Why courage is a key skill for sustainability leaders

Before answering the question of how to be a courageous sustainability leader, it’s worth examining why courage is so crucial to making genuine progress.

Courage is identified by the Inner Development Goals as one the key skills needed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.  This is because sustainability, by its very nature involves challenging the status quo, questioning business as usual and doing things differently.

When not rocking the boat is so much easier, it takes courage:

• to go against the flow.
• to say things others don’t want to hear.
• to innovate and do things differently.

That’s why, if you’re leading on sustainability, you need courage to make genuine progress.

The unspoken side of sustainability leadership

In sustainability, when the focus is so often on the science, the metrics, the processes and the reporting, the human and emotional side of sustainability leadership is rarely discussed.

To shine a light on this often unspoken side of sustainability leadership, we invited a number of sustainability leaders to discuss their experience of being courageous in their work – in construction, healthcare, engineering, public service, education and more.

While our leaders work in very different sectors and come to sustainability leadership with very different skill sets, as we explored the question of how to be a courageous sustainability leader, common themes emerge.

Through exploring what has worked, and equally importantly, what hasn’t worked, the group share powerful insights and practical advice that you can apply to answer the question of how to be a courageous sustainability leader in your own context.