Sustainable Leadership - a transformative force that fosters personal and professional growth
Sustainable Leadership - a transformative force that fosters personal and professional growth
The challenges we face in our dynamic and interconnected business landscape, demand that we cultivate a community of individuals who feel supported, motivated, and equipped to reach their full potential. The impact of good leadership extends far beyond immediate goals, shaping a resilient and adaptable workforce prepared for the challenges of tomorrow. In this context the significance of genuine leadership cannot be overstated. What does today’s good leadership look like and how can we work to ensure that we foster and empower leaders that will help make our organisations and businesses thrive? Below we explore the type of leadership called upon today and what to think about when evaluating leadership within your organisation.
Leadership in tune with times
In our current era defined by constant disruption and rapid change, a new paradigm of leadership has emerged to navigate our dynamic society. We call this new leadership style sustainable leadership. It does not only acknowledge the complexities of our times but also offers effective solutions and a holistic approach to address environmental, social, and economic dimensions. Having sustainable leaders will impact the wellbeing of employees, tie to long-term prosperity of the company and set visions that have a positive impact on our world.
A model to help guide good leadership today
In order to identify and assess leadership needs, and to track progress, a model is called for. At Alumni we have identified four over-arching key competencies that make up our Alumni Sustainable Leadership Model. It is based on research into leadership theory and our own experiences of traits that become essential to successfully lead others in today’s context, alongside data from our history of conducting leadership assessments. These areas of competencies are:
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Humanity - genuine will to do good for others
Leaders who display this competency act ethically and empathically, have a genuine interest in the well-being of others, and are able to see things in a larger (organisational, societal, environmental, long-term) perspective.
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Drive for growth - embracing growth of both people and business, daring to fail
Leaders who display this competency prioritise the development of people, themselves as well as others. They challenge, encourage action and an experimental mindset to drive the business forward dynamically.
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Authenticity - authentically engaging others
Leaders who display this competency are able to formulate and communicate a vision that is clear and connects with people emotionally. They act with authenticity; daring to be vulnerable and show their true selves, matching their words with their actions, and having truthful conversations with others.
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Agile mindset - understanding and adapting
Leaders who display this competency have the capacity to analyse complex information, identifying key priorities and making good decisions in ambiguous and volatile circumstances. They possess the emotional and cognitive ability to be open to new ways of doing things.
Having identified desired key behaviours in modern leadership today we are able to more accurately assess and predict a successful outcome, in our recruitments and executive search business. We are also able to use this model in development initiatives, working with improving management team dynamics or as part of human due diligence in a merger or acquisition case.
Having a model provides a common language around the type of leadership an organisation desires and can be the foundation on which to base development plans and track progress.
Leadership development tops the HR agenda
At Alumni we have used this model as part of our people development strategy and completed a 360-evaluation of our own leaders. As a consultancy business our people are key and is our ”everything”, so good leadership is essential to help us thrive. Ensuring clarity around expectations, creating an action plan, and coaching each other; this all makes us grow stronger together.
Head of People & Culture, Alumni
“Using the model has strengthened our feedback culture and helped provide insights to focus our development efforts going forward. It also makes it easier for our leaders to meet expectations from their team members.”
With a 360-evaluation we are able to get a better understanding of our individual leaders through the feedback of their peers, direct reports and their managers.
Much to gain from evaluating sustainable leadership
An effective executive team can be an organisations most important leader tool and a source of competitive advantage. Building durable business requires that we work to develop existing leaders within an organisation. There are many benefits of evaluating the sustainable leadership in your organisation and some examples are:
“The process of completing these evaluations of all our leaders has allowed us a great opportunity to have very open, concrete and productive feedback sessions. We have been able to create much sought-after space for our leaders to prioritise themselves and invest time in their own professional development.”
Creating clarity around expectations relating to the behaviours that characterises sustainable leaders. Being able to take measure and create an action plan, as well as help coach each other; these are all outcomes making the organisation grow stronger together.
