Synopses & Reviews
“
A Culture of Purpose will not only help you achieve success, it will help you sustain success by building organizations motivated by long-term meaning.”
—Marshall Goldsmith, author,
MOJO and
What Got You Here Won’t Get You There“Successful companies see sustainability not as a noun, but as an adjective that applies to everything they do: sustainable operations, sustainable solutions, sustainable opportunities, sustainable profits. In A Culture of Purpose, Christoph Lueneburger provides compelling examples of how this comprehensive approach can give an organization a sense of deeper meaning, as it does at Dow.”
—Andrew Liveris, chairman and CEO, The Dow Chemical Company
“Christoph Lueneburger breaks new ground with a fascinating analysis of the leadership attributes and organizational characteristics that will distinguish successful companies in the twenty-first century. A Culture of Purpose should be read by anyone seeking to break out of the constraints of traditional approaches.”
—Steve Miller, chairman, AIG
“The challenge of climate change demands leaders who are comfortable making decisions under uncertainty, and focused on the long term while driving for more immediate results. In A Culture of Purpose, Christoph Lueneburger shares powerful stories of some of the leaders on this journey and the cultures they are building.”
—Rachel Kyte, group vice president, Climate Change Group, The World Bank
“If you’re like me, you learn best from stories, and A Culture of Purpose bursts with stories of leaders whose commitment to sustainability took their organizations to a stronger, purpose-driven future. Christoph Lueneburger parses the core elements of success that guided these leaders, offering an actionable roadmap for building a culture of purpose.”
—Rick Ridgeway, vice president, environmental affairs, Patagonia
“Sustainability is not an intellectual luxury; it’s fundamental to achieving business goals at Lands’ End. In A Culture of Purpose, Christoph Lueneburger shares the actionable and wise counsel that we have relied on to inspire our employees and strengthen our company.”
—Edgar Huber, CEO, Lands’ End
“At the heart of Christoph Lueneburger’s book is the understanding that sustainability is not just a commercial necessity and increasingly the driver of profit, but a magnet for talent. If you want to build a passionate organization with impact and meaning, A Culture Of Purpose will triumphantly and practically lead the way.”
—Lord Deben, former UK Secretary of State for the Environment and chairman, Valpak
Synopsis
Christoph Lueneburg declares that sustainability in business is foremost a challenge of leadership. More than that, it is the defining opportunity for leaders in the coming decades. And yet, little attention has been paid to the leadership styles and competencies that will be essential to sustainability going forward.
SUSTAINABILITY LEADERSHIP offers concrete, actionable insights on what it takes to create sustainability across an organization, today and into the future. SUSTAINABILITY LEADERSHIP will reveal a concise system for effective leaders that details the 3 phases of a leadership development model, and how to hire the right people with the right skills to succeed at each phase. Drawing on eleven case studies built around in-depth interviews with sustainability leaders at companies including Coca-Cola, Patagonia, and Bloomberg, the book offers specific step-by-step advice and the stories of companies that have traveled this road before. It explores questions such as:
- How to make the case for sustainability, what core communications skills and practices are necessary, and how other leaders have made that happen.
- How to translate vision into action and elevate sustainability from a project to a central thread in the strategic fabric of business.
- How to expand boundaries and expand from traditional roles into new private/non-profit partnerships that allow sustainability to move into new iterations.
Many books have described the "what" of sustainability, but this is the first to reveal the “who.” Lueneburger invites readers to transcend the era of the spotted owl and recognize that sustainability is not an ideological mindset, but a cultural trait of a resilient business. For leaders ready to embrace the sustainability challenge, SUSTAINABILITY LEADERSHIP isan education, a revelation, and an invitation to the next generation of success. The ultimate prize of sustainability is talent, namely the talent you will be able to hire tomorrow because the values your business espouses align with those of today's smartest and most engaged students.
Synopsis
How innovative leaders create meaningful cultures that attract and retain top talent Building a culture of purpose is one of the greatest challenges facing modern leaders, as today's best minds are looking for meaning, not just jobs. More than any other single factor, cultures of purpose power winning organizations, attracting the smartest, most creative, most passionate talent.
