Quiet leadership for sustainability – no visionary CEO required

Within an organisation, personal leadership from the CEO on the sustainability agenda is usually critical to transformational change.  But what if there isn’t a visionary CEO?  Is it possible to transition towards a sustainable business? 

An important question, particularly given that CEOs with a passion for sustainability, and a willingness to change their organisation and the wider business community, are in short supply.  CEOs with a pioneering approach to sustainability remain a very small percentage of the total number at the helm of the thousands of listed businesses on stock markets around the world. Go on, try it – make a mental list of the CEOs such as Paul Polman and Ian Cheshire who are flying the flag for sustainability (give yourself a prize if you get to more than ten).

So, what can you do in your business if your CEO is ambivalent at best, or completely opposed at worst, to the sustainability agenda?  Or, if you have a slightly interested CEO, but the marzipan layer – the middle to senior managers who oil the cogs of the business’s machinery – just don’t ‘get it’.  Despair?  No, not at all. 

Enter what I would describe as ‘quiet leadership’, personal leadership from within an organisation, which is effective at pushing the sustainability agenda forward, despite the absence of top level support.  From working with businesses on sustainability since the early days when leadership equated to a nice glossy CR report, I think there are at least four different approaches to quiet leadership which capture the tactics and actions taken by individuals which have proved successful.

1. Just do it anyway.  This approach to quiet leadership is characterised by the people who sidle up to me, look faintly apologetic for the luddite behaviour of their CEO and/or Board (which may have been displayed in private or in public), and whisper ‘I’m just going to do it anyway’.  These are the savvy folk who deliberately keep what they’re up to under the radar, until they can show a win and/or there is some change at the top.  They use their budgets wisely, or if they don’t have one, they influence those around them to encourage new and different uses for existing budgets.  They will also often seek out someone fairly senior who they sense has some sympathy for sustainability to give them ‘ground cover’ – the exact words used in a conversation I had recently with an ambitious young leader in a multinational with perhaps only mediocre ambition on sustainability.
2. The naughty just do it anyway approach.  Where there is the decision to just get on with things, but with a willingness to take more risks, and engage in the odd spot of subterfuge.  Such as issuing a press release committing the business to do something on sustainability which actually hasn’t been formally signed off.  This might be a slightly revised target for carbon reduction, or a trial for a new sustainability product or service.  I’ve seen examples of both – as once these commitments hit the public domain, there need to be some obvious attempts to deliver them. 
3. Breaking the mould.  The approach adopted by people that recognise procedures and practice need to change, and are willing to be the first to show what new practice looks like.  A classic example is the category buyer in a retailer who understands that sourcing sustainably requires wholesale change in procurement criteria, and a very different approach to supplier engagement.  I recently met the category buyer for seafood, at a US retailer, whose work led to their fish being 100% sustainably sourced.  This person was honest about how hard this change was - having to learn about an issue (sustainability) and engage, initially individually, with all the top suppliers, and explain that the specifications needed to change.  Many of the suppliers were very resistant, maintained that what was being asked for was impossible, and the shift took herculean efforts in negotiation and persuasion.  Breaking the mould requires conviction, charm and tenacity in equal measure.
4. Coalitions of the willing. Forming external relationships and groups to create internal change. For example, it may be hard to get attention when yours is the only voice in the business calling for a change in working practices within a supply chain; but by forming a group of similar people, from similar organisations, who also want to see such change, it can be much easier to get backing for new, more sustainable practice.  This category of quiet leadership is perhaps the one with the greatest potential to change the wider system, as by forming alliances and working across traditionally competitive boundaries, issues can be tackled that are often just too big to be bitten off by single organisations.

There are probably many more ways in which individuals in organisations can create the change they want to see, even without a charismatic CEO at the top of the organisation or with a very deep yellow and sticky marzipan layer.  Within the four approaches above, the individuals share common characteristics – personal conviction, passion, imagination, the ability to influence, and persistence.  And of course, ultimate success might rely on deploying all four approaches, either simultaneously or in succession. 

My observations of quiet leadership only go to prove that the American anthropologist Margaret Mead was right when she said "never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has".  The sustainability challenges we currently face are so immediate, so pressing, that we can’t afford to wait for every business to find a visionary CEO with a passion for sustainability.  It’s down to all of us to find ways of creating change now - quiet leadership might offer a few pointers on how.