In the book by Nicholas Evans (film by Robert Redford) of The Horse Whisperer, the mother of a severely traumatized daughter enlists the communication skills of a unique horse trainer to help the girl’s equally injured horse. The loose parallel I draw is that transformational leadership often calls upon strong leadership communication skills, often to influence more than one party, to bring about positive change. Also, a sustainability leader is a transformational leadership skill applied within any organisation, regardless of organisational rank, to positively influence or change adverse behaviours and culture. The role is not just about business outcomes, but also to win over the hearts and minds of colleagues, instilling in them a desire to improve sustainability performance. Possessing excellent communication skills, the best sustainability and transformative leaders understand which comments should be shared or whispered privately. The management of sustainability issues is a core skill in Transformative leadership and communication.
Horse Whisperer: A Robert Redford film in which a horse trainer builds trust and rapport with a horse to elicit the best performance possible
Sustainability Whisperer: An organisational leader and change manager who builds trust and engagement through private coaching, feedback, and encourages dialogue to supplement their more public figurehead roles within organisations,
Have you spoken up in a meeting, only to be slapped down by comments from your manager or colleague subsequently? It has happened to me several times when promoting wider or new CSR, governance and sustainability concepts into the discussion. Remarks that either hadn’t been sufficient pre-prepared, conceptually challenged to the ‘way we do it here or have employed a different mindset or strategic approach to the preferred option. Twice in my career, I have had my line manager publicly distance themselves from my words. In one case the Director concerned loudly announced to the rest of the senior leadership team that I was wrong on an environmental or regulatory approach I had just proposed.
Was I right? Yes, in these instances, but it was uncomfortable to experience. In the first case, my line manager and I had discussed the issue prior to the meeting. His public betrayal when he sensed the opposition of other managers was disappointing, as were his subsequent behaviours.
Am I always right? No, definitely not, and in these situations, a good leader should subtly make you aware of it.
Do we always have to shoot colleagues down in public? No, we all would prefer our work colleagues to take us aside afterwards and let us know privately. It is part of the natural learning process to receive feedback on performance in organisations. Advice on how to present issues points to cover and presentation tips can be valuable career guides.
When publicly “outed” by business colleagues, we feel shame, embarrassment and often humiliation in the eyes of our peers. A successful knockdown may enhance the ego of the attacker, but erode the level of trust between the two colleagues. The original speaker may become fearful of speaking up again in future. The loss of their insight depreciates the entire team’s scope in opinion, collective reasoning and problem-solving ability.
Thankfully, I have also had a few managers who have been highly supportive and professional in their feedback. It is clear now that they understand the power of words for positive and negative impact in meetings. One exceptional leader was widely regarded as a maverick in the organisation. However, he encouraged active debate in the team before we challenged organisational diktat & gave us the confidence to go out and change the world. He was highly supportive when my alternative regulatory approach for a power station project went against the collective wisdom of the senior leadership. This gave me the courage and encouragement to speak up in front of the Board to bring them around. He had the foresight to understand the loneliness of being alone in a crowded room! He was a great sustainability whisperer.
The role of a Sustainability Leader, regardless of organisational level, is to influence or transform organisational culture. To win over the hearts and minds of colleagues and to instil a desire to improve overall sustainability performance. It is vital that our influence ratchets up overall organisational performance over time, helping in the development of others towards active participation and engagement in sustainable business issues. I know it is now common for many sustainability directors and managers to focus solely on ‘issues of sustainability primarily from a PR or Enterprise risk perspective, but few of these individuals penetrate deep into the organisational psychology of the culture and work through direction and process instead.
Positive encouragement and direction are vital skills in Transformative leadership areas such as sustainability leadership. Not all leadership communication or feedback is best delivered publicly during meetings and some conversations are best held privately after the meeting. This can allow emotions to cool and your colleague has processed the impact of their words in the group. They may have gained perspectives from any resulting discussion – including your carefully tempered comments!
Remember: “If there is a fear greater than public speaking, it may be public criticism.” (M. Gunther-Murphy)
Some feedback that you view as critical to your sustainability mission or vision for the organisation may require a delicate and courteous delivery. A 1-2-1 dialogue held privately with your antagonist outside the room or in a follow-up meeting can provide a better forum for debating sustainability context, risk or accountabilities.
Simply put, distinctions exist between what we say publicly in support of sustainability issues and what we may let pass for the moment and address privately soon afterwards to correct the issue or misunderstanding. Moving organisational culture and leadership mindsets towards greater business sustainability is never a fast process and there will be ups and downs along the way. The goal is always continuous progressing, ratcheting upwards over time. Never believe one big battle to carry the day – that way a short (but glorious) sustainability career lies before you!
Remember “If there is a fear greater than public speaking, it may be public criticism,” – Your feedback and challenge can be helpful to individuals if it is received without activating shame.”
