Are you a Net Positive Leader?

I’ve recently wrapped up the Emeritus course on Business Sustainability with professors from Singapore Management University and I’m also reading the book ‘Net Positive’ by Paul Polman and Andrew Winston , so the concept of net positive, leaving the world a better place than you found it - and with fewer emissions than you’ve introduced into it, is top of mind.

When I think more broadly about leadership, there seem to be two ways of viewing Net Positive.

Net Positive Leadership – Are You Driving Business Sustainability?

One way to think of Net Positive Leadership is from a business sustainability perspective.

Today, many business leaders have moved far beyond the belief, popularly espoused by Milton Friedman, that the sole purpose of a business is to generate profits for its shareholders.

They appreciate that they have multiple stakeholders – all of whom are important to their long-term survival. One of those stakeholder groups is shareholders, whilst others including customers, employees and community members. These businesses recognize that they operate under a social license – and that this can be revoked.

Having polled leaders on the most urgent sustainability issue we face, the clear threat is carbon emissions.

In terms of Net Positive Leadership from this business sustainability perspective, I am hard pressed to find a better example than 微软 , which has pledged to be Net Positive by 2030 and to have removed all emissions they’ve added to the world since they were founded in 1975, by 2050. Satya Nadella certainly is Hitting Refresh on the planet. If anyone has a better example of corporate sustainability, please do share.

Is it reasonable to believe that if leaders can collaborate to address the threat of Covid, they can certainly work together to handle the current and present danger of climate change?

Another way of considering Net Positive Leadership is to think of the impact you make on your environment as a leader.

Net Positive Leadership – Are You Leaving Those Around You With a Feeling of Net Positivity?

Net Positive Leaders create the conditions for people to contribute more effectively, continuously learn in diverse ways, and post any interaction feel better than they did before.

How do they create conditions for people to contribute more effectively and feel good about this in the process? They do this by setting up organizations for success:

Ensuring the Fundamentals are in Place

There is a reason to be here and that reason is motivating – the sense of purpose is clear, the values are lived and the results people are there to deliver are challenging and inspiring.

• By building diversity and ensuring inclusion – knowing this supports better decision making.
• People know what is expected of them and they have a voice in both setting goals and boundaried freedom in how they achieve them. A balance of empowerment and accountability.
• By creating processes that support the internalization of the culture.

You can probably think of many more ways to set up teams and organizations for success.

Letting Go of Ego

Net Positive Leaders strive to be at their best always – knowing that they are constantly influencing everyone around them. And if they slip up, they acknowledge it. They know that they can’t hold others to standards they themselves can’t demonstrate.

In Tune

Perhaps most importantly, they tune into what’s important in each situation. They weigh up the dynamics and keep in mind the bigger objective, and focus on helping people move towards that. They know how to give feedback in a way that builds people up – regardless of the calamity that just occurred.

Even before Maya Angelou articulated it, we all knew it to be true, especially Net Positive Leaders:

People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

That’s why people leaders with high EQ perform better than people leaders with average EQ. They know how to tap into their own and others’ emotions to inspire, empower and integrate those around them in the pursuit of what is meaningful.

Net Positive Leaders don’t pollute the atmosphere around them with toxic emissions.

Yet if you sense some aspects of Net Positive are missing from your current leadership, don’t despair, just as is the case with climate change, if you take action, the situation is reversable.

To bring this full circle, research shared by Six Seconds , global leaders in EQ, highlights that the key contributors to stress for people globally are:

• Dysfunctional workplaces
• Lack of physical wellbeing (Lack of sleep and exercise)
• Social isolation
• Lack of direction
• Uncertainty about the future, especially anxiety about climate change

Net Positive Leaders recognize their duty of care regarding all the above stress contributors - and their leadership enables the creation of the opposite conditions for their people, whatever their stakeholder status.

Andrea Stone is a leadership coach, working with executives and leadership teams to build their Net Positive Leadership.

She is a Preferred Partner of Six Seconds in India, supporting leaders and organizations leverage emotional intelligence to drive greater success.

? Stone Leadership Coaching and Consulting Pvt. Ltd.