How important is wisdom in today's military leadership?

Wisdom is the backbone of all decision making... experience and common sense are supporting ribs.

I have been out of the military too long to comment on today's military. However, in Vietnam, I placed wisdom near or at the top because I witnessed wisdom saving lives several times.

I've always considered wisdom as the trait that puts all of our regulations, laws and traditions in the appropriate perspective. It is timeless and, whenever encountered, serves to bridle inappropriate zeal with realism. Although we often consider wisdom a product of age and experienced, my five year old grandson has impressed me with wisdom resident in what he says that might otherwise be described as unvarnished truth.

Wisdom also comes from HAVING the wisdom to listen to experienced subordinates, leaders, and peers and trusting them enough to learn from. However, it is only natural to f#$k up from time to time. It's the best way to learn in my opinion. Just don't make any mistakes that are illegal, immoral, or unethical and you will be fine. Most of us have been given negative counseling statements. Just try to keep them as counseling statements and not UCMJ punishments.

Seems to me Wisdom is at least equal to Leadership because too many liberals today second guess the actions that take place on the battlefield. Without wisdom there is too much potential to find oneself in front of a jury for the necessities of surviving a battle. War is hell. Those that avoid going there should also avoid judging those that do.

Several times in my career, I have explained to peers how to complete a complex task while avoiding hidden obstacles that could send the whole thing crashing down. They've looked at me, sometimes in astonishment, and asked, "How do you know all that?" I'd reply, "Because I already made that mistake once before."
Presence of mind will help you avoid the obvious mistakes, but it's getting blindsided, waylaid, picking yourself back up, and learning from it, that builds wisdom.

I rank wisdom up there, but in my mind it's what seperates a leader from a great leader. There are lots of people who are declared or become leaders but that alone doesn't make them great, or even effective for that matter. Those who able to apply the wisdom of life that they've learned along the way become the great leaders that people want to follow and work with throughout their lives. No wisdom and you just have a run of the mill leadership school (pick the name of any of the hundreds out there) graduate.

Wisdom just like leadership and other nontangible qualities such as tact, initiative, honor etc are things told about them slowly developed. The irony is you either want it or don't. It is very important to understand that everyone regardless of rank needs to take wisdom and intellect hand in hand. They both work in conjunction somethings take wisdom, experience and knowledge of lessons learned regardless of doctrine just as somethings take intellect and science. So in my most humble opinion the people who choose one over the other arent very wise to begin with so why listen to them in the first place.

Wisdom has always been a critical element of Leadership. Whatever made anyone think it wouldn't be?

With out wisdom you don't learn, you don't learn you fall behind. You fall behind, you fall behind you may need to learn another language and culture. Wisdom is the most important thing we have to give in life. It is the main reason we don't live in caves anymore. If we had listened to our parents and they had listened to theirs and so on instead of repeating the same mistakes over and over we would be in a near narvana. If you or someone knows something and passes it along it saves many from making the same mistakes in life. It's wisdom. Wisdom is knowing what works and what won't work over a period of time. Wisdom = knowledge, knowledge = success, and success = happiness.