{"id":4040,"date":"2023-10-14T09:19:58","date_gmt":"2023-10-14T14:19:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/educationalrenaissance.com\/?p=4040"},"modified":"2023-10-14T09:20:01","modified_gmt":"2023-10-14T14:20:01","slug":"counsels-of-the-wise-part-7-leadership-liberal-arts-and-prudence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/educationalrenaissance.com\/2023\/10\/14\/counsels-of-the-wise-part-7-leadership-liberal-arts-and-prudence\/","title":{"rendered":"Counsels of the Wise, Part 7: Leadership, Liberal Arts, and Prudence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the previous article we finally laid out a pedagogy for training students in prudence<\/a>. While there are many preliminary actions<\/a> that we can take to sow the seeds of prudence<\/a> and provide for students\u2019 good instruction from sources of moral wisdom, it is nevertheless true that the full acquisition of practical wisdom awaits a student\u2019s later years. In secondary and collegiate education, then, students should study the ethical dimensions of all subjects and be taught through dialectical and rhetorical means to reason about human goods using biblical moral categories.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If our educational renewal movement consistently graduated students well on their way to practical wisdom, that fact alone would entail a remarkable positive inheritance. I might go so far as to say that, even if our educational methods bore no better fruit in standardized test scores or excellent artistry in language, mathematics, or the fine and performing arts, still it all would have been worth it if our graduates were more prudent. Part of the reason for this is that no man is an island, and so, regardless of other attainments, the influence of these prudent citizens on the world at large is nothing short of incalculable. Prudence is the quintessential virtue of true leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much ink has been spilled on the liberal arts as the proper training for a free human being. A free society relies on men and women leaders who are able to reason persuasively with both verbal and mathematical precision, in order to lead us to human flourishing. As Aristotle asserts,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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That is why we think Pericles and people of that sort to be practically wise\u2013because they have theoretical knowledge of what is good for themselves and for human beings, and we think household-managers and politicians are like that. (Reeve, Aristotle on Practical Wisdom<\/em>, 56; VI.5 translation)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In actual fact, it is not the liberal arts simply, but the liberal arts facing prudential matters that prepare a person for leadership. Study of the liberal arts can tend toward the arcane, mystic and purely academic. The best students of abstract intellectual matters are not always the best leaders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aristotle\u2019s inclusion of both household-managers and politicians justifies our exploration of prudence as a leadership trait generally. When he says that \u201cpolitical wisdom and practical wisdom are the same state of mind, but to be them is not the same,\u201d (VI.8, Revised Oxford Trans.) he further clarifies that political wisdom is that type of practical wisdom concerned with the city, just as economic or household management is that practical wisdom concerned with the household. This doesn\u2019t negate the fact that a person could have individual practical wisdom but not the leadership varieties, because of lacking particular knowledge of that sphere. But it does mean that practical wisdom expands up into all types of leadership spheres, making the essence of practical wisdom itself highly desirable.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After all, our graduates will lead in various ways after their Christian classical education, whether it be as parents themselves, church and small group leaders, coaches, business managers and executives, and perhaps even politicians. Our world needs more prudent leaders, just as it does more prudent individuals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this article we will explore practical wisdom in dialogue with Jim Collin\u2019s idea of Level 5 leadership from his book Good to Great<\/em>. Then we will note some practical implications for training prudent leaders through the school experience today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Level 5 Leadership and Prudence<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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In his masterfully researched Good to Great<\/a><\/em>, Jim Collins and his team of researchers set out to discover what separated enduringly great businesses (measured \u201cobjectively\u201d by publicly available stock valuation) from comparison companies. According to his own admission Collins \u201cgave the research team explicit instructions to downplay<\/em> the role of top executives so that [they] could avoid the simplistic \u2018credit the leader\u2019 or \u2018blame the leader\u2019 thinking common today.\u201d In spite of this, the presence of what they came to call \u201cLevel 5 Leadership\u201d in all the Good to Great companies at the time of transition kept staring them in the face, the more so since the traits they saw were so paradoxical and unexpected.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Collins describes the Level 5 executive as a person who \u201cbuilds enduring greatness through a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will\u201d (20). He goes on to describe it this way:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Level 5 leaders are a study in duality: modest and willful, humble and fearless. To quickly grasp this concept, think of United States President Abraham Lincoln (one of the few Level 5 presidents in United States history), who never let his ego get in the way of his primary ambition for the larger cause of an enduring great nation. Yet those who mistook Mr. Lincoln\u2019s personal modesty, shy nature, and awkward manner as signs of weakness found themselves terribly mistaken, to the scale of 250,000 and 360,000 Union lives, including Lincoln\u2019s own. (22)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Lincoln provides an inspiring example of this \u201cprofessional will\u201d combined with \u201cpersonal humility.\u201d These leaders are not the superstar executives that led the company to a brief period of high profitability during their tenure as CEO, but then left it in the lurch at their departure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Collins lists a hierarchy of five levels of leadership that we can profitably set in dialogue with Aristotle\u2019s intellectual virtue of prudence:<\/p>\n\n\n\n