A wisdom steward embraces the value of wisdom and genuinely seeks and candidly shares wisdom with others.  The journey to wisdom stewardship means first understanding which of the five personas best describe you:

For each persona, you have to first be honest with yourself if you exhibit any of the persona traits, then decide you want to change. Being held accountable by up to three wisdom sharers and assessing your progress will help you on your journey to becoming a wisdom steward.

Are you diving or merely surviving as a leader when it comes to seeking and sharing wisdom? See what Rico learns about wisdom stewardship while on a magical golf cart ride in Behind Gold Doors-Five Easy Steps to Become a Wisdom Steward.

Excerpted from The Truth about Getting Your Point Across…and Nothing But the Truth

Joseph Ellis, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, was suspended for a year from Mount Holyoke College for lying about serving in the Vietnam War.

Empowerment.

One of the most over-used, warmed-over leadership terms uttered daily. Leaders high and low espouse their expertise in empowering teams to deliver. Some are very good at it, fostering high-performance teams who deliver great results. Others, though, only think they are good at it but frustrate teams with micromanagement, apathy, vagueness, and randomization. Most anyone who has been around the block has seen both good and bad empowerment examples. As for me, I’ve not only seen it, I’ve committed both the good and bad. It took me years to understand that empowerment isn’t just about delegating tasks to be performed. True empowerment is about entrusting individuals with problems to be solved and supporting them in the process. A high-performance empowered team owns problems or missions and is supported by a leader who provides clarity, gives guidance, and resolves only those issues the team can’t resolve on their own. To put some meat on this, I like to think of empowerment as systematic, with four critical steps needed to ensure its success. I call this intentional empowerment.