Sustainable Leadership: Towards a Workable Definition

This paper offers a definition of the type of leadership that is necessary for creating sustainable organisations: sustainable leadership. After exploring shifts in economic and organisational theory caused by new insights from fields such as (social) neuroscience, and mega-trends in the macro-economic and business context, in particular the mega-trend of sustainability, it shows that a new paradigm for business leadership is emerging. The paper then explores the question: what are the leadership mind-sets that leaders need to develop in order to empower their organisations towards the creation of sustainable value? It concludes by proposing a new leadership model (the 6C-model).