what is sustainable leadership?

'Sustainable leadership' recognises the complex interdependency between individuals, business, markets and society and the eco-system, with the aspiration that the organisation creates prosperity and social value as well as long term commercial success, while protecting the environment in which we are all participants. Sustainable leadership requires leaders to focus on four critical relationships:

• Intra-personal – attending to own psychological and physical health, in particular the ability to learn from experience, a sense of personal purpose, and care for own physical wellbeing and vitality.
• Organisational – attending to the conversations going on in the organisation and how these influence cultural norms, the achievement of business goals and the customer experience.
• Societal – taking account of the fact that we are not somehow separate from the society in which we live and do business, we are all participants in creating this society; aiming to create social value and prosperity not only for ethical reasons, but because business needs a healthy society in which to operate.
• Ecological – protecting the environment and minimising the environmental impact of the organisation.

Responding to the needs in each of these relationships in an integrated way and building connections between them, will become the critical differentiator for 21st century leadership.

The long term commercial future of an organisation in an increasingly complex world will depend on successful collaboration, connections and networks of relationships; it will depend on individuals and societies believing that the way businesses operate is generally acceptable and sustainable.

This requires ‘sustainable leaders’ – who in turn create sustainable organisations.