Sustainable Leadership to Transform Our Future

As you may be aware, the level of awareness on Sustainability in Malaysia is still low.? I first discovered about Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2016 – 2017.? At that time, I noticed only the Sunway Group was embarking on sustainability as we organized a SDG bazaar at Sunway Putra Mall and the venue was sponsored by Sunway Putra Mall.?

Today, there is awareness on sustainability and it is a must-have, not a nice-to-have in many companies and we are seeing that awareness translated into action for some.? For sure, sustainability is being integrated throughout big organisations and public-listed companies.? We see now major decisions such as appointing of suppliers and actions are being taken through the lens of goals such as human rights or diversity or even improving working environments at workplaces.? Somehow, sustainability is now part of core strategy of businesses today, trickling down to customers and other stakeholders.? No doubt, sustainability is now seen as a source of value creation for many businesses.?

No doubt, I understand that transitions take time.? Simply appointing a chief sustainability officer in a company is not enough.? There needs to a whole company embracing sustainability at all levels of a company and across different functions.? Some companies may have commitment statements and sustainability programs lined up annually.? The transition toward sustainable business is not just about having the right language, pledging, plans, programs or policies put in place.? It is actually about strong leadership – to have an inspired and inspiring leader at the top to kickstart action.? You can be a sustainable leader at your position, not necessary it has to start from the top.? You could be a CSR Manager or the founder of a startup, an employee in corporate communications or a student in sustainability, in any part of the world and have a broad and meaningful impact.? In essence, you can be a changemaker.? No matter what industry you are in or where exactly you are in your career, your decisions and actions today will determine your legacy as a sustainable leader well into the future.?

We must start to talk about the role of leaders in making the transitions possible.? We need to start to develop a generation of sustainable leaders everywhere, with the right characteristics, mindset and skills, to help solve the world’s challenges while balancing other stakeholders’ needs for long-term financial returns.? We need these sustainable leaders to be strategic and have a strong sense of urgency, ambition and direction because actions taken by corporations affect people, planet and prosperity across borders and far beyond what any individual or government could do.?

You may be wondering what does sustainable leadership look like?? To me, sustainable leadership is a leadership who is bold and brave to build a workforce that can make change relating to sustainability.? We strongly believe that it involves people who are willing to challenge status quo, someone who is more interested in serving others, in how things can be done differently as opposed to how it used to be done.? Someone who spends time looking outside for solutions, and not just focusing on inside.? Someone who can catalyze a team of people to go after big complex assignments to help solve big real-world problems, where you don't know what the exact result will be but you are making progress along the way.? You stop early when it looks like a failure and you have the resilience to pivot and keep going on something new to make things happen.

We see this in social entrepreneurship as social entrepreneurs like me demonstrate sustainable leadership, who are bold to think big, has good intentions to create big impact and have grit.? No doubt, we see sustainable leadership in some corporations today who are CEOs, board directors, executives and team managers, who can scale their sustainability leadership mindset to take the lead as role models within their organisations to steer their sustainability agenda.? That is why one of our missions here is to help connect the dots and influence to encourage you on how to take a more collaborative approach between corporate, government and social entrepreneurship to achieve our similar vision and goals in solving global issues relating to diversity, poverty alleviation, providing quality education and good health and well-being.?

Sustainable leadership acts embed sustainability throughout their organisations’ daily operations, not just with their employees but also with suppliers and other key stakeholders.? Like I mentioned previously, change management is tough for an organization.? Hence, it takes sustainable leadership to have the core values and mindset to make key decisions such as how to embed the passion of sustainability into an organisation’s culture so that it guides the decision-making process on everything from where to invest, to what to cut, what to budget for and whom to hire?? Another key question to consider is how do you accelerate the numbers and success of leaders who care about sustainability so that the pyramid grows exponentially and the actions take over?? This is why measuring social impact is very important to showcase impact achieved as a motivation to sustainability leaders.?

Nurlina Hussin

International Certified Professional Trainer (ICPT) and Experienced Social Entrepreneur