Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
but it also accounts for a tendency for some sustainability practitioners to eschew
the concept of leadership altogether or to interpret leadership very powerfully as an
extension of facilitation, guidance and spiritual learning. Sustainability leadership
and learning may look for role models outside the world of politics, business and
government, and see the most significant teacher and leader to be the natural
environment itself or those indigenous peoples who have over time co-evolved in
respectful sympathy with the natural rhythms, affordances and gifts nature frequently
bestows. Leadership may need to be positively deviant or basically accommodative.
It may also need to be inspiring, but good sustainability leadership requires an
ecological intelligence, a respect for non-human others and an understanding of
sustainable development that we have yet to fully achieve.
Thinking questions
1
In what ways might systems theory inform the development of leadership in
sustainable development practice?
2
How closely should dialogue be associated with leadership for sustainability?
3
Where are leaders for sustainability to be found?
4
How significant is the idea of leadership to the creation of a more sustainable
future?
5
What is meant by authenticity?
6
What can we learn from indigenous cultures?
Companion website
Leadership in sustainability can clearly take many forms. Would you like to be a
sustainability leader? Check out the companion website to learn more about leading
for sustainability and see how you might develop your own leadership potential.
