Sustainability is a Key Ingredient of Authentic Leadership
Hi Everyone,
Today I’m continuing our conversation about authentic leadership. So far we’ve talked about why authentic leadership is critical for building a just world and meeting the demands of a changing workforce. We’ve also talked about self connection and discernment as key ingredients of authentic leadership. Today I’m going to delve into the third component that I see as essential for authentic leadership: sustainability.
As leaders we know that there are many crises, distractions, and fads that can cause us to be on a constant hamster wheel. I’m sure that at one point or another all of us have fallen into the pattern of responding to what is right in front of us, expending huge amounts of energy as we constantly pivot from one thing to the next, and then experiencing burnout and disconnection from our purpose. Leading in this reactive way is exhausting for us as individuals and also creates confusion and disconnection for our teams.
Sustainability is the antidote to reactive leadership.
Part of leading authentically is having a clear vision of what we are trying to achieve that we never lose sight of. To keep a hold of this vision requires us to be able to zoom out and see the forest for the trees, and resist being buffeted by the winds of urgency culture. And also to facilitate a pace of change that is realistic and steady for ourselves and our teams.
There are two parallel and equally important reasons to focus on sustainability.
The movement needs authentic leaders to stay in the work! Finding ways to sustain is critical for us to move forward. As leaders, when we practice sustainability we are also modeling it for our teams so that future leaders learn these skills too.
Leading with sustainability creates the consistent environments that people need to be vulnerable and take risks. The leaders who I work with who have been able to facilitate the most transformational changes all have a steadiness to them that creates enough safety and predictability for their teams to trust them, and then be vulnerable and take risks.
Sustainability matters at both the individual/personal level and at the systems level. So often we think that slowing down and taking care of ourselves is a selfish act, but it's actually quite the opposite.
In centering sustainability we are actually supporting ourselves, showing others how to support themselves, and building cultures that thrive.
So how do you build sustainability into your leadership style? I’ll be honest, this is the element of authentic leadership that is the most challenging for me personally. People who know me well know that I don’t really have a slow setting. When I am passionate and committed to something I am all in. And the longer I do this work the more I am feeling the personal cost of moving at 100 miles per hour every day. I am also seeing the cost it has on the people around me, who are sprinting to keep pace with me. Through personal experience I am learning that BECAUSE the work we do is urgent and important we must slow down, take care of ourselves, and move with purpose rather than urgency.
To this end, I offer these four guidelines for how to center sustainability in your leadership.
Set realistic expectations: Oooo this one is so hard! The more realistic we can be up front the more our experience will align with expectations, and then we’ll be able to appreciate the steps forward we are making rather than focusing on what didn’t happen or didn’t go well. This also allows us to celebrate wins along the way which keeps up motivation and energy. Everyone wants to experience making progress and the way we define success is so tied to whether we can notice the progress we are making. So let’s bring the definition of success into line with reality so that we can see it more clearly.
Frame change in terms of inquiry cycles: Inquiry cycles are a common practice in education that is applicable in all industries. Essentially, this is an approach to identify an area of need, figure out what new skills are needed to address that need, learn those skills, then implement the new learning, then assess what needs are present and restart the cycle from there. This approach to organizational change as cyclical and continuous (similar to the Seasons of Leadership framework that I unpacked last month) releases the goal of getting it right the first time, and embraces the idea that change is ongoing.
Take time for rest and fun: We’ve all heard the adage “you can’t pour from an empty cup.” As leaders we need to give ourselves opportunities to recoup. There is a long legacy of rest and self care as a form of resistance, rooted in the experiences and wisdom of Black women. And rest and healing continue to be important in equity and justice work. I have also found that there is a difference between rest and fun. Rest for me looks like shutting down, being quiet and alone, sleeping, and watching home renovation shows. Fun is more about laughing, being in community with friends and family, doing things that are out of the ordinary and spontaneous. Both of these are important for leaders to both experience and model. I’ll add that as a white person doing equity work I have really struggled to figure out the “right” amount of rest and fun to take. There are a lot of messages sent to white people and people with privilege to “Do more!” “Speak up!” “Use your privilege!” These messages are really important and figuring out how to sustain equity and justice work as a white leader is also important. I don’t have this figured out yet, but I’ll be writing more about this in a future newsletter.
By embedding these strategies into your leadership approach you get to move at a pace that you can maintain for a long time. That’s ultimately what sustainability is all about. This will allow you to keep going, have space for the unexpected things that inevitably come up, and create that consistency and predictability for your team.
As we come to a close consider:
How do you already move in sustainable ways?
Which of the approaches in this newsletter are you inspired to try?
What opportunities do you see for creating consistency and predictability on your team?
I’d love to hear from you. Hit reply and let us know what you're thinking!
This is the last installment of my Authentic Leadership Mini Series. Thank you all for engaging with me throughout this journey. I hope you’ve learned a few things that you can add into your practice right away and that you are feeling more equipped to go out there and build the compassionate, inclusive, and resilient culture your organization needs!
With love,
Tessa
