Appreciating Sustainable Leadership

This opinion item relates to the use of appreciative inquiry for business reframing. It mentions the use of the "leader framework" from the Forum for the Future. That's not a well know organisation here in Australia but my viewing of their website created great excitement in me around the idea of a learning community for sustainability. I love this excerpt from one of the pages on sustainable leadership:


We have observed that strong leaders who incorporate sustainability into their thinking display three key characteristics. They look further into the future, they engage widely with a range of stakeholders, and they embrace meaning from a personal perspective. We call this three dimensional leadership.

Three dimensional leaders:

• look further - leaders need to identify and understand future trends and issues so they can prepare for new challenges and opportunities;
• engage widely - leaders need to understand how everything is connected so they can respond to a wide range of issues, perspectives and stakeholder concerns;
• embrace meaning - leaders need to be authentic; and harness their personal values and beliefs in sustainable development to achieve the greatest impact.