Let’s imagine this: if most corporate leadership programs were a sandwich, they’d be 90% bread and just a thin smear of butter.
That bread is the Doing.
Work harder. Take more decisive action. Push through. Deliver results. Sound familiar?
Don’t get me wrong – doing is essential. But if you only ever focus on what leaders do without exploring how they think and who they are being, you’re working with the most superficial (and least leveraged) part of the leadership equation.
The Thayer Institute’s Thinking-Being-Doing model offers a much richer recipe for leadership growth. It’s about creating a feedback loop where:
- Your thinking shapes your being
- Your being shapes your doing
- Your doing loops back to refine your thinking and identity over time
This is core to our approach at Career Pivots.
1. Thinking
Many leaders operate from “default” mental models they’ve inherited or developed over time. Often these beliefs about leadership have never been questioned. For example, the outdated notion that “control = leadership.”
These unexamined assumptions can limit both the leader and their teams. Younger leaders in particular are pushing back against outdated narratives that paint leadership as “tough and thankless.” It doesn’t have to be.
Leaders who actively question their assumptions and mental models are better positioned to foster innovation and high performance.
Questions for you to consider:
- What beliefs about leadership have I never questioned?
- What assumptions do I make about my team’s potential?
- What big questions am I not asking that could change my leadership outcomes?
2. Being
Leadership isn’t just a set of actions – it’s an identity.
Your presence, tone, and energy are constantly signalling to your team who you are as a leader, what you value, and the impact you want to have.
Your presence, tone, and energy are constantly signalling to your team who you are as a leader, what you value, and the impact you want to have.
The Center for Creative Leadership’s (CCL) research and guidance indicate that leaders who are self-aware, including being deliberate about their leadership identity, build trust and improve effectiveness with their teams.
Questions for you to consider:
- If my team described my leadership in three words, what would they say now?
- Who do I need to be for my team to thrive in the next 12 months?
- What values must be non-negotiable in my leadership identity?
3. Doing
Actions that aren’t aligned with your leadership intent feel hollow and teams can sense inauthenticity a mile away.
Questions for you to consider:
- Which current actions align with the leader I want to be? Which don’t?
- What’s one leadership behaviour I could change today to reflect my new identity?
- How will I measure the impact of my leadership actions?
One senior leader we coached decided that “being an advocate for employee growth” was central to his leadership identity. As a tangible shift, he restructured all one on one meetings to focus on career development rather than just project updates. Within months, he saw noticeable improvements in engagement and internal promotion rates – because the Doing finally matched the Being.
This is where the development loop gains momentum:
- Doing feeds back into Thinking through reflection and feedback.
- This continuously refines Being and sharpens future Doing.
Through our coaching programs, we introduce practical ways to activate this development loop, so leadership growth isn’t just theoretical – it’s embodied.
Final question
If your organisation is pouring resources into leadership doing without addressing the deeper layers of thinking and being, you’re playing leadership in 2D when you could be in 4K.
The leaders who thrive in uncertainty are clearer thinkers, more grounded in their identity, and more intentional in their actions.
That’s where real leadership leverage lives.
