ABSTRACT
To self-transcend is to recognize that everything we do impacts what others do and what others do impacts what we do. It is to recognize that how we think influences how others think, and how they think influences how we think. If we now consider this way of thinking in an organizational context, how does the self-transcendent leader think about change? In the fourth section of The Wise Leader we review five different ways of thinking about change and frame those different ways of thinking in terms of wisdom. Reviewing the literature we come to realize that there are many different ways of thinking about change. In this section, we present a simplified account of the myriad of theories that currently exist. We have sorted those theories into five buckets. None of these buckets are necessarily better than any of the other buckets, but the more buckets we have access to, the more agile and adaptable we are likely to be as a leader. The wise leader has access to all five ways of thinking and is able to ‘Think Meta!’ We then offer some practical guidance to both leaders and leadership development professionals, helping you to build these ideas into both personal and organizational approaches to leadership development.
