In the purpose-driven space, sustainability is a catch-all phrase for planetary, social, environmental, and economic well-being in communities, nations, and in the world. But how many in this space are actually financially and organizationally sustainable? 

Doing good, being good is a good mission. But being good but not being smart is deadly and bordering on hypocrisy. To become a truly sustainable force in the world, your organization must walk the talk and talk the walk.

One organization is a one-funder business model. Another one has one staff and hundreds of volunteers trying to get to another impact goal. Another organization is penny-pinching on much-needed reorganization costs just because the Board didn't think they need it. Another one is simply mired with employee issues that do not reflect well on their values statements. 

In this circuit, the holier-than-thou attitude is almost always invoked. Yet, this complacent, self-congratulation is partly the reason for why the same sector proclaiming sustainability isn't sustainable either. 

Best practices are out there. When corporates and profit-seeking ventures are hit hard on sustainability,  the sector must face the same music and should be held accountable for it. 

A lot of executives and managers in on-purpose organizations are too much of a care-taker to become real leaders in their organizations and networks. As Drucker said, too much fire-fighting and problem-solving will elide your impact as a leader to become more strategic and effective.

This care-taking habit stems from their personal and organizational ideation that to be a great leader is to be all at all costs. When pressure mounts. the care-taking role is inadequate, at best palliative. Great leaders are able to bring out diverse skills, competencies, and responses that correspond best to diverse situations. 

How do you transfer all your talents, skills, and empathy from a care-taking role to successfully leading your team? 

1. Delegate and empower your team to make effective judgement calls and be accountable for them.

2. Say no to being the fount of all knowledge pertaining to your organization and its day-to-day functioning. Share all the information and go home on time.

3.  Elevate to leading by demonstrating effective management techniques and influencing and building a good company culture. Stay off from the mundane and other practical issues that's not worthy of your executive time nor energy.

You will never be regarded as a leader if you will remain in a care-taking capacity with all your steam lost in the labyrinth of everyday issues. Being a leader, is leading now and taking charge with  the future with strategic thinking and managing. Don't be the superhero that's not needed at all!
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I just said today that ethics trumps talent in a class.

One said, "so it's okay to hire mediocre but good people in your organization.'

Talent is so overrated and that hiring managers are beginning to look at not just the 'soft side' of competence but the overall adaptability and mindset of the person they are looking to hire.

At the end of the day, the worst corporate scandals are committed by people who are have no qualms circumventing the laws of the land to suit their motives and agenda.

This is not a zero-sum game either. There has been a shift towards hiring employees who do not have the perfect CV or educational background but have the right mental, emotional, and intellectual fitness for long-term growth. Good enough is better than someone that can't be trusted to make major decisions for the company, whose integrity is questionable or consistency suspect. 

At the end of the day, when ethical dilemmas arise in the workplace, which always happen, in micro or macro way, we hope and pray that the one making the decision has the moral and ethical code he/she lives by daily.  We hope that our HR managers can stand up for what's right in a given situation. We hope that our executives truly exhibit transformative leadership.

Ethics is the cornerstone in our businesses and organizations. It's the rudder in a turbulent, volatile and ambiguous world we live in. It's the compass, without which we will become a civilization without a heart and soul. ​

​Lately in a coaching conversation, I learned that applying a COVID19 lens as an intentional approach to planning, decision-making, and resources allocation is not only safe but strategic.

Given that majority of the world is still battling the third wave,  dangerous variants have weakened and collapsed many health care systems in the developing countries, and developed countries have yet to pick up the pieces of their lives and economies- COVID19 will not go away just as it came.

The COVID19 lens should be used beyond the pandemic and the virus transmission. It's about reconstruction, restoration, and healing of societies and economies. It's also about getting back to the root causes that alienate us from our environment, community, and self-sustainability. I heard that those people who recover from COVID19 had after-effects felt for months and years.


These are facts we are grappling today: 

How can the whole society recover from mental health issues, depression, and isolation? How can we recover from deaths of family, friends, neighbors, officemates due to COVID19?
How can we recover from suicides of people close to us who died because of COVID19 isolation? 
How can we recover our businesses from taking a nose dive due to lockdowns and travel/mobility restrictions?
How can we recover from deaths that are not COVID19 because the health care systems refuse to treat emergency surgeries? 

These are not irrecoverable or irreparable but they do leave lasting impacts that will take years to completely undo.

On a positive note, this virus will never be back again. On a more realistic note, we will have to face more diseases, deadlier than this one unless we get better at monitoring, testing, rules and policy enforcements, and cooperation. 

How are you operating your organization through the COVID19 lens and beyond? Are you ready for the slow but sure emergence in the horizon? ​

Organizations with individuals who are full of egos are heading towards an internal sabotage, if not abated. 

These individuals who have talent but lack empathy and self-awareness, no matter how valuable they are in the organization are running on a limited bandwidth.

When push comes to shove, their talent can't be depended on when a serious adjustments and adaptations are required from everyone in the organization.

When strategic thinking is required, they tend to reason out why things can't be done in the organization versus having a mindset of openness and flexibility.

Misaligned teams and Boards do not ever accomplish more than they intend to do.  They can be the proverbial 'stumbling block' to serious attempt at steering the organization to a better direction.

If there are too many fragile egos in the room, prepare to use more than fair share of wisdom and insight.

You need an expert strategy advisor to help you navigate the politics in your organization.

Let me help you get to where you want to go. 

Convert selfish egos to productive work. 

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Today, the diminishing practice of a gentleman's agreement or people's agreement if we have to be more inclusive in our language is concerning.

The other day, my husband is collecting his fees from a client  and the client promised to pay him the balance he owed. Today, he told me that that promise is not a sure thing. It can change on daily basis. The person is not to be trusted on his words, because his actions do not suggest trust.

Sad to say, that a lot of people do not get to understand that their words carry a lot of weight. When they say it, they should be able to deliver based on those words spoken as part of 'palabra de honor'- word of honor. Of course, conditions are set for those commitments to be delivered. 

How many people in this generation can actually say with a straight face that they practice that in their daily business and life. You are what you commit yourself verbally.

There is a moment that decisions and commitments must be made after weighing in on considerations and options. Then, it is time to execute them in order to transform commitments to real gains. Without integrity, institutions and organizations will fall and fail on the basis of their omissions that hurt in the long run. 
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