Importance of Sustainable leadership model & how regenerative leadership can show the way out of covid 2019 crisis
‘Today’s
business leaders must positively guide their entities through unstable economic
times and do so in a sustainable manner’ (Fable et al., 2005)
The
COVID-19 pandemic grows continuously worldwide. Now it is essential to move
focus to efforts while making the changes needed to restart work. Organizations
can restart work by preparing & organizing during this time, stabilizing in
the new environment and planning for future circumstances. During the times of
crisis, Leaders need to have a proper plan to work with the real situation by
identifying changes need be done & the actions to minimize the risk rather
than stressing followers & social and ecological systems. Real leaders have
ability to make futures that we all want, which ultimately improve society.
Therefore, needs of sustainable leadership model in organizations, who focuses
on the long-term survival of the organization, are arising these days as it is
essential to have leaders who can create robust working environment to achieve
established financial while paying attention on social & environmental
aspects.(Bossink, 2007)
Sustainable leadership model is ‘when leaders of businesses
manage companies with environment, society, and long-term sustainable
development goals in mind.
Oftentimes, it’s referred to as PPP, or the triple bottom line: people, planet,
profit. Sustainable leaders consider stakeholders rather than totally depend on
shareholders’
(McCann & Holt, 2010)
Characteristics
of Sustainable leadership model
1.Willingness to change : Always embrace the need for change and take actions , encourage innovations
2.Think broadly: Thinks for all functions the organization and connect
them together
3.Social and environmental consciousness: Consider not only the internal
but also external impact of the business actions.
4.Credible and high business sense: work to increase stakeholder value and
ensure business sustainability.
5. Adopt to situations: Quickly adopt to changing business conditions and
environment
6.Long term vision: Plan for long
term success
7. Ability to persuade people: Build networks, relationship and get the
people to do the desired work.
8. Passionate and Energetic: Bringing a lot of passion and energy to drive
people towards organizations vision.
9. Continuous development: Monitor and identify the areas to be developed
and help people to improve their knowledge and skills.
Sustainability
always refers to maintaining and regeneration means the repair / renewal where
as both terms connote with the same meaning of achieving stability and
continuation which is the main aim of all businesses in this crisis situation
.Therefore regenerative leadership can be identified an essential sustainable
leadership model for every organization should have in, to overcome the new
challenges occurred due to covid 19 Pandemic. The regenerative leadership style
leads organizations to understand and use the nature as guiding system and
helps to embrace the natural world more positively. Therefore In prevailing
conditions this sustainable leadership model (Regenerative leadership) can give
in vital contribution to organization to ensure the survival and achieve the
desired business adjectives.
Regenerative Leadership is “a way of living and leading that puts life at the
center of things. A way of leading that creates the conditions conducive for
life to flourish, for ourselves to become more whole, vibrant and purposeful,
and for our organizations to
come alive while all our stakeholders thrive” (Hutchins, 2019)
“Regenerative Business
enriches life. It enriches us, our customers, and the wider stakeholder
ecosystem. Regenerative Business transforms our role and purpose, from a
“what’s-in-it-for-me” approach to a mindset of collaboration, co-creativity and
contribution. Regenerative Leaders bring vitality and wellbeing to all our
living systems….In-so-doing; we wake up to what it really means to be fully human.”
(Hutchins and Storm, 2019)
Things
that regenerative leaders should believe in
01. Should believe in their own goals
and targets for a much brighter future
02.
Should believe in their internal strength and capabilities and that they have
the ability to learn and evolve in every moment with the changing environment
03.
Should believe in the importance of each and every moment as the best and is
there to flourish.
04. Should believe in nature and its magical power to guide all of us to live in harmony as individual as well as a society.
“We
are living in a great uncertainty and change, where the collapse of global
economic systems has become difficult to ignore. Leaders are being required to
handle challenges: resource scarcity; high levels of pressure in the office
place; irregular, regular and disruptive innovations; continuous rivalry for
top talent; increasing instability and varying stakeholder expectations; quick
digitization and globalization; insubstantial supply chains; increasing social
pressures; and increasing sovereign and consumer debit levels the world over.” (Hutchins and Storm, 2019)
“If we just carry on the way we are we are
not living up to our name of Homo Sapiens,” (Hutchins, 2020). Regenerative
Leaders always follow “root-and-branch transformation”. As a result don’t make
decisions in a way that re-form old problems. This will enable organizations to
face future epidemic situations without failure as regenerative leaders
implement robust strategies to face volatile economic conditions in future.
