How Sustainable Leadership
secures the Future of Companies

What does sustain­abil­i­ty mean in corpo­rate gover­nance? How can you act in the most future-proof way possi­ble and avoid sustain­abil­i­ty risks? And what role do digi­tal­i­sa­tion and AI play in this? We have already high­light­ed some of the prereq­ui­sites such as a sense of purpose or authen­tic­i­ty in the Valdivia News­room. Espe­cial­ly in the current diffi­cult market situ­a­tion in the construc­tion and prop­er­ty indus­try, we would like to direct your atten­tion towards the future with this arti­cle: There are many oppor­tu­ni­ties and posi­tive impuls­es in the idea of sustain­able manage­ment, from which fresh ener­gy can be gained.

Sustain­able corpo­rate manage­ment: focussing on respon­si­bil­i­ty and risks 

Secur­ing the future of your own compa­ny with fore­sight and for the long term has always been a core task of managers. Today, anoth­er factor is increas­ing­ly being added to this: respon­si­bil­i­ty towards soci­ety and the envi­ron­ment. Sustain­able behav­iour — and there­fore also the avoid­ance of sustain­abil­i­ty risks — requires a new way of think­ing. Econom­ic success alone no longer ensures contin­ued exis­tence; atten­tion must now also be paid to compat­i­ble inter­ac­tion with the social and phys­i­cal environment.

This inter­ac­tion can be clear­ly seen in the inten­tions of the EU’s Corpo­rate Sustain­abil­i­ty Report­ing Direc­tive CSRD. For the time being, it only applies to large compa­nies and corpo­ra­tions, but its core idea appeals to every­one: Compa­nies should be aware of the social and envi­ron­men­tal risks asso­ci­at­ed with their actions. These can be exter­nal risks such as demo­graph­ic or climate change. Howev­er, the conse­quences of their own actions for stake­hold­ers, the envi­ron­ment and soci­ety should also be consid­ered and reduced.

Sustain­able manage­ment: real­i­sa­tion in 6 “trades”

1. Goals and strategies
   First­ly, the foun­da­tion: define the glob­al purpose, objec­tives (vision) and strat­e­gy (mission) of your compa­ny — prefer­ably togeth­er with employ­ees at differ­ent levels. Sustain­abil­i­ty should be firm­ly anchored in this as a core crite­ri­on for all deci­sions and processes.
2. Trans­paren­cy and participation
   Inspir­ing and instill­ing trust is one of the most impor­tant instru­ments of sustain­able lead­er­ship. The best way to achieve this is to be open about your goals and plans. To this end, you should involve all stake­hold­ers as far as possi­ble — includ­ing share­hold­ers, customers, free­lance employ­ees and, if neces­sary, the public. In addi­tion to round tables and work­ing groups, online panels and surveys are a good way to ensure effi­cient implementation.
3. Advan­tages and incentives
   Sustain­abil­i­ty ulti­mate­ly bene­fits every­one, but the trans­for­ma­tion often meets with reser­va­tions. The best way is there­fore to empha­sise the desired bene­fits as clear­ly as possi­ble and create posi­tive incen­tives; the partic­i­pa­tion mentioned under 2. can be such an incen­tive, for exam­ple. A recent Deloitte study¹points out an impor­tant point: Effec­tive moti­va­tion takes indi­vid­ual percep­tions and desires into account. The study recom­mends data-based analy­ses in order to under­stand what real­ly moti­vates people and to align the selec­tion of incen­tives accordingly.
4. People and work
   One build­ing block for sustain­abil­i­ty is job stabil­i­ty — some­thing that 96% of employ­ees priori­tise accord­ing to an iwd study². At the same time, flex­i­bil­i­ty is required today: fixed job profiles and career paths are no longer enough. Instead, the Deloitte study recom­mends dynam­ic teams and indi­vid­ual work­ing models based on person­al strengths — an approach that 92% of employ­ees would also like to see². Possi­ble imple­men­ta­tions range from New Work models and train­ing programmes to the stream­lin­ing of work process­es in order to create scope for creativ­i­ty and productivity.
5. Envi­ron­ment and climate
   Envi­ron­men­tal compat­i­bil­i­ty and climate protec­tion also improve your chances on the labour market: accord­ing to a recent survey by the Manpow­er­Group, 60% of employ­ees already prefer compa­nies with a posi­tive envi­ron­men­tal profile, and in the younger “Gener­a­tion Z” even 75%³. Start with ideas that are easy to imple­ment and quick­ly achieve signif­i­cant effects — for exam­ple, public trans­port tick­ets and compa­ny bicy­cles, build­ing mate­ri­als and craft busi­ness­es from the region or recy­cled furni­ture for stag­ing of your prop­er­ties for sale. Rapid,  posi­tive changes are an expe­ri­ence that provides last­ing motivation.
6. Resources and controlling
   Sustain­abil­i­ty trans­for­ma­tion fails more often due to a lack of budget than good will. Sustain­able manage­ment should orien­tate its projects less towards large initial steps, prefer­ring instead to set up small­er projects that are solid­ly financed in terms of follow-up costs. Final­ly, moni­tor­ing is also part of the process: Report­ing helps to check the progress of quan­tifi­able measures. Employ­ee surveys show whether incen­tives are real­ly being received. Market research allows you to check whether your sustain­abil­i­ty strat­e­gy is cred­i­ble and targeted.

