The characteristics of sustainability leaders

What makes somebody a sustainability leader? Does sustainability leadership require different skills to other types of leadership?

Tim Cotter from Awake tackles these questions in a recent post on being a sustainability leader. He considers some of the research in this area and concludes that sustainability leadership does require different behaviours. In summary, he finds that sustainability leaders need to:

• Create a clear sustainability commitment
• Demonstrate the behaviours and walk the walk
• Encourage and support sustainability initiatives
• Keep going when the going gets tough.

He also finds that a sustainability leader needs to be:

• Direct and inspirational
• Self-transcendent and honest
• Collaborative and participative
• Resilient and courageous.

It’s a useful list, but some recent research by Barrett Brown goes much deeper into the question of sustainability leadership. Brown’s PhD dissertation explores how highly-developed sustainability leaders and change agents design and engage in sustainability initiatives. Based on interviews with a small sample of sustainability leaders, Brown identifies 15 competencies for sustainability leadership. I’ve listed them below, including descriptions taken from an overview of Brown’s research.

Deeply connect

The first three competencies are associated with the ability to deeply connect.

1. Ground sustainability practice in deep meaning. Honor the work of sustainability as a spiritual practice, as a sacred expression. See sustainability work as a vehicle for transformation of self, others, and the world. Act in service of others and on behalf of a greater Other (e.g., universe; spirit; consciousness; god; collective intelligence; emptiness; nature).

2. Intuitive decision-making and harvesting. Use ways of knowing other than rational analysis to harvest profound insights and make rapid decisions. Be able to easily access this type of information alone or collectively, and facilitate individuals and groups to do so.

3. Embrace uncertainty with profound trust. Willingness to not know, to wonder into the mystery of what will emerge next. Able to humbly rest in the face of the unknown, ambiguity, and unpredictable change, and not need to “push” for an immediate answer or resolution. Deeply trust oneself, co-designers, and the process to navigate through uncertainty.

Know oneself

4. Scan and engage the internal environment. Able to quickly become aware of and aptly respond to psychological dynamics in oneself so that they do not inappropriately influence one’s sustainability work. Deep attunement to emotional, shadow, and personality-driven forces;; able to “get out of the way” and be “energetically clean” when engaging with others.

5. Inhabit multiple perspectives. Able to intellectually and emotionally hold many different perspectives related to a sustainability issue, without being overly attached to any of them. Able to argue the position of and communicate directly from different viewpoints. Be open, curious, and inviting of new perspectives, especially those that challenge or counter one’s own.

Adaptively manage

6. Dialogue with the system. Able to repeatedly sense into what is needed to help a system develop (e.g., make it more sustainable), try different interventions (e.g., prototype; experiment; seed ideas), observe the system response, and adapt accordingly. Able to look at the system, through the system, and as the system as part of the dialogue.

7. Go with the energy. Able to identify and take advantage of openings and opportunities for system changes that are well received by members of the system, thereby building on momentum and moving around obstacles. Also, able to identify blockages or tensions (in individuals, groups, or systems) that hinder progress, and inquire into them.

8. Self-transformation. Able to consistently develop oneself or create the environment for self-development in the intrapersonal, interpersonal, and cognitive domains, as well as other areas. Based upon deep self-knowledge, including personality dynamics and shadow issues. Able to create communities and engage mentors that consistently invite/challenge a deeper self to come forth.

Cultivate transformation

9. Create developmental conditions. Able to create the initial conditions (e.g., environment) that support and/or challenge development of individuals, groups, cultures, and systems. Able to sense what the next developmental step might be for others or a system, and create fertile ground or an intervention that increases the likelihood of development or the emergence of novelty. Requires a general understanding of how individuals, groups, and systems develop.

10. Hold space. Able to effectively create the appropriate (e.g., safe; challenging) space to help a group progress (e.g., work through an inquiry; build trust; self-reflect), holding the tension of the important questions. Able to hold the energetic potential of what is needed in the space, and/or what is needed for development of the individuals and collectives involved, thereby creating the environment for the emergence of answers/outcomes and developmental movement.

11. Shadow mentoring. Able to support others to see and appropriately respond to their psychological shadow issues and their “programming” (e.g., assumptions; limiting beliefs; projections; stories). This is not psychotherapy work, but the use of basic “maintenance” tools like the 3–2–1 process to address shadow issues.

Navigate with sophisticated theories, frameworks

12. Systems theory and systems thinking. Understand the fundamental concepts and language of systems theory. Be able to apply systems thinking to better understand sustainability issues and support the development of systems.

13. Complexity theory and complexity thinking. Understand the fundamental concepts and language of complexity theory, especially as it relates to leadership. Be able to apply complexity thinking to better understand sustainability issues and support the development of complex adaptive systems.

14. Integral theory and integral reflection. Understand the fundamental concepts and language of integral theory. Be able to use integral theory to: assess or diagnose a sustainability issue and design an intervention; tailor communications to different worldviews; support the development of oneself, others, groups, cultures, and systems.

15. Polarity management. Understand the fundamental concepts and language of polarity management. Be able to recognize and effectively engage important polarities such as: subjective-objective; individual-collective; rational-intuitive; masculine-feminine; structured-dynamic; challenge-support; and big picture-details.

I think this is an incredible piece of work that draws out the special characteristics of sustainability leaders. There is no doubt that it is also a deeply challenging list for those of us who aspire to sustainability leadership. Cultivating all of these characteristics could be the work of a lifetime and few of us could hope to master all of these. Nevertheless, as an aspirational list and guide to self-development for sustainability leaders, it is without peer.