Jennifer Liston-Smith’s reflections on leadership, work-life blend and the meaning of work.
Standing between Climate Coaching Action Day on 5th March and Earth Day on 22nd April, what should HR leaders be doing for true sustainability of both the workforce and the business?
To say we live in rapidly changing times has become laughably inadequate for the complexities business leaders face. For some, a sustainable business means making sure we are still here next year. But what does it take, even in distracting times, to be truly sustainable for our people as well as our planet?
Defining sustainable business
“At its core, sustainability means meeting the needs of the present without compromising the needs of future generations”. This succinct definition comes from the UN Global Compact, which describes itself as “The world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative”.
How do we achieve, and measure, that? The Compact says it “means operating in ways that, at a minimum, meet fundamental responsibilities in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption”.
These are all necessary, but are they sufficient? In times when research by the Boston Consulting Group and Cambridge University shows failure to address climate change alone could put nearly 34% of global GDP at risk, perhaps we can do better?
There was a bit of a media flurry recently claiming BlackRock CEO Larry Fink had suggested in his annual letter that capitalism was due for a refresh. His message was actually: ‘“This is where much of today’s economic anxiety comes from: a deeper feeling that capitalism is working — just not for enough people.”
As we work through times when leaders everywhere are now open to questioning whether the status quo is really working, I’ll look here at two aspects of sustainable business of particular relevance to the HR community:
- What does sustainability mean in terms of your own people?
- What are some helpful push and pull factors such as charters and legislation?
More than just patching people up
Meeting present needs while protecting the future includes wider stakeholders, the surrounding systems, communities and planet. But it also embraces the needs of leaders themselves and of the workforce.
Gethin Nadin’s bestselling book A Work in Progress is subtitled: “Unlocking wellbeing to create more sustainable and resilient organisations”. Nadin points out that “wellbeing at work isn’t about how we recover from the negative impact work can have on us, but instead, it’s how the workplace becomes better at supporting us through life”.
Nadin concludes that true workforce wellbeing is about a mindset shift from “do no harm” to “do better”, such that “Wellbeing at work should lift us up, not just repair damage”.
This is also captured in the term “human sustainability, in use by Deloitte since at least 2023 and gaining traction as a strategic term for embedded wellbeing (such as in Emily Pearson’s forthcoming book).
Specific examples: it starts with you
So how do leaders engage with the workforce in a way that leaves things better than when they started, enhancing the value of their people as resources while focusing on building their inherent wellbeing?
As one idea, the Oxford Review carries a definition of a “brave space” as something generative, beyond a safe space regarding DEI discussions. Instead of running a one-off session on inclusion, leaders might make space in regular team meetings for members to be able to share experience of microaggressions and of allyship. A brave space encourages courageous conversations, and when people speak up, they are not only heard but actively valued.
In another area, responding to the 15 to 20 percent of the workforce with neurodivergence, Liv Blaney and Sam Barbour Pringle have written Neuroinclusion: A Guide for Managers and Leaders, discussed on the Beyond the Noise podcast.
The book provides comprehensive data and understanding, but most importantly, it takes the reader on a reflective journey. Change starts with the leader themself having empathy and taking a strengths-based approach in how they enable their team members to bring out their best performance.
The personal capacity of the CEO is front and centre in Paul Hargreaves’ The Fourth Bottom Line: Flourishing in the era of compassionate leadership. Through 50 chapters — some reviewers have called “meditations” — on different leadership characteristics, Hargreaves leads the reader to understand that personal change for leaders themselves is the fourth bottom line in business success (together with people, planet and profit).
Push and Pull: legislation and charters
Readers may well have noticed the increase in inclusion of staff wellbeing strategies in bidding processes and procurement, under Social Value, especially when tendering for public sector contracts.
This lends added commercial urgency to ensuring a sustainable workforce, alongside more external ESG commitments.
When it comes to evidencing our efforts to reduce pressures on staff, a lot of the legwork has been done by the Mindful Business Charter, which started as a collaboration between big banks and law firms — the people in the former waking up to the danger of burning out the people in the latter.
Charter signatories commit to:
- Openness and respect, including communicating with internal colleagues and external contacts with respect and courtesy, using their preferred methods and exchanging regular feedback.
- Smart meetings and communications, respecting others’ time by planning meetings properly (attendees, agendas, objectives), chairing inclusively and offering hybrid joining options. And having clarity and restraint in using internal email and messaging channels.
- Respecting rest periods, enabling people to switch off. This includes giving choices on how work is delivered if needed out of hours, marking emails as to whether they need urgent attention, especially if sent outside core hours of hours, and respecting annual leave away from messages.
- Mindful delegation, providing sufficient context and information such as the purpose and ultimate recipient, negotiating rather than imposing a deadline, and communicating timing changes which impact others.
It pays to get ahead on these things as legislation might be next.
The Better Business Act
If we’re still coming to terms with the rollout of the planned changes under the Employment Rights Act, it may not be welcome news to hear that the bar might be raising even further in supporting workers. However, the threat of legislation can strengthen the HR case for making change.
There is already a (Private Member’s) Bill in Parliament seeking to “amend section 172 of the Companies Act 2006 to require company directors to balance their duty to promote the success of the company with duties in respect of the environment and the company’s employees”.
Beyond that, a proposed Better Business Act is being campaigned for by B Labs (behind the UK’s B Corps), driven by Mary Portas and Tony’s Chocolonely’s CEO Douglas Lamont. This aims to amend UK law so that “every company aligns the interests of shareholders with those of wider society and the environment”.
And for public bodies in Wales, there is already a Wellbeing of Future Generations Act 2015, obliging bodies to work together to improve Environment, Economy, Society and Culture.
All these measures take the corporate line of sight towards future good, beyond short-term profit.
What about AI in all this?
Coming back to that UN Compact, there’s a clear sense that AI can be a help in reaching the UN Sustainable Development Goals, through enabling the processing of big data, planning and co-ordination at previously unforeseen scale.
There are, of course, other views too. Associate Professor Raz Godelni says that “at a moment when sufficiency should guide corporate action, AI allows efficiency to stay firmly in the driver’s seat. The difference is crucial: efficiency makes existing systems run faster and leaner, but sufficiency asks us to redesign those systems so they operate within planetary limits. … Unfortunately, the dominant mental model shaping AI deployment prioritizes profit maximization and growth above all else”.
Taking it forward
One solution — for those with the fiercest commitment to sustainability — could be to follow the lead of outdoor clothing manufacturer Patagonia and make earth the primary shareholder, so every decision is scrutinised for long-term positive impact.
Pending that, and coming back to the people, an action for HR leaders is to ensure that the sustainability of the workforce is prioritised as not only business-critical but also part of ESG reporting.
And to understand that this does not stop at paying out for ill-health, but demands the vision to design work as something that helps our people, present and future, to grow and be even more well, within healthy communities and wider systems.
Jennifer is a business psychologist, leadership coach, coaching supervisor and consultant to HR leaders.
As a UK pioneer of parent transition coaching, Jennifer set up, and for a decade led, the Coaching & Consultancy side of what became Bright Horizons Work+Family Solutions, advising employers in banking, professional services, STEM and wider sectors on programmes for working parents and carers and evaluating their impact and ROI, as well as developing coaches and coaching capability.
More recently she was Head of Thought Leadership with Bright Horizons and now serves as an independent consultant in this area.
- Jennifer Liston-Smith
- Jennifer Liston-Smith
- Jennifer Liston-Smith
- Jennifer Liston-Smith
