The McKinsey article, When sustainability means more than ‘green’, is adapted from Adam Werback’s new book, Strategy for Sustainability: A Business Manifesto and  reprinted by permission of Harvard Business Press. Copyright © 2009.  Adam Werbach is the CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi, a former president of the Sierra Club (at age 23 in 1996), and the author of many works on sustainability, including the 1997 book Act Now, Apologize Later. I strongly encourage you to view this accompanying video interview, and then read the article.

True sustainability has four equal components:

• social, to address conditions that affect us all, including poverty, violence, injustice, education, public health, and labor and human rights
• economic, to help people and businesses meet their economic needs—for people: securing food, water, shelter, and creature comforts; for businesses: turning a profit
• environmental, to protect and restore the Earth—for example, by controlling climate change, preserving natural resources, and preventing waste
• cultural, to protect and value the diversity through which communities manifest their identity and cultivate traditions across generations

Q. What was the most important leadership lesson you learned?

A. I’ve learned to be patient and not lose my temper. 

Patience I have learned over the past five years is my biggest developmental need.  (Such a nice way of putting that I too impatient and easily I loose my temper at my children.)

A colleague, CJ got around to blogging about this this interview and it is always interesting to see the different points that strike us differently.  Patience stood out for me but we did share some other similarities.

I don’t think PowerPoints help people think as clearly as they should because you don’t have to put a complete thought in place.  You can just put a phrase with a bullet in front of it. And it doesn’t have a subject, a verb and an object, so you aren’t expressing complete thoughts.

The higher someone rises in an organization, the more important their intangible qualities become, suggests Delta Air Lines CEO Richard Anderson in an in-depth interview (by Adam Bryant of the New York Times) on the unquantifiable aspects of human capital. How Anderson conducts interviews and what he is looking for is particularly insightful.  While his approach is different, for him some of the key elements he is striving to elicit are:

• a really strong set of values
• a really good work ethic
• adaptability to change
• ability to get along well with people
• a team player
• ability to motivate people

Although the environmental and human rights movements are sometimes perceived as two different things – especially in many developed countries like the United States – in much of the world they are closely intertwined.

As part of their 30th-anniversary issue, Inc. asked Jim Collins, author of Good to Great and Built to Last, what we might expect in the next 30 years. His answer: uncertainty, chaos, turbulence, and risk.

In the end, I think we need to have absolute faith in our ability to deal with whatever is thrown at us. And we need to have a complete, realistic paranoia that a lot can be thrown at us. It’s our ability to put those two contradictory ideas together: We need to be prepared for what we can’t predict and, at the same time, have this total, unwavering faith that we will find a way to deal with all of it. And I believe we will.

Earlier today, I put up a video of Jacqueline Novogratz where she discusses the importance of learning humility.  I thought it would be interesting to tie the behaviors of self assurance and humility into the Tilt Leadership Model.*  The Tilt 360 looks takes one’s personality to the next step . . . as we are aware of our tendencies how do we manage them. As mature individuals how balanced are we in the character traits needed to be a Transcendent Leader?  An overuse of the strength of confidence (ego) can result in arrogance or being smug. What is needed to balance this is a focus on trust: humble, authentic, respectful. 

I have noticed over the past few years a new sense of awareness with the “old timers” of organization development like Peter Block and W. Warner Burke. This is from hearing them speak and interact with them in person.  Marshall Goldsmith falls into this group.  He won’t remember, but I last saw him at the ICF Conference in Brussels in 2006 and I felt the shift.   I am going to go out on a limb here and say that is seems that these “old white men of privilege” finally “get it” and understand at a more fundamental level the position of power they have had over the years.  This shows up in greater humanity and an even greater sense of the whole. They are able to take their creativity and influence to a new level by balancing this ego with greater perspective and humanity.

You might well ask who am I to make such sweeping generalizations. Nobody, but I have had my own humbling experience over the past few years and I must say I have not handled it as graciously as Marshall.

