Developing Leadership for Sustainability

Everyone can make an impact towards sustainability

If you were to ask 100 people how they would define a sustainable organization, I bet you would get 100 different answers. And I suspect every idea would be valid and credible.

Then layer on top the concept of leadership, and wow, think of the possibilities of things that come to mind. The combinations are endless. Leadership has to be one of those topics that would max out any google search. We all have our perceptions of what leadership means, what it is, and what it should be.

So it was a tad intimidating when I was asked to present a hour-long webinar on the topic entitled, “Developing Leadership for Sustainability.”

But on the other hand, I love a challenge and I knew it would provide me the opportunity to learn more while preparing for the event. Many of you know that I’m an active member of New Hampshire Businesses for Social Responsibility, an organization that builds a network of companies committed to learn, develop, and share best practices in corporate social responsibility. They host a monthly webinar on a variety of worthwhile topics related to CSR.

To help me think it through, I turned to Grace, my normal inspiration for leadership topics. She was no help at all on this one.

Now on my own, I contemplated this question first: “How do I define a sustainable organization?” Brainstorming alone is lonely (I continued attempts to involve Grace and moved on eventually) but I had the benefit of other ideas from recent NHBSR sustainability working sessions I had attended. After mulling over the long list I had pulled together, I landed on the ones I felt more significant. Then I tackled the other part of the equation: leadership. What I quickly realized is that leadership happens in the most ordinary places with extraordinary people, at all levels of the organization.

Interested to find out more? You can download the recorded session here. Come back and share any thoughts you have!

We could strive for 101 ideas (sort of like 101 Dalmatians!).