Knowledge has to be backed by certain humane qualities to be able to seek the support of other members of the workforce or followers.

The ability to direct the unique strength of each constituent of the team towards common objective emerges not from intelligence alone but through patient understanding of the issues, crises or objective.

Possession of high intellect is no assurance that an individual is free from practical inabilities or vulnerabilities. Intelligence regrettably is seen by many as a straight jacketed concept involving a high level of mental capacity or, in other words, a high IQ score. Management scientists alongside practitioners of neurosciences feel and argue that intelligence goes beyond mental capacity.

This argument has led to the development of concepts that hair split “intelligence” into ‘wisdom intelligence’, ‘character intelligence’, ‘social intelligence’ and more significantly ’spiritual intelligence ’.

Is there a difference between intellect and intelligence? They are certainly not the same. Intellect is considered in-born. Intelligence, on the other hand, is acquired and can be expanded because it is knowledge based. IQ measures intelligence not intellect; to measure intellect there are standardised tests that have valid indices.

Intelligence is acquired liberally, however wisdom is rare. Wisdom is not what you know but it is how to use the knowledge.

Intellect inhibits free flow of information leading up to a general attitude of not listening to others. An attitude of self-righteousness is the first signal of a leader that has no foundations resting in wisdom.

Leaders with intellect are those who can do critical thinking, research, and possess innate ability to reflect upon the nature of reality, in particular the nature of society and proposed solutions for its settlement.

Einstein reflects intellect. There are intelligent leaders who can be as non-intellectual as possibly can be, for example an electrician can be an expert in his/her area/profession but may have no appreciation of reading or understanding literature.

Human intellect is about the capacity of the mind to seek conclusions from assumptions arising out of intellect and confidence. In spite of this fine distinction between intellect and Intelligence most people use these words interchangeably.

I view the following description of Jack Welch as definition of wise leadership, “The most important quality of Leadership is intellectual honesty. The reality principle – the ability to see the world as it really is, not as you wish it were.” Analytical thinking or critical thinking is important but if it is devoid of “thought” the comment remains invalid.

More evil than evil is a strong indication of the lack of wisdom. Evil fails to reason or listen to logic. There is a general refusal to listen by people, which makes it very difficult to change minds of people through intellect. It is the surrender of morality that gives life to cowards and criminals.

The lack of wisdom is the cause of this abject surrender to evil. How can anyone expect to defeat foolishness through an intellectual engagement, for it is inherently immune to reason and logic.

Intellect on its own gives scant recognition to facts, instead in my view it carries the seed of self-destruction. As Martin Luther King Jr put it, one must remain wary of “sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity”. Intellect in isolation pushes an individual towards narcissistic tendencies and in worst case scenario it demands submission and obedience to the illogical.

The surrender of individual and collective will is a consequence of submission to authoratanism of intellect. Intellect is hardest material that refuses to be malleable, for it induces a belief of being right and hence the rigidity in behavioural responses.

Adolf Hitler is a classic case; highly intelligent but devoid of wisdom. The presence of intellect in isolation in managers and leaders demands blind following.

Without wisdom, intelligence or even intellect, drives to compromise independence of thought. This can result in general acceptance of immorality and illegality. Intellect has potential to manipulate emotions to the extent that leaders start to see dissent as a dangerous trait to have in followers. The mental enslavement hits deep at ability to think, to analyse and to think independently.

Intelligent political leaders seek from followers a blind conformity. False narratives are bought and sold freely. Foolishness has no shame and so is embraced willingly by the stupid followers.

Intellect in a leader is possibly the most over-rated characteristic. Wise leaders are quick to reckon the need to temper intellect with wisdom.

Character Intelligence relates to adoption of higher principles of life. Character is built both in a flash in a single meeting or encounter, and also over a long period of time.

