Sustainable leadership: what does it look like?
As we speed towards the second quarter of the twenty-first century, leaders are faced with unprecedented challenges: demands to address accelerated climate change, technological advancement that outpaces regulation, and a seismic shift in the social contract between employees and employers.
Meeting this challenge requires an entirely new skillset: sustainable leadership. Organizational leaders need to know how to build a business that meets the requirements of the present generation, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
In research published in the Journal of Business Ethics, authors Louise Metcalfe and Sue Benn observe that “organizations are complex adaptive systems operating within wider complex adaptive systems… hence, leadership for sustainability requires leaders of extraordinary abilities.”
With investors, consumers, regulators and other stakeholders expecting to see Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) measures implemented and integrated across organizations, what does sustainable leadership really mean, and what are the qualities required of sustainable leaders?
Let’s start with a clarification. To be a leader doesn’t require you to have a ‘C’ in front of your title. It isn’t about your position description or your salary bracket. Leaders show up at all levels within an organization, from the intern on his second day on the job, to the Chair of the Board seeing in her 20th year. Leadership is a mindset: the ability to see things with clarity, to bring people together, to push for change because it matters.
Leadership for sustainability is no different. At LittPark, our clients range from global inter-governmental organizations, to construction firms to nonprofits. The leaders in these organizations may look as different as the businesses they operate, but what they have in common is the core belief that sustainability drives value, and their commitment to that belief results in measurable, positive change.
Based on our interactions with high performance leaders and research into the most successful sustainability-led organizations, we have built a framework for those wanting to hone their sustainability leadership skills in order to take their career, and their organization’s performance, to the next level.
The BRIC Model identifies four key characteristics of successful sustainability leadership. Many leaders have some of these skills, but the best sustainability leaders draw on all of them to implement successful systemic and cultural change.
Brave
Implementing sustainable practices often presents businesses with an uncomfortable amount of change. It may mean investing in new systems, adopting entirely new ways of doing things, or prioritizing values that hadn’t been top of mind in the past. Strong sustainability leaders recognize this discomfort, and move forward with good decisions anyway.
As Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “Courage is not the absence of fear, but the assessment that something else is more important than fear.”
Resilient
Change takes time, and a retreat to the safety of the status quo can sometimes feel easier than stepping boldly into the future. Sustainability leaders expect the journey to be demanding, prepare their teams for uncertainty, and keep their end goals firmly in sight when challenges would cause others to waver.
Informed
Sustainability leaders know how ESG can accelerate their business objectives. Whether it’s fostering innovation, attracting and retaining top talent or securing investment, these leaders know that ESG is more than a nice-to-have, it’s essential to success in the “complex, adaptive systems” in which they operate.
Connected
No leader is an island, and top sustainability leaders know that they must build a coalition in order to achieve their objectives. They are effective communicators, capable of conveying their vision and inspiring those around them to act.
Over the years, thousands of theories of leadership have been developed, filling the Business sections of bookstore shelves and the libraries of ambitious up-and-comers. We’ve heard about behavioural theory, contingency theory, participative theory. We’ve been told that culture eats strategy for breakfast. Each of these theories arose in response to the challenges and expectations of their time, and each offers something to develop the skills and mindset of a successful leader.
However, we are, arguably, at point in history that is significantly more complex than any other time in memory. This zeitgeist places unprecedented demands on governmental and organizational leaders. And it presents a unique opportunity: the rise of the sustainability leader, and the emergence of truly sustainable businesses, that have the resilience to withstand the shocks that accompany the increasingly rapid and complex changes the world faces.
