It’s okay to make mistakes on your company’s sustainability journey—as long as you learn from them

As a child, your parents may have discussed IQ with you because it was one of many aptitude tests we used to take in school. Since the new millennium, in the business world, EQ—referring to your ability to handle people with insight and compassion—has emerged as a valued trait. EQ helps you deal with nuance, enables you to read a room, and adjust accordingly.

But, starting with the financial crisis, then accelerated by the digital transformation, and now with the sustainability challenge, LQ has become the distinguishing capability among the many CEOs and business professionals I help recruit for leading companies around the globe. LQ—or Learning Quotient—is essentially a person’s willingness and ability to learn, adapt, and change. That skill set includes listening, observing, and communicating the often-complex message of transformation.

The events of the past two years—racial and social injustices, climate catastrophes, a global pandemic, and geopolitical conflicts—have put the need for LQ into full relief for every industry. Executives have to react swiftly to volatile conditions. And that puts leaders’ LQ truly to the test.

As we face change on multiple fronts, hurtling toward starkly different ways of conducting our lives and businesses, having a high LQ not only affects an organization’s ability to adapt; it also determines who is going to stand out among the competition.

The role of LQ in sustainability action

Going forward, yet more investors and consumers will want leaders who can be change agents. These senior executives must be able to respond to environmental, social, and good-governance issues by paying attention to conditions on the ground in real time, using the information they absorb to find solutions for future challenges.

There’s a kind of elasticity of approach to leaders with high LQ. They can tweak, bend, or even yield where appropriate, pivot when an obstacle requires it, or persist in the face of external pressures—knowing they have done all they can to gather the full breadth of facts, communicate their case, and proceed in confidence.

Of course, business leaders will make mistakes as they seek ESG solutions. But what matters more is their ability to learn from those mistakes, quickly correct course, and apply those lessons to future decision-making.

The good news is that LQ is something you can develop. As a business leader, you can find outside mentors, professional consultants, even board members to give you honest feedback about where you can grow personally and professionally. Through the review process and ongoing check-ins with your direct reports, you can actively seek information about obstacles they may be facing to improve efficiency or accelerate the pace of transformation. By regularly engaging with stakeholders, you can keep a pulse on the sustainability issues your customers care about so that you can deliver innovative products and solutions.

That goes for me just as much as for the people with whom I work. As I write this, I am a 59-year-old executive who helmed a global company for 10 years; yet it is almost as if I am a junior associate again. Sustainability came on my radar in 2015, so in many ways I am starting over in my learning. It does not matter what title I hold. I am the eager kid on his first day of school with his sharpened pencils and notebook laid out neatly on the desk, ready to engage and discover.

Every conversation I have with an employee is my opportunity to gain invaluable new insights. After all, there is nobility in admitting what you don’t know. And our research shows that truly sustainable leaders are humble—they understand that we need to look to our younger colleagues to accelerate our own educations as we accelerate their careers in turn.

Dealing with ambiguity

If answers to your sustainability questions don’t come right away, then pilot, experiment, study. The ability to deal with ambiguity is a competency that is underrated. It’s perfectly okay to sit with something, explore, and discuss, as long as you don’t dwell in that space for too long. Bold action must always be right behind.

Duke Energy has a goal to become a leader in the clean-energy transition—and has already achieved many measurable milestones on this journey, including retiring 56 units at coal-fired power plants since 2010, totaling approximately 7,500 megawatts (MW) of capacity. It is also making major strides in renewables, having contracted, owned, or operated 10,500 MW of renewable energy (wind and solar) with plans to increase that amount to 16,000 MW by 2025 and 24,000 by 2030.

Regis Repko, senior vice president, generation and transmission strategy at Duke Energy, assesses his team leaders on their comfort levels in the green, yellow, and red zones, based on what he learned from one of his developmental opportunities. The green zone has “roles that are laid out, established processes, a playbook for everything,” Repko explained.

“If you’re operating in the red, you are so overwhelmed by the pace of change that you freeze, fail to respond, or double down on the old ways that are no longer working. But the yellow zone is the sweet spot,” Repko continues.

“I always tell folks, don’t be afraid to put yourself in the yellow. If you’re operating in the green, you’re not learning, or at least not to the best of your abilities. If you’re in the red, you’re paralyzed and you’re not learning either. If you’re in the yellow, you have most of it down, but there is a bit of ambiguity, uncertainty, which requires you to be in learning mode. And that is exactly the right place to be.”

6 Sustainable Leadership Takeaways

1. You are not omniscient. Nor should anyone expect you to be. We are all going to make mistakes as we navigate the complex issues of sustainability. What matters more is your ability to learn from mistakes, quickly correct course, and apply those lessons to future decision-making.
2. Be the new kid. Embark on the endless sustainability learning curve, eager to engage and discover. Every conversation you have with an employee, client, outside expert, or external stakeholder is my opportunity to gain invaluable new insights. There is nobility in admitting what you don’t know. Seek out honest feedback about where you can grow.
3. Listen, listen, listen. Even, and especially, younger associates have something to teach us. In fact, we are leading when we are seeking their input. We need to look to our younger colleagues to accelerate our own educations as we accelerate their careers in turn.
4. Know that sustainable leaders are not reflexive. They do not just dig in their heels in response to a crisis, relying on what they already know, or doing what worked in the past. Rather, they are proactively gathering new information and challenging themselves to do things differently.
5. Be elastic. Tweak, bend, or even yield when appropriate, pivot when an obstacle requires it, or persist in the face of external pressures.
6. Dwell in the yellow zone. If you’re operating in the green, you’re not necessarily learning. If you’re in the red, you’re paralyzed and not learning either. If you’re in the yellow, you have most of it down, but there is some ambiguity, uncertainty, which requires you to be in learning mode. And that is exactly the right place to be.

Clarke Murphy is the former CEO of Russell Reynolds Associates. He is the author of Sustainable Leadership: Lessons of Vision, Courage, and Grit from the CEOs Who Dared to Build a Better World (Wiley, 2022),  from which this excerpt is adapted. Sustainable Leadership is available wherever books and e-books are sold.