Character intelligence ensures the consistency of response to situations and it refuses to alter the response to suit expediency of a situation but instead is entrenched in the anchors of consistent and principled stand. Leaders, who make choices, are continually evaluated to find the presence of consistency of character. The reference leaders are Chou en Lai, Lee Kuan Yew, Dr. Mahatir, etc.

Daniel Coleman’s book “Social Intelligence” gave birth to the concept of social awareness and social faculty; the author distinguished between the two by referring to social awareness as ability to ‘how we sense about others’ and social faculty is about possessing traits that endear the person to others. A leader is expected through character traits to entice commitment from followers.

Spiritual intelligence is the establishment of a firm, binding and resolute relationship with the “Supreme Being”. This attribute lends to the leader a certain quality of faith in his/ her decision making. Essentially, it is about making an admission that a “Greater Authority” exists to help take a decision.

While many businesses may not like to mix up religion or even a remote religious connotative thought into practice, but I have seen first-hand the value of it. I was fortunate to be associated in my initial banking career that pronounced without an apology or guilt that the major purpose of the entity is ‘submission to God and service to humanity’. These two cornerstones of the corporate philosophy spurred the behaviour of individuals together towards the market place with an attitude of care, concern and empathy.

Wisdom is the amalgam and synthesis of knowledge and intellect that gets tempered and distilled with experience, usually of a varied nature. An intelligent CEO is not an assurance of sustainable profitability but a wise leadership offers a better option.

A classic example of intellect and wisdom is the scientist, recalled in history as, Alfred Bernhard Nobel. He discovered dynamite and his business grew exponentially with demands coming from non-interested industries.

He abandoned the project when his own brother got killed by a dynamite in Paris. He became wiser to realise the negative potential of dynamite. He donated all his wealth and instituted the globally sought “Nobel Prize” for various categories.

Leaders must learn to develop skills to take full responsibility for the use and application of the power of intelligence. The arrogance of intellect and intelligence has to be defanged with humane qualities. It is when knowledge and intellect are used in conjunction and with the consideration for its impact on human condition, that’s when leadership acquires wisdom.

Divine intelligence (DI) is a blessing. DI refers to an ability of recognising the inherent and intrinsic strength and value of followers (colleagues); such blessed leaders demonstrate in their personalities a very high degree of humility, an approach seeking collaboration rather than competition and above all to sustain with willing acceptance the progress of others over self. These leaders are selfless and caring.

Wisdom springs from the fountains of the core values embraced by individuals, organisations, societies and nations.

Wisdom is way above and beyond technical proficiency; it has more to do with ethics, morality and a sense of purpose and commitment to basic values of life, that include, integrity, respect, honour and accountability. Knowledge is not to be had for flaunting. It must remain within the domain of developing skills to make right decisions and for right purpose.

Wisdom is blest upon a few. Many leaders have to spend considerable time to acquire wisdom through reflection, through experience of self and others; through the highs and lows, and more importantly develop a fine sense for making judgement call upon the plethora of information that comes their way.

Wise leaders create more leaders. They empower people to allow them to perform at their best. Neuro scientists believe that wisdom is a consequence of the interplay of critical thinking versus empathy and emotional intelligence with rational decision making.

Abraham Lincoln was largely self-educated, while Bill Clinton went to Georgetown and Yale; yet Lincoln scores higher many times over Clinton, when it comes to wise leadership, because he matched his acquired intellect with the naturally blessed wisdom—a perfect union of knowledge and wisdom.

Today the world needs more wise leaders and less of intelligent – the situation in Gaza is a classic example of wisdom failing to assert itself amidst the herd of wolves and foxes that constitute today’s leadership. The role of Muslim leaders in the least is despicable.

Wisdom demands of a leader to recognise when to lead, when to follow and when to vacate space for others to fill in.

Said anonymously is this cryptic observation: “knowledge is knowing what to say. Wisdom is knowing when to say.” Again said jovially, “knowledge is knowing tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to put it in fruit salad.”

Copyright Business Recorder, 2025