The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom.
Though it cost all you have, get understanding.
Cherish her, and she will exalt you;
embrace her, and she will honor you.
Proverbs 4:7-8
Imagine that you are a teenager and you want to learn to drive. You and your parents carefully select an instructor and arrange for your first lesson. As you take the wheel in your hands you casually ask your instructor how many years he has been driving. He looks at you hesitantly before announcing apologetically that he doesn't actually know how to drive. He suggests that you learn together. Needless to say, you promptly begin your search for a new instructor.
Like this unprepared instructor, we as leaders are often lacking the most vital component for leadership: wisdom. And how do we gain wisdom? We start by asking God, who grants wisdom to those who ask (James 1:5). Yet the reality is that God gives true wisdom almost exclusively through experience. There is no shortcut to gaining the wisdom we need to lead. Of course, wisdom doesn't simply come from experience. After all, there are plenty of old people without a trace of wisdom! Wisdom must be sought after. We must seek it and then put it into practice. It won't happen by accident. That's why God's advice in the passage above, despite its simplicity, is so true: if you want to be wise, get wisdom! It all starts with an effort on our part to acquire it.
But we sometimes mistake wisdom for "having all the answers." This is not wisdom. Wisdom is knowing how to find the answers after all the information and data that you have collected does not bring clear resolution. In truth, wisdom does not always come from the leader. It is a wise leader who knows where to look for answers, and who is willing to allow the solution to come from somewhere or even someone else. This process doesn't imply that the leader doesn't have what it takes. On the contrary, it shows a leaders's humility and willingness to let God provide in times of need.
Our ability to lead depends fully on what God gives us. It begins with an understanding that we are not naturally wise, and that we desperately need God's wisdom in order to guide others. Ask him today to teach you so that you have some wisdom to share with those around you.
