By Vicki Abelson, MBA PCC
If you’re an executive leader, I’m willing to bet your reading list is long. And you keep adding more books on topics like leadership, strategy, culture, and communication. That appetite for learning is actually one of your greatest strengths.
I consider myself to be a lifelong learner. I read a lot. I listen to podcasts. And I rarely miss a workshop that is going to teach me something new and exciting. But recently, I had to sit with an uncomfortable truth: I’ve been getting learning wrong.
Not the learning itself — I genuinely absorb what I read and hear. The problem is what happens after. I finish a book, feel energized by the ideas, and then … move on to the next one. The insight fades. The behavior never changes. And the results? They stay exactly the same. Does this sound familiar for you?
The problem with Be-Do-Have
You’ve probably heard of Be-Do-Have. It’s a framework that’s been around for a while, popularized by thinkers like Neale Donald Walsch and Stephen Covey. The idea is simple: First, be the kind of person who embodies the qualities you want, then do what that person does, and you’ll naturally have the results they have. I love the concept. But I think it’s missing something.
Your actions have to be rooted in something. That something is learning. Learning is what gives you strategy. It’s what creates intention. It’s what turns plain old motion into actual direction. Without it, doing is just activity. It’s like firing an arrow at a target that doesn’t exist. So, the real formula, at least the way I see it, is: Be. Learn. Do. Have.
But here’s where it gets tricky
If acting without learning is dangerous, learning without acting might actually be worse, and it’s a much easier trap to fall into, especially for high-performing leaders.
Here’s why: Your brain doesn’t always know the difference between learning something and actually doing something. The feeling you get after finishing a great book, completing a course, or walking out of a really good keynote — that feels like progress. It registers as accomplishment. But nothing has actually changed yet.
Learning without implementation makes you well-read and interesting at dinner parties. It does not change your results. Think about it this way — I can read every book ever written about nutrition. But if I never actually eat the broccoli, I haven’t gotten any healthier.
Over the last few years, I’ve made a real effort to change this. Books like Tara Mohr’s “Playing Big,” “The 12 Week Year,” and “Indistractable” didn’t just sit on my shelf looking impressive. I actually used them. I changed how I plan my time. I changed how I protect my attention. I changed the way I think about my own potential. Those ideas only became valuable the moment they became behavior.
Here’s the question I want to leave you with
What are you actually implementing? Not someday. Not after the next book. What idea from the last thing you read has actually changed the way you lead?
The leaders who get extraordinary results aren’t necessarily the ones who read the most. They’re the ones who implement the best. And sometimes the missing piece isn’t more knowledge. Sometimes it’s actually doing something with it.
Vicki Abelson, MBA PCC, is a Certified Professional Coach with over 20 years of health care administration experience and the founder of The Defined Leader. She offers executive coaching and workshops. If you’re ready to see if leadership coaching is for you, visit thedefinedleader.com.
