Last week I attended the Leadership Summit put on by MCN. I enjoyed networking and reconnecting with some of my fellow SCLI participants. I also heard some good speakers and attended a couple of interesting breakout sessions. One session that was definitely a high light for me was Sustainable Leadership Principles: Creating Future & Legacy lead by Dr. Mai Moua of Leadership Paradigms.
Sustainable leadership is all the rage in the corporate world as demonstrated by Jim Collins' books Good to Great and Built to Last. But theories around sustainable leadership are beginning to make their way into the nonprofit sector.
There are seven principles for developing sustainable leadership:
1. Sustainable Leadership Matters at a Deep Level At the core of sustainable leadership is that people matter as do our values and mission. We need to be true to our values first, but do so in a way that also cares for others. Also, as part of this principle, we need to always be learning and looking for new ways to live our our values and mission.
2. Sustainable Leadership endures from one life time to another, from one leader to another
Central to this principle, especially for nonprofits, is the idea of succession planning as well as providing coaching and mentoring to new leaders. Typically, nonprofits do not do a good job planning for succession of their leaders or developing leaders from within their organizations. Any sort of succession planning tends to be informal and short term. This doesn't help to build long-term sustainability for the organization. A question many nonprofits could benefit from asking themselves, "What strategies has our organization put in place to create lasting endurance?"
3. Sustainable Leadership is distributed and depends on others
To truly be sustainable, we have to recognize that one person or a few people cannot do it all. We must engage everyone in our organization to be able to get the job done and move the organization forward. That means delegating responsibilities and trusting others will be able to do the job well.
4. Sustainable Leadership does no harm to and actively involves the surrounding environment through shared knowledge and resources
The principle is really about doing justice. We have to recognize that we are all citizens together (of our organizations, our sector, our world) and that we have a responsibility to more than just our organization, but to all.
5. Sustainable Leadership promotes diversity
We learn more from others than just from ourselves. Diversity of all kinds is valuable. When we push ourselves to be uncomfortable, even to the brink of chaos, we are then better able to innovate and develop people, ideas and actions. We need to constantly be open to new ideas.
6. Sustainable Leadership renews the energy of people and resources
If we operate holistically, we are able to accomplish more. This takes us back to the first principle that we need to care for others we are able to be more effective.
7. Sustainable Leadership builds upon the past to create a better future
We don't want to get caught up reflecting too much on the past, but there are things that we can learn from things that have (and haven't) worked in the past.
At the very root of all this is who we are as leaders and what we bring to the strategies and principles of sustainable leadership.
From what I learned about sustainable leadership at the workshop, I like the emphasis on organizational consciousness in connection with individual leadership consciousness. The important part is knowing who you are (either as an org or an individual), having a clear vision, mission and values with an awareness and authenticity. I try to practice mindfulness each day. Leadership consciousness is about being mindful of our values, how we live out our values, and how our values affect those around us. I also resonate with the principles of caring for people and resources beyond yourself or your organization and to always strive to be learning.
The idea of sustainable leadership is also important to my work at Ready 4 K. I want to do more to develop leaders of the advocates in the field so that when I one day leave my position there will continue to be strong voices for early learning in communities all around Minnesota.
photo by AlphaTangoBravo / Adam Baker
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