sagacious: /səˈɡeɪ.ʃəs/ adjective Having or showing understanding and the ability to make good judgments
Fast forward to December 31, 2021 and ask, “What kind of year did you have in 2021?”
Did you lead sagaciously? Leading sagaciously means to act in a way that is clever, observant, of keen discernment, with ability and aptitude, (in other words, to act sagely or wisely).
To show understanding combined with good decision making requires leaders to live in a different space than those around them. It means they must go looking for information in timely manner relevant to the decisions to be made and demonstrate a sensitivity regarding how those decisions will impact others. This is especially true after having experienced the uncertainties of a pandemic.
How to spot a non-sagaciously led environment:
Is it safe to speak up? When the ‘all hands on deck’ meeting is held and questions are solicited do you hear crickets? Are top people fleeing the company? If the answer to these questions is yes, the leaders have some work to do to overcome what quality guru Sydney Yoshida termed in 1989 ‘Iceberg of Ignorance’.
Yoshida’s study found that:
- 100% of an organization’s problems are known to front-line employees.
- 74% of problems are known to supervisors.
- 9% of problems are known to middle management.
- 4% of problems are known to top managers.
Whoa…wait, only 4% a company’s problems are known to top managers? Does this sound familiar? If so, its time to act sagaciously by engaging in an active process of discovery before important decisions are made.
Even though the study is over 30 years old and focused on mid-sized organizations, the message is still relevant today. And that is, there’s a cost attached to not being close enough to the front-line. What is it costing your organization to be cloistered in ignorance? The ROI of superior quality, lower prices and more market share make the case themselves for showing understanding and making better, more informed decisions. I am reminded of a dialog with the CEO of a technology start-up turned growth company who described sage leadership this way. He said, “Know what to know and why, then know when to get out of the way and how.”
Be a thermometer not just a thermostat:
Turning up the heat on others in the organization is often the easiest thing leaders do. They just know they want something to happen, (even though it may not be the right thing). Turning up the heat on people at a time when they already have a fever is likely the wrong long term move.
Take a page from the pandemic and repeatedly take your organization’s cultural temperature rather than making assumptions. Take the temperature of front-line workers and their supervisors frequently. Be attentive. It seems to me we should have been doing this all along. We cannot repeatedly make our best judgment in the dark.
To lead sagaciously also means acting: judiciously, intelligently, alertly, artfully, astutely, perceptively, discerningly, sensibly, prudently, sharply, insightfully, soundly, thoughtfully, wisely, observantly, perspicaciously, discriminatingly, smartly, ably, adroitly and reasonably against which all of our best decisions are most certainly made.
