The environmental and societal challenges we face today are like nothing we have ever seen. Many of us now know that business as usual is no longer an option, but the alternative path of action seems unclear and fraught with difficulty. Stuart McLachlan and Dean Sanders talk us through the need for humility in business when it comes to staying the course
In our book, The Adventure of Sustainable Performance, we explain that while this is a period of great uncertainty, for those leaders willing to try this can be also a time of great adventure. Sustainable performance is a way of operating that unlocks value creation advantages by placing the organisation at the service of an environmentally sustainable and socially just future. We have the opportunity now to be part of something that is as exciting as it is hopeful, where we can create business ecosystems within nature’s own ecosystems that will enable us to experience a safe, harmonious and prosperous future.
We have consulted and advised senior leaders in large companies who are already discovering sustainability as an adventurous journey of impact and performance. We’ve found that the diligent, determined, competitive passion that makes leaders aspire to lead in the first place is just what is required for leadership today and in the future. But this needs to be balanced with and guided by humility, pragmatism, authenticity and hope.
Humility is a leadership attribute that underscores the courage, calmness and clarity vital to the business transformation of sustainable performance.
- Humility through honesty
Humility isn’t always easy to define but is easier to identify in others. Leaders who display humility are those ready to acknowledge they don’t know or hold all the answers; they admit their shortcomings, lack of understanding, or control over situations. They don’t lead through their insecurities.
Humility allows us to lean on others who possess more knowledge or understanding than us, or who may be better positioned for a particular role or task. We interviewed a range of business leaders for our book, including Chicago-based LanzaTech founder Sean Simpson.
He emphasised the simplicity of it all: “Mistakes are made continuously. Have sufficient humility to know that you are going to make mistakes. You’ve got to constantly evaluate things. As soon as you realise it’s a mistake, back straight out and don’t feel bad about it.” And yet we know the world is filled with leaders unwilling to admit fault or culpability, unable to reflect and reframe their views of the world.
Humility is simple but hard to achieve, especially if we have spent our lives being encouraged to achieve, to hustle, to fight for position, seek promotion, ignore our ‘soft skills’ and push for the best. We might consider that ambition doesn’t fit with humility, that being authentic and transparent will make us seem weak. On the contrary, the leaders who will help us to navigate and solve the world’s biggest problems will display authentic humility alongside fierce grit and determination. Humility is not weakness; it is often a display of the greatest strength.
- Humility in service
The digital and social-era models of business require leaders to lead through influence and service rather than hierarchical positional power. Perhaps we can shift the power dynamics from hierarchies of status power to communities of passion, purpose and collaboration, where we share a common interest and mission.
Humility is about imbuing our leadership with a spirit of service within the organisation and beyond its walls – to turn our organisations into open and inclusive places of joint endeavour and protection. It is the ability to imagine and build projects and narratives of hope to inspire the loyalty of others to a common higher cause.
William Wilberforce, in his passionate desire to fight the horrors of the slave trade, sought unity around the need for moral conviction to deliver change and deployed ‘servant leadership’ in guiding political leaders as they campaigned for abolition.
- Connecting the dots
Something amazing about this moment is that in the unsettling of systems and the search for longer-term solutions, leaders are being required to bring their full selves to the challenge; to connect the different parts of their lives and appreciate how it can and should fit together. For many, this is a departure from everything they have experienced so far in their working life.
The leaders who will thrive as the world shakes and established power structures crumble will be those who know what drives them deep down and who allow this understanding to filter into their work, their ambition, their vision. They also know when to draw on the insight and expertise of others.
Stuart McLachlan and Dean Sanders are the CEO and chief enterprise officer respectively at Anthesis and co-authors of The Adventure of Sustainable Performance: Beyond ESG Compliance to Leadership in the New Era, published by Wiley. Visit anthesisgroup.com for more information