Further, they identify inter connectedness of every activity rather than
depending on the idea that one person should be subordinate to another person.
This will reduce the uncertainty among the staff members, as they feel they
make substantial effect for the progress of the business.
Regenerative Leaders
believe that every human being have an “inborn capacity to go forward”. They don’t take any failure as a doom in any
circumstance. They see effect of Covid 19 epidemic as an opportunity to
transform traditional way of doing business & to make cultural changes to
create better culture by removing traditional norms prevailing within the
staff. During the covid 19 pandemic, businesses have to make new approaches to
carryout business under new normal condition. Having regenerative leaders in an
organization, who are open to radical changes, will be able to create culture
which accepts changes.
Strategizing new approaches
to create differences to the business structure/model & to encourage
diversity during covid 19, will require making use of lessons learned from
nature. Further, businesses will need to transform from “a rigid, reductive, mechanistic
hierarchy” to living system model ton sustain in future. Having a ‘power for
good, energizing and creating new systems and structures’ skills which add
value, ability to capture opportunities to positively contribute to life’s
growth, regenerative leaders will create a path to transform the business model
easily to manage the challenges of covid 19.
As
regenerative leaders incorporate
business, societal and environmental aspects when taking decisions, it will be
beneficial to overcome
the prevailing issues due to the covid 19 epidemics, which ultimately earn sustainability & competitive advantage.
During a crisis,
stakeholders are very concern about the way businesses operates, & it may
create a substantial effect after the crisis. Therefore stakeholder interest
management is vital. Regenerative leaders get involve stakeholders in decision
making & implementing process rather than just keeping them informed.
During crisis
situations, businesses may require to do changes to the traditional way of
doing businesses, remove bureaucracy & to do innovations to survive. Translational
skills, adaptability & persuasiveness skills of regenerative leaders will identify
the innovations need to be done & create path to implement needed changes
successfully while taking environmental & social aspects in to
consideration.
How to form regenerative
teams?
“Many leaders admit to deficient
confidence in a crisis. Training, teamwork and a supportive team can make all
the variance.” (Hinks,2020)
Teamwork has never been more crucial. With
the huge disruption brought on by COVID-19, working as a team is not just
concept, it is an imperative.
“Covid 19 is the ultimate teamwork
challenge - ranging from the societal and global corporation level down to
small businesses in a broader ecosystem” In order to overcome this challenge in
a sustainable manner, it is essential to have regenerative leadership skills
within the team.
In order to create regenerative teams, leaders need to create
cultural change first by changing the ethics of the business culture to the
ethics of Permaculture which includes “Attention of Earth; Care of People;
Unbiased Share; Shift – meeting things where they are”.
Leaders should not force their team to build regenerative skills to
find solutions. They must allow time to engage with nature, which enable them
to design solutions that best suit to specific situation. Having seen followers
“where they are”, businesses can get some creative Permaculture ideas to
address issues in positive ways. The leaders must motivate and allow others to
do their level best together which enable them to expand their skills than
leaders and redevelop on their own procedures to continue performance though
leaders moved away.
To build up regenerative skills within the team, following
principles of regenerative leadership must be communicated properly among the
team.
·
Seeking first to recognize
·
Moving from outlines to detail
·
Integrating all steps & manage
constraints and resources
·
Pay attention on margin, waste
and yield
·
Respond creatively at the edges
and intersections of diverse
Sustainable leadership model manage companies keeping environment, society, and long-term sustainable
development goals in mind.
Regenerative leadership focuses on the sustainability of the business
operations when taking business decisions especially during the crisis
situations. As it is essential to look every aspect of the business including
environmental, social & financial to achieve sustainability, leaders need
to have regenerative leadership characteristics. It will enable businesses to
survive during the crisis like covid 19 & be ready for its future negative
circumstances.
If you would like to suggest any other leadership model that would be handy in guiding organizations in this sort of a crisis situation, please share your ideas here.
URL: https://piyumimanika.blogspot.com/2020/10/importance-of-sustainable-leadership.html
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