Today we write a review of a book "From Smart to Wise" by Kaipa and Radjou. The authors say that "In our experience, wise leadership succeeds where smart leadership cannot."
This book is about six capabilities which are essential for wise leadership and these are :
perpective, action orientation, role clarity, decision logic, fortitude and motivation.
It starts off by classifying leaders as two types - functional smart leaders and categorized as blue zone and business smart leaders categorized as red zone.
The blue zone leaders are experts in their field. They execute effectively. They are risk-averse. They are detail oriented. They deliver exceptional results and they are efficient. Tim Cook is an example of this category
The red zone leaders are visionaries. They see the big picture. They are risk takers. They are very competitive. They are strategic entrepreneurs. They are highly motivated. Bill Gates is considered an example of this category.
Wiseness is about being equally dexterous in both categories and to know when to apply which category. It often comes with a perspective of what will benefit others while the smartness is about oneself.
The authors suggest that we should figure out which zone we are operating in, decide where we are on our path, create a road map, and find tools to help us stay on the outlined path.
This book articulates that to be a wise leader, we must find and follow a noble purpose which will guide us like the North Star. In fact this perspective is considered the most critical capability. For a wise men, this perspective means becoming sensitive to the context around them and being able to see the world without any filters. Since this perspective transcends personal gain and ego, it gives meaning and a path to happiness. Wise leaders exhibit mindfulness and have a growth mindset.
 A leader's action needs to be authentic and appropriate. Authentic means being true to oneself. Appropriate means the actions should be done in context. Often we fail from that but here's a way to bridge the gap: what we say must line up with what we do,   what we say must line up with what we actually feel and who we are must line up with what we do.
Role clarity, as per the authors, is the capability to perform a chosen role convincingly and with enthusiasm, and without losing sense of who we are behind our role. They demonstrate leadership in any role and are good team players. They empower others and amplify the smarts and capabilities  of the people around them.
To quote the authors, the decision logic is the system, processes and principles of reasoning used in making important decisions. If the decisions exhibit ethical clarity and pragmatism, not complicated with emotions and alternatives are weighed while listening to all viewpoints, this capability is demonstrated.
Flexible fortitude is to know when to hold and when to fold. we need to strike a balance between having the courage to stay the course and being flexible to change direction. The leaders in both the blue and the red zone demonstrate great fortitude but risk being inflexible whereas the wise leader will be comfortable striking a balance.
Finally wise leaders believe that what is in the public interest will eventually be in the interest of all individual and groups, including themselves. They demonstrate strong intrinsic motivation and they are keen on serving.

#codingexercise
Yesterday we described a codingexercise to find the maximum product of a sequence in an array where the elements are not adjacents.if the integers were both positive and negative, we would have need to make sure the count of selected negatives is even. We would keep track of two products one with the negative integers only and the other regular.

The key observation here is that we skip the negatives and find the desired max among the positives. Then we take the negatives alone and find their desired max with the additional criteria that they have to be even in count. Whichever is greater dictates the list that will be included as is and elements of the other list will be included such that there are no adjacencies.

The same logic holds for sum but the skipped elements should have a value of zero.

int GetMaxSumBothPositiveAndNegative(List<int>A)
{
var positives = A.Clone();
for (int i = 0; i < positives.Count; i++)
    if (positive[i] <= 0)
        positives[i] = 0;
return GetMaxSum(positives);
}