Leading sustainability

Many firms and organisations have embraced the longer view of their relationship and responsibility to the bottom-line, the environment, society, and their employees. Concurrently, standards for sustainability such as corporate social responsibility (CSR), the triple bottom line, and the triple bottom line +1 are evolving, as the pace of globalisation increases. This paper will briefly explore sustainability and the pressure placed on it by globalisation, and how this creates the need for leadership. The paper will provide an overview of recent research on cross-cultural leadership intelligence (XLQ). The paper will then correlate sustainability to the XLQ dimensions. It will close by discussing the dimensions and skills that are necessary to lead sustainability in a multi-cultural environment where norms, values, and beliefs vary widely.