Pathways to sustainable leadership
Leading with confidence in challenging times requires “systems thinking” and an ability to scan the horizon beyond your own domain. The Australian Graduate School of Management at UNSW Business School has embedded sustainable leadership into its MBA program and across its short courses, helping executives gain the capabilities they need to design strategies and make decisions that deliver benefits for all.
A modern business school must be just as agile, curious and determined to learn as the people who enrol there. For almost half a century, the Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM) at UNSW Business School has been delivering world-class MBA programs alongside a growing range of short courses, all the while adding and updating in response to shifting demands and changing economic climates.
Sustainable leadership is core to working across all industries to shape a bright future. To help support leaders in addressing sustainability challenges and grow the companies of tomorrow, AGSM equips students with the knowledge and skills they need to take their organisations forward amid accelerating change. “The concept of sustainable leadership is multidimensional,” says Professor Nick Wailes, dean of lifelong learning at UNSW and director of AGSM. “Organisations need sustainable business models to deliver returns to shareholders, respond to disruption and develop successful new ways of doing things.”
That definition neatly summarises the education outcomes for all AGSM students, from MBA candidates to shortcourse participants. “Developing the skills to allow you to innovate and respond to opportunities is an important cornerstone of what we do,” says Wailes.
Recently, the school added an MBA specialisation – Sustainable and Inclusive Business – with MBA students able to take courses from the new program. “It’s been written and is facilitated in partnership with industry,” says Dr Michele Roberts, academic director at AGSM. “We also have people teaching the course who are leaders working on the transition to a more sustainable world.”
To be successful, adds Roberts, sustainable leaders need to be “systems thinkers”. “It’s about being a strong partner and a community builder beyond your own organisation,” she explains. “By taking a multi-sector approach to sustainability, you amplify your impact. For leaders, it’s no longer solely about optimising your business but about transitioning the entire economy. Our
candidates learn how to become systems thinkers in order to develop strategies addressing these myriad challenges.”
Build game-changing partnerships
Leaders have a lot to grapple with as we move towards net zero. “It’s a new level of multi-sector partnerships between industry, governments, NGOs and also competitors,” says Roberts. “Much of the technology required for a successful energy transition isn’t even available yet and no single company can do it. Partnering with multiple collaborators to develop industry-level solutions is something that’s never been done at this scale.
“Balancing requirements and aligning goals in order for your business to prosper and have a beneficial social impact requires sophisticated leadership. At AGSM, we focus on developing those skills, honing our candidates’ adaptability and their ability to take more than one set of objectives and bring them together to pursue profit and purpose.”
Diversity and inclusion are also essential – and must come to life beyond values and vision statements. “When you create a genuinely inclusive environment in your organisation and build a diverse workforce and partnerships, the benefits flow,” says Wailes. “Leaders who have the skills to create the right culture to allow everyone in the organisation to contribute will attract the best people from a wide talent pool. These are the people who will help organisations adapt to our fast-changing world.”
Balance business and change
There’s no doubt that we are living in challenging times. Leaders need to be across the economic, social, environmental and geopolitical factors that influence their business and therefore their aspirations to drive positive impact. “Candidates need to know how to be operationally effective amid all this,” says Wailes. “And to run their companies in a way that they’re turning what might look like a trade-off into a complementary decision.”
Innovation provides a massive assist – if leaders understand how best to embrace it. “We help our candidates learn how to identify new technological solutions and put those in place to transform their operations and ensure they are sustainable over the long run,” says
Wailes. “Across our courses we focus on building candidates’ innovation capabilities.”
It has students of all ages but AGSM’s MBA candidates are typically in their mid-30s. “Mature professionals with experience and skills who are either going into leadership roles in their organisations, transitioning from one industry to another or looking for an opportunity to start their own company,” says Wailes. “They want to be able to lead an organisation that has a purpose and to make a positive impact. I really enjoy working with them because it’s clear that they’re motivated to be successful for themselves but also to create a better world.”
Discover a flexible MBA route
The school has broadened its Always Be Learning ethos by making MBA study more accessible via the fully online MBAX. “Even just 10 years ago, if you wanted to study for a high-quality MBA and become part of a cohort, pretty much your only option was a face-to-face program,” says Wailes. “Being able to fit that in around work, family and other commitments excluded some people. Our MBAX is incredibly flexible and allows a much broader range of people to experience a top-class MBA education and build a network.”
The MBAX cohort is mostly from Australia and the surrounding region, with students beaming in from every sector imaginable. “You might have someone running a mine joining the class from a remote location, one person running an environmental organisation on the Gold Coast and another in a regional role travelling all the time,” he says. “But whether they’re in Singapore or Sydney, they can always participate in class. I talked to a student at a recent graduation ceremony who’s now based in Western Australia. They’d started in Sydney then were posted to Melbourne and next to Indonesia. During the course of our program, they’d lived in four different cities and had been able to continue their studies and fit it in around their career.”
The MBAX is also helping to even out the gender balance. “We have more than 40 per cent women in our online MBA programs and the industry average is around 25 per cent,” says Wailes. “The flexibility of the online model creates efficient learning, with high levels of interaction and engagement with facilitators and classmates.”
Thrive with new skills
The school spent more than three years embedding the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals into its MBA program
and across all of its core courses. “Every full-time AGSM MBA candidate begins by taking our Responsible Management module, giving them that fundamental introduction to what sustainable leadership looks like before they even commence their MBA,” says Roberts, who led the work to weave it into the curriculum.
Roberts and Wailes have noticed a shift in candidates as they progress through their MBA. “We see students who weren’t thinking about sustainability as part of their career path realising there are skills around it that are now necessary for a thriving career,” says Roberts. “We also see students who are already passionate about sustainability and realise that they are on the path to a purposeful and successful career. There’s simply an increasing demand for people who understand and can lead through these challenges.”
Wailes notes that he sees each cohort go through a transformation. “People come with their own personal motivations to learn but as they engage, they very quickly find out that they’re among like-minded and yet incredibly diverse people,” he says. “Our candidate pool comes from many different industries and they gain insight and inspiration from each other.”
Develop the courage to lead for the long-term
People from a wide variety of industries are seeking an MBA, while the demand for bespoke short courses continues to grow. “An increasing number of organisations are coming to us to help upskill their leadership teams,” says Wailes. “One of the great strengths of AGSM is that we can tap into UNSW’s incredible depth of expertise in climate science, engineering, finance and a whole lot of other areas that are becoming critical for organisations transitioning their business models.”
Wailes sees enormous opportunity ahead. “I’m very optimistic about the future. Organisations are embracing the issues and looking for expert education to ensure their leadership teams are equipped to respond to the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities. As we work out how to do things differently, we’ll see a lot of ingenuity.”
It requires the strength to lead with a long-term view. “We talk to our students a lot about the qualities of courageous leaders,” says Roberts. “They need to develop the confidence and courage to lead for the long term to help create a sustainable, inclusive world.”