“Be yourself because everyone else is already taken.”
When have you felt your best as a Leader?
A simple question you would think, and one I have asked many of the aspiring business and sustainability leaders I have coached.
As they have mumbled various answers involving strategies performed, initiatives followed through or successful change programmes completed. I ask the second question.
Where are you being yourself then?
Many stop and confirm that they were, others pause and change their story to a time that they were truly acting as a leader. When asked why they dropped the first thing that had come into their mind, they often respond that it was because it was the biggest, most impressive, or media catching event that they had been part of. Yet their contribution was either a joint team effort or just a walk-on part amongst the main actors.
When coaching people you don’t want to hear the interview-ready answers, you want to understand who they are and what they believe they stand for.
Truly being you, involves stepping out from that corporate persona, stopping watching what you are saying or even worse repeating what others spout as corporate in-speak, and being less concerned about what your colleagues think, but instead what you think, believe in and seeking to accomplish.
The moment I made it up to the executive level in my first organisation, I promised myself I was going to be the ‘real’ Ross Marshall at all times. It has allowed me to say and carry out what I believe in, resonate with those looking for my help in delivering change, and has opened the doors to some wonderful opportunities and contacts
At the same time, it has put me in difficult places when you seem to be the only executive in the room who has spotted the large fluorescent unsustainable elephant hiding there, and with some clients who want ESG badges but do not want to change their organisational culture.
So, my advice to you is to enjoy being you, because everyone else is already taken! If you are, and you have the bravery to be a corporate individual, enjoy it. Your style, thoughts personality and worldview are totally original.
Think of the influential characters and leaders in your life – parents, friends, business leaders and all the people in your life who have nudged you towards a career in sustainability. In all likelihood, each of them has pursued its own purpose and pathway. They have taken inspiration from others, but they have developed those inspirations into their own view of the world, business sense and core values.
This blog, in fact, the whole series of blog articles, and the concept of LeadIng Green’s work, are all about helping you to build your personal brand of environmental sustainability leadership and to be a force for good in the sector of your choice. The concept of better more sustainable businesses is reliant on having leaders in place with their own personal brand.
It is an influencing, change management and future leadership role. It is not about copying the persona’s of yesterday’s business leaders – many of those are responsible as thought leaders for the unsustainable behaviours and issues that organisations face today. There is a lot to yet be discovered and explored in terms of leadership in this profession, we need leaders willing to try new approaches, to challenge conventional business ways of seeing the world and to adopt new business models.
In the remaining sections of this article, I am going to give a few more coaching tips on how to be your own distinct and authentic leader.
So carry on reading and either start your journey or take a step off the path to discovering who you are and what your vision is as an environmental sustainability leader.
Many in business have been conditioned to avoid risk and that career success is aided by blending into the organisational background. These grey men avoid scenarios that isolate them from the general groupthink around them. When you are so well camouflaged there is not much that can harm you corporately, but if your career is spent blending in successfully, you will notice that you really can not deliver much in the way of business outcomes either.
As we have alluded, a transformational leader such as a Sustainability Director is an agent for change within the organisation. Members of the workforce are attracted to uniqueness. Individuals, companies and corporate bodies that embrace uniqueness are more appealing to others by standing out from the crowd. This helps them get noticed in a crowded marketplace full of talented individuals.
Uniqueness attracts clients and customers. This could be a different approach to customer care, products materiality, an ethical approach towards a current ESG issue or a close bond between the organisation, the local population and their environments. Sustainability leaders build something new based around a specific aspect of the business, a disruptive niche for the business or an innovative business approach towards our leading sustainability issue and promote themselves everywhere as the go-to for that niche. People get worried about beyond the organisation as its champion. This is the most effective way to get noticed so that you can promote a wide sustainability agenda in the future when colleagues are more likely to follow and listen to your initiatives.
Bringing it all together
Your key challenge is to figure out what makes you different, learning to embrace that unique leadership appeal and use it to promote your sustainability agenda for the business and to get people to pay attention to it.