Kudos to him!

Roberta

* 1-Focus International is a fellow with Tilt Inc and primary trainer and supplier in Europe.

Ms. Novogratz  talks about humility (“I had to learn to have the humility myself to really listen to their perspectives”) but it is her call to action that is the most powerful message.  

Part of the journey that those of us who are privileged, which is pretty much everyone in this country, has to make is not being embarrassed by privilege or guilty for privilege or confused by privilege, but to start from that place of recognizing that your responsibility is to use that privilege in the best way you can to serve the world. And there are lots of ways of serving the world.

Here is the very last thing she says:

You should just start . . . I can’t imagine a more joyful way of living than a life where you are serving in the spirit of adventure as you are of change.

At 1-Focus International, we have made a commitment to not only help sustainable change occur in organizations but also in our community.  This year, 2009, we have chosen to support and promote Kiva.org   a non-profit micro-finance site that allows you to lend as little as $25 to a specific low-income entrepreneur in the developing world. You choose who to lend to – whether a baker in Afghanistan, a goat herder in Uganda, a farmer in Peru, a restaurateur in Cambodia, or a tailor in Iraq – and as they repay the loan, you get your money back.

Check out the Sustaining Change lending team, and learn more about lending teams on Kiva in general.

Barry Schwartz shows us examples and clearly states that the key to “practical wisdom” is the development of character. This has to begin in the classroom and teachers (and parents for that matter) must embody character. The question remains – what constitutes “character”?

It Takes More Than Competence

Everyone is talking about competencies, which are a combination of knowledge, skills, experience, and abilities that have been acquired over the lifetime of a leader’s career. Competencies are critical to performance and are indicative of the CAN DO aspects of the leader. We believe that competencies are the standard expectation today and leaders won’t survive long without them. But, there is something very important missing from the equation if the primary focus is all on competencies.  Most of the competency models out there are missing a comprehensive approach to the aspect of leadership that is MOST critical to sustainable leadership success…namely, who you are being as a person in fulfilling your leadership role.

Rapid change, demands a leader who has character…

The world of work has dramatically changed in the last decade. Leaders with good character are the ones who will make it during a tough downward cycle so those are the leaders we are looking to. Tilt is the only leadership 360 measuring trait-based character strengths.

We are  pleased to announce 1-Focus International as a fellow with Tilt Inc. as a Preferred Independent Consultant in Europe.

Things went along pretty smoothly, but six months later, sales took a downturn and Morris was really catching a lot of heat. About at his wit’s end, he remembered the envelopes. He went to his drawer and took out the first envelope. The message read, “Blame your predecessor.” Morris called a press conference and tactfully laid the blame at the feet of the previous CEO. Satisfied with his comments, the press, and Wall Street, responded positively, sales began to pick up and the problem was soon behind him.

About a year later, the company was again experiencing a slight dip in sales, combined with serious product problems. Having learned from his previous experience, the CEO quickly opened the second envelope. The message read, “Reorganize.” This he did, and the company quickly rebounded.

After several consecutive profitable quarters, the company once again fell on difficult times. Morris went to his office, closed the door and opened the third envelope.

The message said, “Prepare three envelopes.”

In this world of speed and high expectations, we don’t get second chances.  It may not be fair but it is life.  At 1-Focus International we work with executives and senior managers to ensure iterative and sustainable change.  That means it is always an ongoing process of refinement and recreation.  It is never the flavor of the month or a one time event.  For some this seems to involved or complex.  However, most of us know that whether it is the organization, life or our families, that there is no quick fix to issues; no simple answers to the challenges; no easy strategies for implementation.  At best we can learn to take things in stride and smile.

• What does it mean to be transparent?
• Why is it so important?
• What steps can businesses take to embrace it?

“You are the worst person to judge where you need to improve.”

Talk to us at 1-Focus about our 360 degreee Collaborative Leadership Profile and other feedback tools.