Sustainability key for future leaders
July 6, 2009
In the article “Ambitie leuk, fijn leven beter” (Ambition is nice, but a good life is better) published in het Financieele Dagblad of July 2nd, research among future leaders in the financial sector, health care and government is described. The research shows that only a quarter of these leaders has the ambition to reach the top of their organisation. The article also mentions sustainability. It says future leaders regard sustainability as an image tool. This is shocking and actually hard to believe. Especially in these sectors, sustainability is getting a lot of attention these days. Financial institutions were already active with sustainability before the crisis and now they are even more aware of sustainability issues like transparency and reputation. In health care sustainable practices have always been top of mind. And the government is leading the way in sustainability by committing to hundred percent sustainable purchasing. How can it then be, that these future leaders (age between 30 and 40 years), do not see sustainability as more than an image tool? It seems like these young managers are not aware of the real relevance of sustainability for their organisation in general and their own work specifically. Organisations should work really hard to make their young mangers aware of the risks and opportunities of sustainability. Communication, training and integration of sustainability in human resources tools like evaluation and compensation are needed. Sustainability is important now and will be even more important in the future. And the leaders of the future should be prepared. If young managers really have another opinion, the challenge is to convince them otherwise. They have to be well equipped for the challenges of society. And if they don’t understand sustainability, they are not well equipped for the organisations they work for.
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