Leadership for the greater good

Before you go to higher ground, find common ground.

This is the last article in a four part series addressing the challenges of leadership. I have reversed the well known Christian tenent ‘before going to common ground you must go to higher ground’ because I believe it’s a more effective message for today. Senior leaders in all quarters can no longer afford to ignore what is happening to the world around us or delegate responsibility for our choices.

In the first article, I (as many others have) discussed the loss of trust in the practice of leadership. Without trust, we don’t feel safe challenging the status quo. The second article concentrated on the central issue of sense of self. It’s important to test how well we know ourselves and the impact this has on others at the front of our organisations, not in the most senior ranks alone. In the third article, I touched on the attributes of purposeful collaboration – a crucial distinction between democracy and vision.

This piece is a call to action and a recognition of the challenge of leadership. It is a loving disruption, not an evangelical call.

Here are three simple propositions:

1. Care for the planet is the shared responsibility of all leaders

We all understand our planet is in trouble: fossil fuel emissions have created unstable weather patterns and a warming climate, wilderness is in retreat with forests cut down to make way for agriculture, the second biggest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, plastic is filling our oceans and it is estimated that up to 25% of the fish we eat have plastic particles in their gut. We are living with the third largest species extinction in recorded history. Science has predicted this consistently. Just as consistently, the warnings have been ignored.

Making the state of our planet one of your top 10 priorities is not as difficult as you think.

Three years ago, I was genuinely interested in what was happening to our planet, but I separated my own actions from my business commitments. My involvement with Homeward Bound and listening to and working with hundreds of women with a science background has changed my direction.

I am now very clear that we, as senior leaders need to incorporate the following into leadership development:

• Structured education about the key issues confronting our planet
• An understanding of how what we do in our work place contributes to or lessens the challenges
• Stakeholder collaboration on the big and small strategic and every day business changes
• Measurement of progress

Good leaders will take this action because they understand leadership for the greater good does not preclude profitable business. Factoring in a commitment to the state of our world will actually improve staff and customer engagement.

Senior leaders who accept what they do can make a significant difference, will make that difference.

2. Trust in leadership is the foundation of global collaboration and successful business

We can’t ensure sustainability in business or the world if we don’t build trust. I have raised this in the previous three articles in this series (either directly or indirectly) and I’m raising it again to focus on a final trust proposition: being good money makers is not a guarantee we are good leaders. Making money is necessary but not sufficient to secure the wellness of a family, a team, a business, a country or our planet.

I am well aware some large and many small companies do a significant amount to help the world, acting in local communities, funding social enterprise, giving money to causes and aiding significant global concerns. However, I question whether this is a common practice.

Have we isolated the act of ‘doing good’ as a social good, the responsibility of a small part of our business but not the whole? Have we relegated it to the not for profits and government at the expense of taking responsibility as leaders in business? Do we say we take responsibility, then delegate engagement and environmental accountability?

These questions go to the heart of trust in leadership. If we don’t concern ourselves with global challenges, if we can’t have a line of sight to the impact of these concerns on our countries and in turn on our organisations, then how do we make the ordinary decisions relevant to this whole?

The example of workplace safety clearly demonstrates the evolution from ‘we do it because we might get fined’ to ‘it’s the right and just thing to do’.

The leaders we all want to work with are self aware, good at building trusting relationships and help us see the relevance of our work to the whole. They want to leave a meaningful legacy and encourage us to do the same.

Proposition Three: Women in leadership will make a substantial impact on sustainability

I believe women at the leadership table is one of the most significant contributing factors to sustainability.

I will write a lot more on this in the coming months, but at its simplest we know women are as capable as men. We know they should have equal opportunity and be paid the same for the same work. What we have not considered is the different qualities women bring are exactly what our world needs to rebuild trust in leadership. Women are generally better at collaboration, inclusion and building a legacy mindset. They are also measurably more trustworthy with assets including people and money.

I know men can do all this and some women don’t do any of it. However, I no longer care about conditioning or whatever it is that amplifies these attributes. I simply know women are genuinely wonderful together when they feel safe and valued, when they have a voice, when they aren’t talked over, when they have champions not mentors and when they are encouraged to challenge the prevailing model of leadership rather than fit in.

As a business leader, as a social entrepreneur, I simply want us to put our best foot forward. I believe deeply the three propositions I’ve outlined here are worthy of thoughtful consideration and central to providing the leadership required today.