We all seek approval and appreciation through our work and contribution. When we speak up or seek to lead the direction of an agenda topic. It is only natural that we want the contribution to be appreciated. So, it can be advantageous to give positive feedback, to professionally evaluate statements for their positive contribution or build constructively on another contribution in terms of how it can advance the wider corporate mission – and agenda for sustainability!
Open positive leadership communication and feedback benefit the meetings contributors and the listening audience. Smart feedback and positive transformational leadership observations (and pointers towards sustainability) can help those gathered around the meeting table to understand the alignment of sustainability issues with broader business practices, the opportunities and risks associated, the impact on brand and reputation, and their accountability as responsible business managers. Slowly but surely some mindsets can be altered and aligned with organisational sustainability management and engagement, as you have ‘rewarded’ them indirectly for their public demonstration.
It also builds trust in your public behaviours as you fail to engage in public put-downs and a demonstration of your integrity and power that you have positively raised sustainability issues in a manner that positively contributes to broader organisational debates – ‘the bunny hugger understands the business’ as I can it! However, some statements need to be challenged immediately and corrected before they do harm. Unless quickly corrected they can offset organisational governance, sustainability behaviours or threaten reputation.
Perhaps a manager made a derogatory or inappropriate statement, maybe they did not understand the sustainability issues associated with their remark or maybe they were seeking to entrench established actions. Perhaps their throw away comment, jeopardised ongoing sustainability programmes within the organisation or even misinterpreted a comment.
It is embarrassing for any manager or employee to have their blind spots pointed out publicly right after they have spoken up, What they believe at that moment may represent their heartfelt worldview or professional belief in a topic. Better to take them aside later and whisper, rather than shine a spotlight on their misunderstanding or current viewpoint. In meetings, all behaviours are public and some conversations are better had in private away from your peer group. Some office settings, such as in meetings, do not provide the appropriate setting to ensure the emotional safety for the recipient of the message to speak candidly about sensitive subjects.
As a case point, I previously sat on the executive project board for the delivery of a £1 Billion infrastructure project of critical national importance. The project had suffered delays and pushback from local stakeholders and was behind schedule. The project’s responsible director was on the warpath and the Project team was looking for a scapegoat. Consequently, the environmental technical team was being set up to be the project’s weakest link. The Director has decided to scale up pressure on the project, and when presented with the guilty party laid into them with all enthusiasm. Briefed by the Project Manager, he quickly rounded on the environmental team. To prevent further escalation and bad feelings, I took up with the Director outside the meeting, told him to reread the reports he had previously been issues with (but hadn’t probably read in-depth) but more importantly to go and sit down with the environmental team and to listen to their evaluation of the issues that needed to be resolved within the project team.
The end result was that through active listening to the issues a clearer picture of enterprise risk and how the project team were selectively managing it was apparent. The Director had a clearer strategic picture of how he could leverage results through his engagement and he walked away with a clearer role concerning the work the environmental team were undertaking to try and maintain community relationships and project support. The pressure remained on the project team to improve delivery performance but was better directed towards those accountable for inefficiencies, and crucially a strong relationship and dialogue was created between the Director and his local environmental team, and they became a trusted internal consultee when an objective view of a project’s likely success was required.
How you seek feedback and information on sensitive matters can shape the willingness of others to give it to you. If you go in looking for a fight or a victim, don’t be surprised if others provide you with scapegoats. No one likes to be criticised in public and you will never get the best performance from teams faced with that option.
Sometimes a calm private conversation outside a confrontational meeting can bring about transformation, it can also provide a valuable teachable moment with an antagonist or critical colleague. In the case above, a deft evaluator of the project’s route map to date, and challenge over the director’s understanding of the project was sufficient to cause a re-evaluation of the situation.
How Sustainability professionals address their colleagues understanding or comprehension of sustainability issues in business can depend simply on the manner of feedback. Sometimes we fall into the trap of using common sustainability words, concepts or misunderstand the audience’s understanding of core issues. Explaining climate change, circular economy models and verifiable net-zero programmes are three common linguistic challenges in my lexicon. Derogatory expressions can simply be a result of the listener’s comfortability in not understanding the concept of reflecting the casual comments and ‘urban myths’ they have picked up from others. Such instances usually should warrant a private mentoring conversation rather than a public lecture.
Consider the following list of concerns a sustainability leader might identify in a meeting.
While counteracting such behaviours directly in a meeting can benefit the entire audience. It takes a master orator and communicator to do so without publicly disgracing the speaker, who is vulnerable and would likely feel embarrassed by hearing about such missteps in front of their peer group or colleagues. Most competent sustainability professionals would possess the emotional intelligence to have an understanding of the speaker’s character, their worldview and professional temperament on sustainability issues. Critically when dealing with the most demanding colleagues, they will understand how that colleague would take the direct challenge of critical or negative feedback in public. Even if delicately delivered.
Remember: Some leadership communications or transformative actions are best held privately after the speaker has processed his or her words and hopefully gained perspective from the reception their comments gained.
