Drastic change will not materialize without leadership. Specifically, we will need globally responsible leadership in order to manage the transformation and build a new society. In this context, the concept of leadership not only concerns individual traits but represents an adaptive process that encompasses multiple levels of society and knowledge. Responsible leadership for a sustainable world is a culture of responsibility, a collective phenomenon that occurs within a global context.
Responsible leadership begins (but does not end) with individuals. Globally responsible leaders will need more cognitive sophistication to cope with the complexity of multidimensional responsibilities on a global level — as well as reflected awareness, critical thinking, multicultural and societal wisdom and the moral depth to weigh competing choices. These new dimensions complement existing known traits such as entrepreneurship and leadership competencies.
On a larger scale, shared leadership requires multiple individuals to expand their interpersonal, group, and social integration skills while operating in increasingly fluid, loosely-structured teams. Their decisions will be guided by distributed intelligence, whereby local managers take locally appropriate decisions that are mindful of the global context.
Shared leadership leads us to organizational leadership within an ecosystem, where divisions by hierarchy and function give way to cross-functional forms of collaboration that span countries and cultures. Such forms of collaboration will require a multi-generational and multicultural workforce with a strong empathy of what stakeholders want within the context of social and environmental challenges. Most importantly, globally responsible leadership guides organizations through the transformation based on their moral authority and values-based ethic, through which renewed purpose and goals are disseminated throughout both organizations and society in favor of sustainability.
Responsible leadership can be considered a combined function of the individual leader (Me), of responsible institutions (We), and of the entire planet — including all inhabitants and ecosystems (Us). Responsible leadership is therefore a commitment to leadership for the world.
But how will we develop globally responsible leadership?
The challenges for leadership development in business and society are increasing with the size, interconnectedness, and complexity of business organizations in a globalized world. With business organizations increasingly interacting with all kinds of different institutions, today’s most pressing challenges span multiple boundaries — as must leadership. Without a strong development framework, our efforts to progress toward more responsible leadership will remain limited, constrained, episodic — and more often as not marginalized in commerce and trade. In order to develop globally responsible leadership we must re-think our entire management education framework, which will require participation from all players who contribute to the field.