Sustain­abil­i­ty and digi­tal­i­sa­tion: strongest together

In many compa­nies, digi­tal­i­sa­tion is on the agen­da along­side sustain­abil­i­ty. Howev­er, this is not a compe­ti­tion. On the contrary, digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion is ideal­ly suit­ed to support­ing and strength­en­ing sustain­able action. With the help of arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence in partic­u­lar, both trans­for­ma­tion process­es can be opti­mised together.

Sustain­able lead­er­ship should always consid­er the perspec­tive of employ­ees when using AI. A trans­par­ent approach, open test access and excit­ing light­house projects can strength­en the accep­tance of AI and counter the fear of job loss­es. A “human value propo­si­tion” could serve as a basis — a guid­ing prin­ci­ple that defines the use of AI in the compa­ny to give employ­ees more free­dom and oppor­tu­ni­ties for mean­ing­ful activities.

Sustain­able lead­er­ship: Lead­ing into the future

Today, corpo­rate manage­ment has to navi­gate between econom­ic require­ments, tech­no­log­i­cal trans­for­ma­tion and employ­ee expec­ta­tions. Howev­er, the Deloitte study shows that compa­nies are more success­ful in the long term if they active­ly accept the chal­lenges and balance tensions in a target­ed manner — in other words, if they

• offer stabil­i­ty with­out sacri­fic­ing agili­ty and innovation;
• grant employ­ees as much auton­o­my as they need to be productive;
• Iden­ti­fy­ing start­ing points where AI should relieve employ­ees and where it should expand their opportunities.

Howev­er, sustain­able lead­er­ship today also means step­ping back. Because what is need­ed is no longer the clas­sic sole deci­sion-maker and super­vi­sor, but lead­er­ship that supports, devel­ops and trusts. This requires a deep under­stand­ing of how econom­ic and human factors are inter­wo­ven. Future-proof, sustain­able lead­er­ship there­fore means combin­ing tech­nol­o­gy, organ­i­sa­tion and human poten­tial in such a way that a long-term, sustain­able foun­da­tion is creat­ed — for compa­nies, soci­ety and the environment.

Sources

• “Human Capi­tal Trends 2025 — Turn­ing Tensions into Triumphs: Help­ing Lead­ers Trans­form Uncer­tain­ty into Oppor­tu­ni­ty”, Deloitte, March 2025
• “What makes employ­ers attrac­tive”, Insti­tut der deutschen Wirtschaft iwd, Octo­ber 2024
• “A People First Green Busi­ness Trans­for­ma­tion”, Manpow­er­Group Report, August 2024

(Image source: istockphotos)