Image from MS Clip Art - Complexity
Cross functional complexity is the most significant barrier to integrated,
company-wide approach to sustainability…...
In my last blog I concluded by asking where the
responsibility for the Energy Gap should sit within an organisation. Recent CEO
studies suggest that, to be effective, responsibility should sit in the Board
Room, with outcomes reflected in compensation packages. This is understandable when comprehensive sustainability
programmes optimise resource consumption and environmental efficiencies, drive
brand value, reduce risk and exploit growth through product and service
innovations.
For a
growing number of companies Sustainability is serving as a key differentiator
in the market, driving business performance, providing access to new markets
and fuelling top-line growth. In one Report over two-thirds of the business leaders interviewed were
focused on Sustainability to create new revenue streams. For the “innovators”, Sustainability has
shifted from a cost and compliance requirement to a growth play.
As
highlighted in the Accenture
UN Global Compact Study, this new market is also
driving new business models, changing industry cost structures and permeating
business from corporate strategy to all elements of operations.
The Global
Compact study highlighted a 40 point gap between those CEOs who believe
Sustainability needs to be embedded in strategy (96%) and those who reported
their companies were actually doing it. This
is in spite of the fact that 93% reported that Sustainability was critical to
their business.
Given
the benefits cited above, why aren’t companies taking action? A CPSL paper; (“Sustainability
Leadership - A Force for Change”, also referring to the UN Survey); highlights
complexity of implementation across functions, as the most
significant barrier to implementing an integrated, company-wide approach to
sustainability.
As we move forward I believe leadership effectiveness will
be assessed by the sustainability of its management and business
practices. (See Goran
Svensson and Greg Wood “Sustainable
components of leadership effectiveness....”)
What skills does a Sustainable Leader need?
The qualities and capabilities exhibited by leadership in
for-profit green organisations are articulated in a number of dissertations
available on the web. Barrett
Brown in “Conscious Leadership for Sustainability” reviews four studies where
the recurring qualities and capabilities for a Sustainable Leader were:
–
a deep sense of purpose
–
the ability to:
o work
with a broad range of stakeholders,
o facilitate/lead
transformational change through a systemic view and
o tolerate
ambiguity (emotional competency)
Specific individual or
organisational prescriptions are not provided.
Key to the success of future leaders will be the quality of Collaborative
Leadership. The joint capacity of
leaders to become catalysts for collective action will count more and more says
Petra
Kuenkel. Whilst individual insight is
crucial, it does not automatically translate into more fruitful collective
action.
What will drive
adoption of this style of leadership?
The demand for new business models, as a result of scarce
resources, will make it an economic and strategic imperative for organisations
to embed Sustainability into their business strategy. Only those companies that are able to predict, adapt and
evolve will survive and that places the onus on their leaders to exhibit the necessary qualities of collaborative
leadership, systemic thinking and emotional competency.
Next time I’ll be exploring how some companies are already adapting
and evolving to this new sustainable landscape.
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