In his 'Leading Edge' column on Forbes.com, Sangeeth Varghese discusses the 'WICS' model for creating leaders with its developer, Robert Jeffrey Sternberg.
Sternberg is a psychologist and psychometrician, known for his work in the fields of human intelligence, creativity, thinking styles and leadership.
Varghese, who says he has a deep admiration for Sternberg's work, explains WICS in a distillation of a recent conversation with the psychologist.
WICS stands for 'wisdom, intelligence, creativity synthesized'. The basic premise of the model is that leadership is not something people are born with and is not inherited. According to Sternberg, leadership is something one decides to do - a decision that builds on a combination, or synthesis, of wisdom, intelligence and creativity.
Here is a brief explanation of the individual elements of WICS:
* Wisdom - This relates to the positive use of knowledge and skills. Wisdom helps you integrate the other aspects of WICS.
* Intelligence - Successfully applied, intelligence will help you attain your goals by capitalizing on your strengths and overcoming weaknesses or compensating for them.
* Creativity - This is the ability to come up with ideas and then use the necessary analytical ability to judge whether they are good ideas. Sometimes this means going against the crowd.
Varghese summarizes: "WICS means using elements of your intelligence to succeed in life, and part of that is defying the crowd creatively when necessary so as to achieve a common good for all. It's a synthesis of intelligence, creativity and wisdom."
Good leadership requires knowledge and ability, but attitude is every bit as important, if not more so. The manner in which you approach problems and the attitude you have towards dealing with them are equally as important as an ability to actually solve them.
Varghese explains: "When you take a leadership role, whether as chairman of a corporation or as a leader in your family, you need ideas. You need creative skills and attitudes to come up with those ideas. You need analytical skills and attitudes to decide whether they are good ideas. You need practical skills and attitudes to put them into practice and to persuade people to listen to you.
"And finally," he adds, "you need wisdom to balance the effects of your ideas on yourself, others and institutions, in both the short and long term."
He concludes: "WICS provides a useful model for leadership, but the most important thing to remember is that good leadership is in a large part a decision. It's something you can decide to do; something we can all decide to do."
Leadership Is Something You Decide To Do
Sangeeth Varghese, Forbes.com, 22/02/10
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