Leadership Discernment: Acting on what you know

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Discernment is one of the most overlooked and underrated leadership qualities that separates great leaders from average ones. It is the ‘ability of being able to grasp and comprehend what is obscure’ –?Merriam-Webster ?and whilst discernment can be learnt, organisations cannot unfortunately, assume that their leaders are skilled in the art of discernment.

The power to act has always distinguished successful organisations from their competitors. These organisations understand that customers are best served when there is autonomy of decision making as close as possible to the customer. When seeking competitive advantage, they prize and empower Maverick Leaders that use their discernment when deciding on what, when and why they act.

For when real decisions can only be made at the top, unexpected consequences occur on ‘the shop floor’.

Translating knowledge into wisdom into action, is no longer just the purview of the manager, it is the responsibility of everyone within the organisation. Successful organisations become customer centric, understanding that they need to reduce these foreseeable ‘unexpected consequences’ as much as possible.?

As the speed of change continues to accelerate and the environment becomes more complex, organisations need to ensure that their employees are equipped to be autonomous. Without the right level of autonomy and viable decision-making ability, customers and employees disengage and leave.?

This is a foreseeable ‘to be expected’ consequence, that can be mitigated.

Discernment requires more than knowledge

‘Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad’ – Brian O’Driscoll

The?Oxford Dictionary ?describes knowledge as ‘the information, understanding and skills that you gain through education or experience’. The pandemic fuelled ‘great resignation’ and hybrid working, has revitalised the drive to obtain and record the knowledge held within the organisation. However, there is a danger that an organisation will prioritise knowledge collection and dissemination over the ability to discern a solution from the knowledge that they currently possess.

For a company to be truly customer centric or be able to utilise its customer advantage, it will need to empower its employees to act. Successful organisations empower their workforce to utilise their individual and collective discernment to understand what is required in the moment; and then deliver it.

Discernment is activated by wisdom so action can be taken

‘Wisdom is the ability to contemplate and act using knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense and insight’ -?Wikipedia . It is more than the mere acquisition and dissemination of knowledge, and requires an individual to truly understand the intention behind the information that they are gathering. Wisdom has also been described as the ability to judge what is true or what is right. This definition has a moral connotation that all leaders within an organisation should endeavour to include in their expectation of good leadership, personal or otherwise. Successful organisations strive for their entire workforce to demonstrate wisdom in their dealings with the organisation’s stakeholders.?

I have found when working with organisations to improve their leadership capability, that the most common challenge they face is that their leadership teams do not know how to use the right type of wisdom when acting on the knowledge that they have. They sometimes struggle to draw insight from the vast amount of knowledge that is locked inside the organisation. This can lead to knowledge overwhelm, leading to a type of paralysis of action.

This can lead to a domino effect right to the ‘shop floor’, disempowering customer facing employees from having the autonomy in decision making to act in the best interests of the customer. Lack of real insight, might encourage an over reliance on ‘company rules’, reducing the flexibility to meet the customer where they are. This can often increase the number of unnecessarily dissatisfied customers and management time dealing with them.

Leadership discernment can be considered in three parts:

·???????The leadership exhibited by individuals

·???????The leadership exhibited by individual leaders

·???????The leadership exhibited by leaders as a collective

When all three groups are aligned to common values and the organisation’s mission, then the knowledge gathered within the organisation is wilfully disseminated, with the organisation supporting the workforce to discover and share the insight learnt. This empowers the right type of action to be taken.

In my experience as a leadership consultant and trainer, when the leadership team is taught and encouraged to deploy strategic thinking, utilise Maverick Leadership principles and has the right organisational structure, the domino effect can begin to go straight to ‘the shop floor’, allowing each individual to make the right customer centric choices.

Understanding the difference between knowledge and wisdom is imperative to modern organisations as they seek to disseminate knowledge throughout the organisation, in order to be as agile as possible. Leadership discernment makes this possible as it is a way of thinking, and turning that thinking into action. It is perhaps a foundational block to all behavioural change, the ability to look beyond the knowledge that you know, to find the relevant insights (wisdom), to take the right action at the right time.?

Discernment is one of the most overlooked and underrated leadership qualities that separates great leaders from average ones. When it is time to improve the ability of leadership discernment within your organisation, let me know and we can find a way to do this together.

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Judith Germain ?is the founder and principal consultant of? The Maverick Paradox, ?a leadership consultancy that utilises Maverick Leadership principles to enable business owners, leaders, the C-Suite, and organisations, thrive in complex, constantly changing environments by improving their diversity of thought, impact, influence and leadership capability.?

She is the leading authority on Maverick Leadership, an author, C-Suite and CEO Mentor, consultant, trainer, and speaker. Judith is a Brainz 500 Global honouree, recognised as one of 500 Companies and Influential Leaders who are recognised for their entrepreneurial success, achievements, and dedication to helping others.

Full bio and how to work with Judith at?maverickparadox.co.uk