I don’t know about you, but my social feeds are so carefully curated by my very serious, leadership-in-sustainability algorithm that it feels as though I am carrying the world on my shoulders. Every single day.
Then a post by a fellow traveller in sustainability caught my eye this week. It was about becoming the “fun police” whenever we want to make a point in our space. It got me thinking, which was handy, because we are about to launch a new e-book about what this kind of leadership really takes.
Sustainability on social media swings between two poles
Scroll for a minute and you will see it. On one side, “aw, look at the pretty butterflies”. On the other, “look at the b**tards selling off more of the rainforest”. Neither is dishonest, but neither is the whole story.
It isn’t just my feed either. Look at what the people you follow choose to repost, and you are looking at their tastes and, therefore, their algorithm. We are all being shown a version of the argument rather than the work itself.
What the feed rarely shows is the leaders inside businesses who are trying to do the right thing, or at least trying to be seen doing it, in a political landscape that is effectively shifting sand.
What I asked sustainability leaders, and what they told me
Over the past year I spoke with leaders across the sustainability space. They ranged from construction and infrastructure, through manufacturing, to consultancy, PR and ecology.
I asked them three questions, and then I set them a challenge.
The three questions
- What are the top three challenges facing leaders in sustainability right now, and why?
- What has improved over the past twelve months, and why?
- What has worsened over the past twelve months?
The challenge
If you had ultimate control, what is the first thing you would change, and why?
[I am not going to give you spoilers by blog post. See the foot of this article for more details.]
A finding: leadership in sustainability is quiet work right now
What I want to do here is comment on the leadership those respondents demonstrated. It was clear. It speaks directly to that public discourse veering all over the place.
These leaders were not following trends. They were not second-guessing political whims. They were choosing their own actions. Doing it quietly. Doing it with both eyes firmly on business survival and success. Doing it consistently, no matter what.
And isn’t that a metaphor for the wider issues every leader faces?
We all face uncertainty. We all face decisions that carry real risk. We all face the possibility of backlash from someone, somewhere, who holds a contrary view.
The leaders in my survey are managing all three, against political uncertainty at a global level that moves markets, economies and buyer confidence. And still, they lead. They show the dogged, quiet determination to keep going with their sustainability mission. They do not always get recognition for it, and on some subjects, Biodiversity Net Gain being the obvious recent example, recognition is in painfully short supply.
Which leadership styles does this actually take?
People I train, coach and mentor often equate leadership with the visionary, pace-setting or even commanding styles in Daniel Goleman’s leadership model. Those can be the overtly dynamic, target-focused, controlling behaviour sets, and they are the ones that most often are mistaken for “Leadership” on a slide.
Some of those traits were clearly necessary for my respondents to keep progress. Yet look closer, and something else is doing the heavy lifting. They were engaging stakeholders. They were working in collaboration. They were deepening good work that already existed, rather than being conspicuous about chasing the next shiny thing. They were prepared to do the hard yards, and to do them quietly, showing up with consistency and commitment.
That is leadership in sustainability as it is really practised: less megaphone, more maintenance.
How I read my feed now
So when I scroll now, I look through the lens of those quiet, hard yards. I try not to be dragged emotionally this way and that by clever copy. Instead I come back to what is already good, to what is already working, and often to the small thing I could do differently that might really help.
That is the quieter discipline, and it is available to all of us. We do not need a better feed. We need a clearer eye.
Over to you
As a leader, how would you change things?
What would you do first?
And what will you do differently, to be the change you seek in this crazy world?
Read the e-book
The full findings, including the leaders’ own words, will be in a new e-book before Christmas. If you would like a copy, the sign-up landing page will be live on the website shortly, or comment “EBOOK” on the social post and send me your best email to join the waitlist.
And if you would rather start before you have read a word of it, that is rather the point.
Pick one thing this week. Do that one thing properly. Then tell someone you did it.
Image credit: Photo by Gábor Molnár on Unsplash