Effective leaders must possess, according to Aristotle, not just wisdom but practical wisdom. Practical wisdom has “nothing to do with calculating magnitudes”, notes Aristotle, but instead is concerned with how conditions in society and organizations could be made better.

In other words a leader with practical wisdom is not as wholly concerned with disciplinary skills such as writing, facts or knowledge of science and theory, but instead possess a more robust view of the world; one that is as much magnanimous as it is earnest.

For Aristotle, this practical wisdom is the foundation of “moral excellence” or specifically, is the sine qua non of leadership. However, recent technological developments have begun to crack the foundations of moral excellence in leadership. Specifically this seems to be the case in social media, and the cultural and social shifts that are taking place as a result.

Social media inspires the educated to communicate in ways that would have had any self respecting citizen thrown out on their ear a century ago. It has created a vast repertoire of knowledge through blogs, articles, and websites from individuals with no formal training in the concepts with which they now purport to be experts.

The concept of an Aristotelian moral in leadership seems to be fading as quickly as a Boy George pop hit.  In a world increasingly enamored with gilded realities, today’s leader appears to be the one with the highest Google rank, previously known as the loudest voice or the biggest stick.

No more are we to ponder the ethical and practical compromises of the Lincoln era, or the moral realities of Tolstoy. As a matter of technological advancement, expertise at once has lost its previous dignity and instead has become synonymous with individuals who have generated the highest page views, and proven the widest audience appeal.

The moral of this generation’s leanings is “generate enough blog posts that gather visitors, as if flames to a moth, and you are now, officially, a leader in your chosen field of interest (complete with 10,000 willing Twitter followers). This alone proves that you are truly destined to CEO, presidential, and world domination potentials.

Perhaps these developments will reap some significant and important revelations that I have as of yet to comprehend. More likely, however, these developments could continue to deteriorate an already stagnated and crippled “leadership” economy, vastly affecting the future of our country, and potential society at large.

Sound like dooms day prophesy? Perhaps. Perhaps also it is the rantings of a middle-aged woman who has seen her share of leaders come and go, and worked with great ones and some of the worst I’ve seen. My first company president was a retired Colonel and Ph.D. who worked his way through the military and moved on to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, eventually landing at the consulting firm where I was employed before the ink was even dry on my degree.

This type of leader is rarely found today, but his style was one of encouragement and principle. Though he felt a strong hand was necessary to keep the tiller straight, he recognized that his employees were human beings with dignity, who made up a small yet important part of the bigger picture.

Unlike today’s “I must be better” leader, whose crass behaviors are seen as more typical than not, he recognized the macro-level significance of the work each and every one of us was assigned. He provided constructive criticism and feedback as warranted, and wasn’t afraid to let us know when we did a great job.

In short, he didn’t feel threatened, nor fearful, therefore he was able to display the type of leadership qualities lacking in leaders with a social-media-esque type foundation of power. The true test of a leader in today’s complex world is how they interact and react to those around them, most especially when things do not go their way, or they encounter someone who has legitimate but differing viewpoints. In a social media world, one flip of the switch and they can simply ignore their rivals, or blot out the realities of compromise and offerings of dignity to others.

These are the type of leaders of the future we can expect if current social developments are not checked. When complex, intelligent ideas become relegated to 40 character spurts, our world suffers from lack of stimulation and enlightenment. Perhaps it is doomsday thinking, but I know for one, in this, I would prefer to error on the side of practical wisdom, than Facebook or blog lore.