Development changes what you do. Formation changes who you become.

Let’s talk about the difference between development and formation.

Development teaches you skills to master public speaking and influence without authority so you can lead a meeting well. A person can become a highly developed, confident communicator, productive, strategic, influential … and still make people feel invisible when they walk into the room.

Formation is deeper than skill acquisition. Formation shapes the kind of person you are inside the meeting. Formation is being the person in the meeting who is attentive, patient, more compassionate, and seeks to understand if the others in the meeting feel safe, valued and more human because of you.

Let’s consider two managers who both know how to give excellent performance feedback. The first manager has developed the skill. They use the right language, the right techniques and the right leadership strategies.

But the second manager has been formed by agape.

So when an employee sits across from them, they are not just focused on the ROI, performance metrics or outcomes. They are genuinely considering the person in front of them. Their dignity, their discouragement, their potential, their humanity.

One manager is applying a leadership competency. The other is relating to someone from a deeply formed way of being.

In a nutshell — development changes what you do, formation changes who you become.