{"id":363,"date":"2014-08-24T20:35:47","date_gmt":"2014-08-25T00:35:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/carlaperrotta.com\/blog\/?p=363"},"modified":"2014-08-24T20:35:47","modified_gmt":"2014-08-25T00:35:47","slug":"defining-sustainable-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carlaperrotta.com\/blog\/defining-sustainable-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"Defining Sustainable Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Candles-blog\"<\/a>Sustainability, in and of itself, is a concept that has increased in acceptance and importance. The environment, Mother Earth, social responsibility and safety are words that come to mind when speaking of sustainability. Although it can mean different things to different people, the topic yields a certain level of emotion and the word continues to take shape beyond its initial meaning.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Regardless of how you personally define sustainability, it’s value is being recognized by more and more people and companies. Studies show organizations that publicly share their commitment to sustainability demonstrate a higher level of loyalty among their client base than companies that do not.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Search \u201csustainability\u201d and you’ll find a great deal of information on the topic. The same holds true for the word \u201cleadership\u201d. What’s interesting is that across the business spectrum, we’re seeing an increased amount of material devoted to uniting the two words and dissecting their meaning as a unified term: Sustainable Leadership.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Any leader who wants to leave a legacy, leave an organization in better shape benefits greatly from embracing many concepts normally associated with the words, sustainable or sustainability.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Unless you’re looking to make a quick splash, get in and cash out quickly, leaders generally look at a company as something that will be ongoing.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In today’s world, it’s understood that there’s not an endless supply of materials, clients or talent. Quite the opposite is true. Sustainable leadership helps us better deal with limited resources and adds to the likelihood of long-lasting success. It goes beyond short-term improvement and creates developments with long-term well-being, durability and lasting widespread improvement.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

One of my favorite quotes, by William James, sums up the concept well: \u201cAct as what you do matters, it does.\u201d Auden Schendler of \u201cGetting Green Done\u201d provides an even simpler definition. He defines sustainability as \u201cbeing in business forever\u201d.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It’s a holistic leadership approach, caring for the total company, <\/span>fostering efficiency, quality and savings. Like any trait a good leader passes on, sustainable leadership can spread throughout an organization. It supports collaboration, provides time and opportunity to network, promotes the ability to learn from and support each other.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

What a sustainable leader does:<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n