There’s no doubt that buy-in from the CEO is essential when seeking to drive tranformational change of any kind, but how do you effectively influence the CEO’s thinking to get the support you need to ensure Sustainability initiatives are integrated into strategy?
That is indeed the mighty question and to help guide my reflections I turned to some great research published by Bertels, A., Schulschenk, J., Ferry, A., Otto-Mentz, V., and Speck, E. (2016), Being an Effective Change Agent. ( https://embeddingproject.org/pub/resources/EP-Being-an-Effective-Change-Agent.pdf), and I quote:
- Demonstrate that you know the business
- Establish a track record of making good decisions
- Connect your ideas to the business strategy – not the other way around
- Know when to bring ideas forward and know when to wait
- Break things down into manageable chunks
- Consistently demonstrate a commitment to the business
- Challenge the CEO respectfully and be willing to be challenged yourself
- Harness your passion, yet keep your emotions in check
- Keep sustainability from being perceived as a pet project
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Of all the 9 points that were highlighted by CEO’s, I think it’s the last one, #9, that is the most challenging. Why? Because I believe the other 8 points are key to being an effective change agent and professional regardless of functional responsibility and objectives, whilst #9 is the real challenge. It’s how you embed Sustainability into the hearts and minds of people across the organization that is going to ensure that actions follow intentions. To achieve that you need:
- Conviction
- Persistence
- Optimism
Get in touch if you’re looking to make sustainable change in your Media organization: TuckerMedia.eu@gmail.com / https://www.tuckermedia.eu