Even with the most demanding dragon colleagues, we do not know their vulnerabilities and personal fears. For example, in the case of the infrastructure project team, the Director admitted that he didn’t understand the role of the environmental team in large infrastructure projects, how project teams were moving towards multi-disciplinary as opposed to engineer led, and the linkage between sustainability issues and the public’s perception of the project. To his credit, he took the messages on board, carried out his own self-development on the issues and ultimately became a great internal supporter of the team and it work.
Shaming another at the moment can be self-satisfactory in the short term. Still, it is the long-term outcomes on behaviour that sustainability professionals should seek to capture and exploit in their work.
The Mentor-Mentee relationship is commonly associated with a senior-to-junior employee dialogue, but as this earlier blog highlights, it should take a variety of forms within a cohesive organisation. In the article, I encourage cross-profession mentoring to prevent silo mentalities from developing and operational blind spots forming at all levels. In work, I have always encouraged environmental and sustainability colleagues to seek official mentors in their personal areas of self-development need (and not just the most senior director they can hook! Also, to be active in mentoring others in their own fields of professional environmental or sustainability expertise. Helping to ratchet up the overall understanding of these issues across the organisation.
As such. a sustainability whisper might confer with a colleague’s mentor or with the individual themselves after hearing of undesired behaviour, or comment, and seek to discuss how best to address the issue and the harm it has done to others or the organisation. Mentors build an existing relationship with the mentee based on trust and integrity, hopefully, they come to know them better as individuals rather than employees, and have their best interests at heart that grants them the licence to discuss sensitive situations.
This I have found particularly true, with senior executives. In one case a CEO’s blind spot was their distrust of intangible issues (many associated with sustainability trends developing in the customer’s perception of brand and value). Working with them and highlighting that an understanding of sustainability risk, megatrend analysis and a customer focussed approach was as valid as gut feel and established process in identifying options – and the mark of a modern business leader. Helped open up their insight into future strategic planning, work on converting a previous blind spot into a strengthen.
In a lot of executive coaching you realise that, especially if linked to specialist areas such as sustainability, it allows proud and independently minded people to ask questions or discuss concepts that they may feel reluctant to ask of other colleagues for fear of embarrassment. It may be a sad reflection that few CEO’s see their Sustainability Directors as immediate competitors for their job internally, but if you as a sustainability professional have the intent to be positive and organisationally pro-active, then the mentee is likely to also react positively and strengthen the association and linkage to sustainable business growth.
Business leaders often underestimate the ‘organic’ component that makes up the foundation of ‘organisation’. Individual businesses are unique and comprise a collection of different attitudes, beliefs, and attitudes. It is this individuality that determines an organisation’s culture, resilience to change and performance. Organisational culture, and its practice by its leadership, plays a critical role in understanding why some people are resilient and others vulnerable to criticism, why some have high levels of well-being despite physical adversity. In contrast, others disengage from organisational engagement, values and behaviours.
Thus, as Sustainability Whisperers tread cautiously down the corridors of your organisations. Master when to criticise with congratulations and when to be forceful in a safe space. After all, it is the performance and developmental outcomes we seek as altruists rather than the savagery of besting a colleague in one to one intellectual combat.
It turns out our brains have a “red alert” system to protect us from danger, including harsh criticism or threats to our self-image. When we experience negative feelings like fear, anxiety or disgust, the right side of our brain’s frontal cortex swings into action, warning us of the threat, the need to fight back regardless of the cost.
Other parts of our brain process positive statements and constructive feedback as amusement, hope, and love, though not as urgently. This response explains why it is a useful skill to try and construct in advance the tone of your sustainability whisper. If you lead off with negative comments, any subsequent positive remarks may not be processed or heard, as clearly or powerfully by the listener. Their brain will still be dwelling on that opening negative statement as they formulate a retort. They are likely to ignore any positive praise or suggestions that follow what they perceive as an attack or an adverse reaction. Thus, it is wiser to start your public or private whisper with what many term the ‘sh*t sandwich’ approach – offering positive remarks both before and after comments considered to be critical or detrimental to the speaker.
At their heart, sustainability professionals are today’s ultimate business change managers, with a focus that effectively covers all organisational activity. It is a change for business good, corporate culture advantage, and processes linked to long-term growth. To best serve our organisations and myriads of alternative individual mindsets, we need to communicate in ways that slowly ratchet up culture and business performance. The mantle of Sustainability whisper is one such role we can positively play. Complement your adversaries with additional comments delivered privately to them or seek to discuss with them at length after an event why they spoke out as they did, and what reflection they have had on the consequences of their action on organisational development, growth and benefit. Then you will become a corporate force for good – and qualify as a Sustainability Whisperer!
I am indebted to an article by Craig Harrison for stimulating the idea of a sustainability whisperer in business. His work is to be commended as a professional keynote speaker, toastmaster and principal of the US training firm www.ExpressionsOfExcellence.com.