If you’re reading this, you’re probably already committed to continuous improvement in your leadership – and, probably, that of the people you work alongside. And yet, there feels to me a gap. I hope this article will trigger conversations, to fill that gap. What’s this gap? Sustainability. More specifically, the leadership skills we all need, to support every organisation and home to a low- (or even no-) emission basis as soon as possible.
What are we talking about here?
The United Nations’ Brundtland Committee defined Sustainability in 1987, as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” I am pretty happy quoting the UN on this. However, let’s be clear that the “needs” of the present are just that. They are needs, not desires. At present, we have a global economic whirl fuelled by demand, growth, demand, growth … and this economic model is working brilliantly for a few, but comes at a cost to billions. (I could go on and on about ethics in global leadership, but that’s for another place and time). The immediate impact of this economic model is exploitation of natural resources beyond a level that can replenish themselves without intervention, a surfeit of waste to be shipped around the world and increasing global warming to levels that are affecting millions.
So immediately we see the issue: leadership in sustainability is going to be tough. It is going to be helping people to stop doing the things they’ve normalised in their lives. Moreover, to paraphrase Harry S Truman on leadership, it will be persuading people to do something they didn’t know they had to do and don’t want to do now they know, and often don’t care about because it’s all a long way down the road.
The trouble is, climate change and global warming are not a long way down the road. They are here and they are important. Right now. As we see on the news regularly, there are freak floods in parts of the world unused to rain on near-Biblical scale. There are droughts lasting for years, in parts of the world craving rain, which lead to displacement and tensions. According to the IPCC’s AR6 report 2023 [https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/syr/figures/figure-spm-2] , the wet bits of the world are getting wetter, and the dry bits are getting drier and hotter. The Earth’s climate is heating up at unprecedented rates, which is close to becoming irreversible. Leadership in this context is pretty quiet. It’s just too hard. Doom and gloom don’t win votes or contracts.
Sustainability theories
I need to declare my hand here. I have been a committed supporter of the environmental movement for almost 40 years. Sustainability, avoidance of waste and circularity are at the heart of everything I have done as a leader. Now, in my own company, it features throughout my work with my clients. I suspect you didn’t need me to tell you this, given the emphasis on ethical and responsible leadership throughout my website!
In the course of my work, I see leadership from all angles, as we all do – the good, the bad and the downright ugly. There are umpteen leadership theories, which many of us will deploy depending on our clients’ needs.
There are also several sustainability leadership theories. You may well have come across some of them, such as https://sustainableleaders.eu/model-part1/ or https://www.cisl.cam.ac.uk/system/files/documents/sustainability-leadership-linking-theory-and.pdf
There is also the famous Butterly Diagram from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, and The Doughnut (or “Doughnut Economics”), which Prof. Kate Raworth developed in her seminal book. These help us gauge our environmental AND social impact as we do what we do. These are shown here to give you an idea of their scope – and complexity.
I also have my own, that I use with clients embarking on their sustainability journey, which pulls heavily on John Adair’s simple venn diagram. It’s small, imperfect, but it does the job – opening clients’ eyes to the fact they CAN do something that makes a REAL difference.
Where does all this leave us, as leaders and students of leadership?
Sustainability leadership impact
I would argue that it offers us an opportunity for impact like never before. As leaders, we all have a key role to play, to model sustainable behaviour and to encourage its leadership because it is such a huge global need … and precisely BECAUSE it is so hard. If not us, who? We are self-defined leaders. Do we really get to pick and choose, so we are only leaders for the easy stuff, the people stuff, the popular stuff? I don’t know any leader I have ever met who would believe that. No, we lead because we believe in a vision. We believe in better, for everyone. And there’s not much better than arresting the decline of our home planet, surely?
To finish, I am going to be cheeky. Please may I invite you to engage on this topic, so it gets onto our collective agenda? Even if it’s contentious, we need to discuss the leadership implications of sustainability, both the challenges and the huge opportunities. So, who’s with me?