Knowledge. Understanding. Wisdom. Sagacity. Sophistication. Do those words describe you? Are there people upon whom you would pin those terms without hesitation?

Practical leadership effectiveness is really all about, as the title says, “Understanding Wise Applications Of Knowledge.” It is what enables your strategy to be operationalized. It is what keeps your enterprise running profitably. It is what reduces internal friction to the barest possible minimum. It is what opens new markets and opportunities for you. It is what keeps your people, your partners, your clients, your customers, your suppliers, happy and eagerly looking forward to each new day at work, eagerly looking forward to doing business with you.

Data is part of knowledge. However, knowledge is more than data. Knowledge adds the human dimension to the data, what it feels like, what it sounds like, what your experience of the data is. When knowledge is deep and internalized, understanding occurs. Understanding is when you begin to see what you know functioning as systems, interacting with each other in ways that simple “knowing” of data cannot produce. Wisdom is the ability to perceive what systems are doing and to possess the ability to choose the optimum courses of action at specific times for the best outcomes personally, professionally and for all stakeholders.

Do you wish to raise the level of effective leadership in your company? Raise leaders who are practical, effective, easily and willingly followed, full of enthusiastic initiative, and who seem to naturally raise followers to become leaders themselves? Well, then, get knowledge. Get understanding. And learn how to be wise in applying them.