Providing a symbolic value in that evaluating the sustainable leadership, helps to purvey to the entire organisation that its people and leadership are prioritised.
For leaders themselves, who stand to gain great insights and build better self-awareness. Great leaders understand their own behaviours and abilities, and how they impact those around them.
For the organisation, to get an overview and insight into the current state of the leadership. This will allow for strategic focus and improved allocation of resources, to build long-term solutions that offer support in areas that need improvement as well as to capitalise on the collective experience and knowledge.
Contributing to building a healthy feedback culture that will support continuous learning and development.
Pitfalls to avoid
Some lessons learned and pitfalls to avoid when conducting a leadership evaluation process are:
“Leadership evaluations can often be viewed as a one-time effort, but it should be a continuous initiative and any development plans need to be continuously reviewed and discussed.”
It is quite easy to simply collect the insights and feedback and leave it at that. The end-goal must be to act on the results and make a plan to put in place any support measures needed going forward, to ensure improvement, drive change and continued growth.
Without trust in the process and that any input can be given in complete confidence, quality in responses will falter and risks the quantity of responses needed to warrant a qualified analysis. The prospect of change and of being evaluated will for many triggers some level of anxiety. Good communication and a clear plan around the process helps to alleviate any concerns and builds transparency and create opportunity to proactively address concerns.
It can be preferable to use an internal assessor in feedback sessions who will often be more attuned to the organisation's developmental initiatives, the culture, vision and values. However, internal assessors will more likely have ongoing relationships with the organisation’s leaders, inadvertently posing a risk of colouring the feedback dialogue. Don’t overlook the value of having an objective and neutral part in the feedback sessions that can offer impartiality and mitigate potential biases.
Completing a full leadership evaluation process requires attention to every step along the way from setting up your questionnaires to communications and making sure all participants are prepared, to analysing the results and planning feedback sessions. Make sure to allocate enough resources to manage these crucial aspects of the evaluation to help ensure success.
Leveraging external expertise
Utilising an external assessor in leadership evaluations can often contribute to a more robust and insightful assessment, guiding organisations towards informed decisions and strategic leadership development initiatives.
Chartered Occupational Psychologist and Consultant, Alumni
“It’s key to involve the external assessor from the beginning. - By making sure that your organisations unique context is clear, a highly customised and actionable assessment can be provided.”
Ensuring impartiality will ultimately foster a more accurate and fair evaluation of leadership capabilities. An external vantage point can enable the assessor to identify areas for improvement and growth that may not be immediately apparent to those within the organisation. Additionally, external assessors often possess a wealth of experience and expertise, providing valuable insights drawn from diverse industry backgrounds. An external viewpoint helps organisations benchmark their leadership against industry standards and best practices. Furthermore, external assessors can offer a nuanced understanding of leadership trends and emerging challenges, contributing to a more forward-looking evaluation.
Make your team thrive
Working to ensure sustainable leadership within your organisation directly ties to the wellbeing of your employees as well as your business and long-term prosperity.
Sustainable leaders inspire, mentor, and empower those around them to help them grow. They are able to ask powerful questions instead of serving up solutions. What we need from our leaders today is a willingness to abandon complete control, in favour of enabling those around them to find their own paths and solutions.
Alumni
Successful leaders are aware of their strengths and know how to develop and make use of them. At the same time, they make sure they have the self-knowledge to keep their weaknesses in check. This is why Alumni’s leadership development initiatives focus on what a leader does best and how they can do it even better and this includes becoming an expert in a coaching approach.
Alumni makes extensive use of 360-degree interviews to enhance the self-awareness of business leaders. Personal interviews with our experienced consultants, as well as the organisation’s managers, colleagues, reports, and other stakeholders are designed to put a leader’s performance and behaviour into words. It delivers valuable insight into the strengths and weaknesses of leadership and is a powerful tool to improve leaders’ professional image and impact within their organisation.
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