Sustainable Leadership

Sustainable leadership implies improvement. Represents more than making things last and be maintained during time. It does not mean only numbers.

The Sustainable Leader get involved, create motivation and the spread of ideas, promote perpetuity. Develop shared responsibility, which not only conserve and develop resources, but is worried in preventing future damages through present objectives or conquests.

In Rotary the Sustainable Leadership is built through an active involvement, educative and evolved in relation to the community, the professional ambient and to the club, district and international Rotarian ambient.

Some principles of a Sustainable Leadership in Rotary must always be analyzed by all of us.

The sustainable leadership create and preserves what we develop or create

When we develop a new project that affects part of a community in our area of action, it is important that we care during its execution, that we must complete it its continuity and auto feedback. Each detail is important and must be treated with care and dedication;

The sustainable leadership guarantees the long term success

The successive process of leadership, for instance, is a great challenge. Each Rotarian that occupies a position of leadership must be involved in the preparation of a successor. It is of no use to a

champion in one year and see the effort of predecessors and your own not propagating trough your successors.

Although the successive process can be loaded with emotional aspects, related to plans or expectations realized or frustrated, this process must start the first day the successor name is revealed, and particularly on the day you take office. On this moment in time, when a transition of leadership takes place, like the leafs of a tree that every year fall to the birth of new ones, it is important to have in mind this aspect of promotion of future leaderships.

The sustainable leadership develops the leadership of others

One way for a leader to leave a legacy, is by guaranteeing that it is developed and shared with others. We cannot then have the intention to be superficial nor to leave indelible marks. Many times when we start our job, we may face with difficulties and contradicting situations. It is by understanding the reasons of those who insists in contradicting us and bringing them to understand the reasons that moved us, is that we will leave a trough legacy and promote at the same time the leadership of these that did not understand initially our reasons or were convinced to accept them, start to adopt our positions by their reasons and not only ours.

The sustainable leadership has a developmental characteristic

When promoting the recognition of shared conquests, these recognitions must have the objective of the development of others and of other conquests, motivating the emerging of new talents.

Rotary must change gastronomic journeys into journeys of action and continue to recognize yes, but recognize the talents put to service and that work for useful and progressive causes. The sustainable leaders are those who take care of their leaders or followers and support

them, for them to develop sufficiently to take care of themselves and render the best service that they are capable of.

In summary, leaders compromised with the sustainability of their action, develop them in a way to compromise, motivate and develop those with which they are in contact with.

The development of sustainable leadership consists in supplying the needs of current generation, without affecting the following generations to supply their own. This development also implies in the natural acceptance of the responsibility that comes with the leadership position that they assume. And exert these responsibilities in an exemplar way.

Because we are not talking only about numbers, statistics and terms of office, many results of a sustainable leadership may come through in the medium or long term.

The search of an ideal equilibrium between your objectives in exercising a sustainable leadership and what is expected from you, is what must be taken into account. From this stable equilibrium will result the growth with success, the adaptation to new times, to a new community, to new challenges. Face the facts and make critical choices. Never all that one does and the decisions that one takes in a position of leadership are obvious to all in the organization.

Those new leaders in Rotary that want to exert, through a responsible action a sustainable leadership, will certainly conduct our organization to new and lasting success.

140