By: Michael Cafferky, Assistant Professor of Business & Management Southern Adventist University.

Being is the foundation for everything else (Bennis, 1989). Leadership development is as much about who you are as it is about what you do or how you think. Of the three elements being is more important than thinking or doing. It includes a person’s values, beliefs, moral standards, character traits, personality and perceptions of self and of others. In other words, as a leader it is more important who you are than what you do or how you think.

Being is reciprocally interdependent with thinking and doing. Being always drives the way you think and feel. But over time, how you think and what you do can change who you are. Leadership is as much about how you think and feel as it is about what you do. Thinking includes the whole pattern of thinking and the perceptual field (events, behavior patterns, systems) (Senge, 1990), awareness of self-efficacy and how we engage social situations (emotional intelligence) (Goleman, 1998). Thinking is reciprocally interdependent with being and doing. In the short run, thinking (and feeling) drives what you do. In the long run, what you do can change how you think. Doing, the most visible of the three elements, involves several sets of skills including technical skills, human relationship skills, conceptual skills (Katz, 1974; Goleman, 1998). Doing also involves self regulation (Bandura & Wood, 1989).

Leadership action moves an organization forward toward its goals. Doing is reciprocally interdependent with how you think and who you are. In the short run, being and thinking drive what you do. But the results of doing also influence how you think and who you become. The leader influences and is influenced by the external environment (Bandura and Wood, 1989; Vancouver, 1996). Such reciprocal interdependent influences include national culture (Hofstede, 1993), subcultures, organizational culture and organizational subcultures (Schein, 2004). The pyramid can be applied at the organization and societal level.

The values and beliefs shared by the organization (or society) drive shared thinking and feeling patterns (both operational and strategic) which in turn influence patterns of action. Results of action affect how we think and who we become.

BEING: Luke 6:45 The good man out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil man out of his evil treasure produces evil; for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

THINKING: Phil 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Rom 12:2 Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

DOING: Col 3:23 Whatever your task, work heartily, as serving the Lord and not men.