During August – the month women nationally are recognised for how they inspire and lead in organisations – we have been reflecting on leadership and the qualities that are recognised as being feminine.
The feminine qualities of leadership emphasises traits such as collaboration, empathy, vulnerability and emotional intelligence, as well as being connected to the source of all things – earth. Yet this isn’t a gender-based recognition, it is a recognition of the dual dynamics at play in many organisations and a thought to what is needed from leaders as they adapt to a rapidly changing world.
Today’s challenges of political division, social injustice, economic uncertainty, declining biodiversity and climate change, calls for a kinder way to lead.* It calls for all of us to be able to impact systems-change, strengthen people’s agency to enable them to act from wherever they are, and reimagine more just futures collectively. The feminine leadership traits are needed to bring balance to extractive and linear ways of management and system design.
And this starts in the workplace, by making choices led by the heart and intuition rather than from a place of fear, control and validation. Without understanding and embracing the importance of qualities of care, empathy and collaboration in how we live, work and lead, the status quo will continue.
“Everyone who wants to leave the world a better place for future generations must speak up and change the way they do (or don’t do) business. The way we lead today will determine the world we leave behind.”**
We need to champion leadership that recognises, calls out, and works actively to correct social and environmental injustice. We need to recognise that injustice exists and this requires more than the business as usual approach. We need to slow down and ask “What is required to make things better for people and the planet?”
Leading by example
Over 25 years ago the founding principles of the Sustainability Institute were based on connecting head, heart and hands and placing people in relation to knowledge, each other and our natural world.
These founding principles are still strongly embedded in our organisational values, ways of working, learning pedagogies and approaches, and relational interactions.
We also focus on strengthening the attributes of joy, hope, creativity, ukama and agency with everyone we work with. As an organisation striving to help bring about more just and regenerative futures for people and the planet, we have to set an example through how we lead and live these principles. (Read our context note on feminine leadership.)
At the SI we work to create spaces of psychological safety and find ways to unite diverse opinions rather than exclude or see things as entirely linear. These provide signposts that enable complexity to reveal itself in the quest for meaningful change. At the same time, power transforms and becomes a form of stewardship and a shared responsibility to wield with clarity, connection and conscience.
What is required of future-building leaders?
Leaders who are able to take a holistic and systems-aware approach to decision-making do so because they are able to see beyond short-term outcomes and the bottom line. They consider relationships, interdependencies, long-term consequences, and the ethical and human impact of their choices.
They are willing to listen deeply, remain open to feedback, make space for different perspectives and recognise that regenerative solutions are often discovered through connection, reflection and collaboration.
This approach brings a necessary balance to the models of leadership that have governed to date. By complementing decisiveness and action with reflection and intuition; competition with collaboration; control with trust; and individual achievement with collective flourishing we create a new paradigm of co-existence and management.
Leaders of the future will direct actions from alignment rather than expectation and will have the courage to act from purpose and inner truth, to pause and listen when needed, and to ask not only “What is the fastest way to the result?” but also “What is the wisest, truest and most responsible way forward?”
In an increasingly resource stressed natural environment the way we move forward will be determined by our capacity to connect, to care, to build community and to use our power in service of something greater than ourselves.
At the SI we consciously do this by:
- Building trust through authenticity and vulnerability
- Leading through connection, empathy and emotional intelligence
- Sharing power and creating space for others to grow
- Creating a culture of collaboration and inclusion
- Trusting intuition while encouraging creativity and courage
- Leading for collective and long-term impact
We see our staff and teachers embed these practices each day through their work on campus, in the food gardens, the woodlands and in our learning programmes for all ages.
Sources:
* https://theconversation.com/supporting-feminine-leadership-can-help-create-a-just-and-kinder-future-193607
** https://femininefutures.com/the-foundation