Leadership in Action: Profitability and the Common Good

Know What You Believe In

When Chester Barnard wrote in his 1938 book The Functions of the Executive (Harvard University Press) that the first responsibility of the executive is to know what he (or she) believes in, he was talking about a career-spanning task. He meant that beliefs are acquired over time and through the concrete lessons and challenges of day-to-day routine rather than through untested abstract ideals. If this is so, then the learning process may be directly correlated to the time one actually practices management, and belief systems can probably not be taught in a formal setting, such as a classroom. It is experiences of real-life trauma and stress rather than academic exercises that most frequently bring to our attention important ...