Behavior is guided by personally held principles, beliefs and values (Martin, Yarbrough, and Alfred, 2003, p. 291). What exactly does it mean to align beliefs with behavior? Let us look at it fairly simply. There are many behaviors that one might practice, for example, that are not aligned with beliefs. Performing a task or routinizing a behavior because one is
asked to by oneís superior or expected to by oneís organization or peer group may at times be difficult, but transforming oneís own belief system to incorporate the behavior or need for the behavior can be even more challenging. How many of us, for example, perform day-to-day tasks without really appreciating the value of what we are doing or without feeling motivated or driven by the process that is supported by the task?

When emotional elements are involved, belief-behavior alignment becomes essential. The reader may notice that the concept of changing oneís emotions has not been mentioned thus far in this book. There has been discussion of knowing what they are, of knowing how they affect thoughts, of understanding where they can lead, and of managing them
but never of changing or obliterating them. Emotion, like rain, occurs whether invited or not. Our management of that emotion, like opening an umbrella, determines how wet or uncomfortable the situation will get.

Aligning our beliefs with appropriate behavior, or causing our behavior to align with our beliefs, often requires a great deal of skill in managing emotion. In this context, beliefs refer to those internal values and professional responsibilities that nurses and nurse leaders ìown,î in a sense; for example, the belief that patients have a right to quality care or that com-
passion is a key ingredient in the delivery of care. Behavior refers to the outward expression and inward processing of emotion: the way a nurse reacts to and manages threats to or challenges brought about by particular beliefs or responsibilities. When beliefs and behavior are at odds, there is high potential for failure to carry out a personal or organi-
zational mission.

The goal of professional development is improved practice through change or changes in ways of doing or thinking about one's work, states Eisen (2001, p. 30). As professionals, we should be thinking about developing ourselves professionally; however, as leaders, we should also be thinking about developing our organization professionally. Cranton (1996) and Mezirow and Associates (2000) describe the phenomenon of transformative learning, in which ìlearners become more critically receptive, participate more fully and freely in rational discourse and action, and advance developmentally by moving toward meaning perspectives that are more inclusive, discriminating, permeable, and integrative of experience (Mezirow, 1991, pp. 224-225). Those transformations essentially take us beyond task-centered learning to a deeper, more integrated and holistic learning that can occur only through communication and dis course. These transformations of our habits ìmay be epochal, a sudden, dramatic, reorienting insight, or incremental, involving a progressive series of transformations in related points of view that culminate in a transfor-
mation in habit of mindî (Mezirow and Associates, 2000, p. 21).

Standard orientation curriculum alone cannot prepare new staff for competence, especially in areas such as critical care where indeterminate and complex situations are ever present. An ongoing program to promote andexpand nursing knowledge should include reflective practice, experiential learning, and transformative learning (Rashotte and Thomas, 2002). The leader should be on the lookout for complaints and feedback from learners, for they are key to facilitating this type of learning (Schreiber and Bannister, 2003).