Are you committed to changing your behavior to what is best for your team? (140-2)

It is a leader’s internal qualities that drive their skills effectively and consistently. Read Proverbs 22:4.

Some leaders look for a scheme, a product, an activity or some other external element to bring them wealth and honor. But, according to Proverbs 22:4, the wise leader focuses on internal traits and attitudes such as “humility and the fear of the Lord” as key ingredients of success, achieving “wealth and honor and life.”

Over the years these leadership studies have spoken of a term called double-loop learning created by Chris Argyris in an article entitled Teaching Smart People How to Learn. An individual’s first time around the loop has to do with behavior and the more important second time around the loop deals with values and attitudes that drive behavior.

Solomon, the author of this proverb, lived in ancient Israel, but even then it was popular to flaunt success. Solomon’s advice to seek humility was countercultural. Nothing has changed in nearly three thousand years. Solomon made it clear that godly leaders learn what they need to know to become humble and fear the Lord. Wise Christian leaders observe their own behavior and when excessive pride or its older brother arrogance show themselves in their behavior, they look behind the behavior to root out the core truth that allows or fosters the behavior.

Do you see a lack of humility in your behavior that would cause you to be ashamed if you stood before God this afternoon? Is your pride creating tension in your home or workplace? Pride and arrogance are driven by your internal truths. Are you committed to changing your behavior to what is best for your family and your team? If so, learn the lesson of double-loop learning—first loop behavior and the second loop the attitudes and values that drive behavior. Find your internal truth that says it is OK to demonstrate excessive pride and arrogance, change that truth and your actions will change.