How do I obtain buy-in from senior management?
It’s the query I hear time and again from these in senior positions inside ESG. Many say they’re met with resistance or indifference from each board members and different C-suite execs as they push for change. This stands in the way in which of progress and might breed each frustration and a way of disempowerment.
Main on ESG with out authority is without doubt one of the most essential expertise that sustainability leaders can domesticate, one that mixes glorious communication, empathy and — in lots of circumstances — endurance. As author and activist Adrienne Maree Brown places it, you possibly can solely transfer on the pace of belief.
In seeking to exert affect over anybody, you need to begin with constructing their belief in you and convincing them that what you’re attempting to realize has the group’s business pursuits at coronary heart.
That doesn’t occur in a single day.
As an alternative, it requires a deliberate, strategic method, which begins with constructing that basis of belief.
Listed here are 4 issues to recollect as you attempt to advance your personal ESG affect.
1. Don’t ramp up danger to power a response
Resist any temptation to magnify the actual or potential danger to board members and senior management as a strategy to gasoline motion.
All too usually, greenwashing can occur inside a company, says Megan Maltenfort, vp of ESG at Cardinal Well being. Talking at our most current Affect Leaders Lab occasion, she was referring to a bent for some sustainability groups to amplify the danger of inaction. However this technique backfires and undermines belief in the long run. As an alternative, she explains that “we have to make it clear that our agenda to do good for the world goes hand-in-hand with doing good for the enterprise.” That begins with honesty.
Focus any messaging round danger, too. Distill it right down to solely what is important for senior management groups to know. These are extremely busy individuals with a number of competing priorities — make it straightforward for them to know precisely what you’re asking and why.
2. Keep open to suggestions
As a sustainability chief, you might be talking to the board and C-suite as their inner knowledgeable on ESG. Trust in that experience — however be humble sufficient on the identical time. If somebody has made it to that stage of a company, they’ll even have priceless insights. It’s essential to contemplate others’ viewpoints. Keep open to their suggestions and goal for a dialogue on sustainability, moderately than a diatribe.
Place any ask as an act of service to the broader enterprise objectives, moderately than solely a strategy to advance the ESG agenda.
That is the mindset Maltenfort adopts at Cardinal Well being. “Once I’m sitting in entrance of a board of administrators, lots of whom have been CEOs of different corporations and have unbelievable resumes, I come again to the truth that I do know the fabric I’m sharing higher than anyone else there,” she says. “However I am additionally going to simply accept that I do not know all the things. I’m going to be open to their questions, open to their corrections. And if I do not know a solution, I’ll be trustworthy about that, as nicely.”
3. Lay the breadcrumbs
Standing in entrance of board members on Day 1 and asking for a hefty funding in sustainability isn’t prone to generate the response you’re in search of.
As an alternative, lay the groundwork by beginning with training.
At Cardinal Well being, Maltenfort has spent two years educating the management group and the board about ESG with out making a significant ask. She took a unique method. “I’ve very purposefully, deliberately spent these two years educating them and laying the breadcrumbs for why ESG issues in order that they’ll turn out to be champions of this work and really feel comfy lending their help when it’s wanted,” she explains.
As a part of this course of, assist senior leaders make concrete connections between ESG and the broader enterprise in order that they’re primed to know the explanations for funding additional down the road. Don’t assume they’ll make these connections themselves. Throughout this studying part, it’s your job as “trainer” to make these express.
Maltenfort provides an instance through which a vp of data expertise at Cardinal Well being proactively reached out to her to flag an upcoming regulation on sustainability reporting. She took the chance to thank the VP and clarify that the brand new environmental knowledge reporting system that his group helped implement would help the enterprise in assembly these reporting necessities. “I wished to take the additional step to make that connection and remind him how vital his group’s collaboration was,” she says.
4. Preserve the ask cheap
When it does come time to make the ask of the board or C-suite, guarantee it’s totally vetted and cheap, given the assets of the enterprise.
At Cardinal Well being, the enterprise has applied a two-step governance construction for ESG. This enables Maltenfort to filter any request previous a primary tier governance committee previous to taking it to the very best ranges of the group. This course of provides Maltenfort’s group the chance to sense verify for potential questions or issues.
Place any ask as an act of service to the broader enterprise objectives, moderately than solely a strategy to advance the ESG agenda. Body it as a strategy to facilitate or help these organizational priorities. That might imply it’s a approach to enhance customer support, keep compliant with upcoming laws (and due to this fact keep away from monetary penalties) or align with the considerations of buyers and different stakeholders.
Resist any temptation to magnify the actual or potential danger to board members and senior management as a strategy to gasoline motion.
This technique goes again to laying that groundwork. As clients, workers and others ask for extra sustainability-related info. Maltenfort shares examples of those requests with senior management in order that they’ll draw a straight line between funding in ESG and assembly altering expectations out there.
Lastly, benchmark any ask towards the steps being taken by a company’s closest competitors. It’s business finest observe to remain aligned together with your largest opponents. Use the necessity to preserve tempo on sustainability as a strategy to get consideration from the board and C-suite.
Generally, it’d really feel such as you’re banging your head towards a brick wall when attempting to safe buy-in from the highest rungs of your group. However don’t quit.
I like the analogy from Jim Hartzfeld, head of sustainability at Brambles (try his sensible TED speak right here). He says that everyone has a door that they’re prepared and open to stroll by on the subject of sustainability. However there could possibly be 100 totally different doorways relying on the particular person. It’s your job to seek out the best door and entice them by it.
Ditch all of your preconceived notions, recommends Maltenfort. “Deal with everyone like they’ve the flexibility and willingness to know the worth of ESG. In my expertise, you possibly can at all times discover the best door.”
Shannon Houde is an ICF-certified government coach and expertise strategist with greater than 20 years of expertise as a trusted adviser to evolving change leaders from administrators to CEOs.
