The business world is undergoing a sustainable transition. At TAKE LEAD 2023, we took a holistic approach to sustainability and focused on how leaders can contribute to environmental and social gains for the organization.
Leadership for sustainable development
Organizations have a key role to play in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The world is constantly changing, which requires that sustainability work is a dynamic and continuous effort. At TAKE LEAD 2023, Tove Selnes, Executive Vice President People at Storebrand, spoke about the importance of leadership for triple bottom line and sustainable development. Storebrand's approach to employeeship, leadership, culture and competence is bold and forward-looking. It is based on a desire to balance the voices of customers, employees, the business and the planet. In recent years, this has resulted in a number of concrete initiatives that have both moved the organization in the desired direction and created engagement internally and outside Storebrand.
- In this day and age, it is important for us to not only have a job, but to feel that we are making a small contribution to saving the world. Discussing and taking pride in the fact that it's not just environmental activists who have the solution to the climate crisis, but that our capital and the way we invest can make a positive contribution to solving climate problems. The power of highlighting this does something to the pride and unity in organizations," says Selnes.
Environmental considerations have often taken center stage when we talk about sustainability. There is a need for global change across industries and markets, not only in terms of the environment, but also in terms of social conditions, diversity and inclusion.
Social - holding organizations accountable for diversity and inclusion
Diversity and inclusion has become a hot topic in the boardroom in recent years as it is closely linked to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The topic is more often on the agenda in practice as well, and like sustainability, is affecting organizations to a greater extent than before. There are many drivers for this, including increased migration, increased gender equality, a wide range of different attitudes and personalities, people at different life stages and people with special needs. Combined with key political events such as #metoo and BlackLivesMatter, this makes for greater diversity than ever before, placing higher demands on organizations and leaders.
Diversity in the workplace refers to the heterogeneity of a defined population - for example, in terms of senior management, employees or customers - with respect to demographic or social group characteristics such as gender, ethnicity, disability, age, sexual identity and religion (Brewis, 2019). Clearly, diversity in an organization is a fact of life - no two individuals are the same. Throughout history, it has been the manager's job to coordinate and motivate people with different backgrounds, jobs, roles, education and personalities. Today's managers often also manage employees of different genders, ages, religions, cultures and languages. Managing diversity can be demanding and unfamiliar. It is therefore important that managers understand how to use diversity, recruit, develop and safeguard diversity, and what the objective of having diversity is. What does diversity mean to us and why is it important are questions that organizations should ask themselves to avoid compartmentalization and create a sense of security.
- Good intentions are not enough. Leaders need to take action if they want to increase diversity and inclusion. In other words, saying "we want more women" is not enough. Organizations need to change their recruitment process and marketing materials if that is the goal," explains one of the speakers at TAKE LEAD 2023, Kimiya Sajjadi.
Organizations have different challenges related to diversity, and it is therefore necessary to identify what characterizes the diversity work in your own organization. Sajjadi recommends mapping the barriers that prevent diversity and inclusion. In this way, you can create measures for a real problem instead of an imaginary one. It is also important to define what goals you want to achieve by focusing on diversity. This should be reflected in leadership development and management training. For example, if there are several cultures in a workplace, it is important that the manager is trained in cross-cultural communication. If there are many older people, you need to find out what motivates this group to present.
A holistic approach to sustainability
Working with sustainability and diversity is connected to the worldview of the organization - both externally and internally - by asking questions about who we are, how we interact and how this affects strategy and practice. Findings from PwC's Global CEO Survey 2023 show that few companies have integrated social and environmental issues into their business strategy. Just under half of Norwegian CEOs have integrated gender balance and environmental objectives into their long-term business strategy, while only 17% have an integrated diversity objective. We therefore have a way to go.