For leaders building cultures of purpose, the commercial pursuit of sustainability provides the most reliable blueprint. While sustainability has been commonly misconstrued as a description of a set of problems, Christoph Lueneburger shows that it is really a solution to problems, capable of inspiring people and forging cultures.Sharing his exclusive, in-depth dialogues with chief sustainability officers, CEOs, and board chairmen, Lueneburger reveals how sustainability works at places where it works best, including Chrysler, Unilever, TNT, Walmart, and Bloomberg. Featuring a clear three-phase process that helps leaders assess the talent needed to develop organizations characterized by energy, resilience, and openness, A Culture of Purpose offers leaders the right questions to ask in order to:
- Tap and Nurture Your Current Corporate Strengths: Learn how to recognize, cultivate, and leverage the competencies of your current talent to develop your leadership team.
- Hire the Right Team: Ask the right questions to identify the innate personality traits in potential new hires, regardless of level and function, to bring on board those most likely to succeed in and shape your organization.
- Craft Your Culture: Create an environment that unleashes these competencies and traits and pushes them to the fore. Shape how people relate to one another and collectively go for what would be out of reach to them individually.
Many books have described the -what- and the -how- of sustainability, but this is the first to reveal the -who.- Lueneburger changes dated preconceptions to show that sustainability is not an ideological mindset but a cultural trait of a resilient business. For leaders ready to build and strengthen a winning business, A Culture of Purpose is an education, a revelation, and an invitation to the next generation of success.
Synopsis
The greatest challenge of leadership in our time is building a culture of purpose. The best minds of our time are looking not just for jobs, but for meaning. In order to attract the top talent that is necessary to thrive in a turbulent world, leaders must create organizations that are deeply invested in the long-term success of our planet, so that the most passionate hearts and creative intellects will want to work there—because there’s no place they’d rather be. What must leaders do to meet this challenge?
The powerful solution for building a culture of purpose is sustainability. In casual parlance, sustainability has become synonymous with “green,” but the causes of environmentalism are not fully expressive of how sustainability affects leaders and organizations today. Sustainability, at its highest level, is a way of doing business contingent on attracting and retaining the best, smartest people to help you spot and navigate challenges and opportunities that may only faintly visible today.
A Culture of Purpose offers concrete, actionable insights on what it takes to create this kind of high-level sustainability across an organization, today and into the future. Grounded in exclusive case studies built around in-depth interviews with C-suite sustainability leaders at companies including Chrysler, Unilever, TNT, Walmart, Bloomberg, and more, Christoph Lueneburger offers specific step-by-step advice for meeting this challenge. Lueneburger’s model guides leaders through a clear three phase process, providing a clear roadmap for leaders to accomplish the following goals:
- Tap and Nurture Your Current Corporate Strengths: How to recognize and cultivate the skills and competencies of your current talent so that you bring the right people into leadership roles and develop your sphere of immediate influence
- Hire the Right Team: How to identify the traits in potential new hires, regardless of level and function, so that they will grow in the organization —and how to ask the right questions during the hiring process
- Craft Your Culture: How to shape the openness, energy, and resilience that will embody strong values across the organization
Many books have described the "what" of sustainability, but this is the first to reveal the "who." Lueneburger invites readers to recognize that sustainability is not an ideological mindset, but a cultural trait of a resilient business. For leaders ready to embrace the challenge,
A Culture of Purpose is an education, a revelation, and an invitation to the next generation of success.
Synopsis
Building a culture of purpose is one of the greatest challenges facing modern leaders. More than any other single factor, cultures of purpose power winning organizations, attracting the smartest, most creative, most passionate talent.
For leaders building cultures of purpose, the commercial pursuit of sustainability provides the most reliable blueprint. While sustainability has been commonly misconstrued as a description of a set of problems, Christoph Lueneburger shows that it is really a solution, capable of inspiring people and forging cultures. Sharing his exclusive, in-depth dialogues with chief sustainability officers, CEOs, and board chairmen, Lueneburger reveals how sustainability works at places where it works best, including Chrysler, Unilever, TNT, Walmart, and Bloomberg.
Featuring a clear three-phase process that helps leaders assess the talent needed to develop organizations characterized by energy, resilience, and openness, A Culture of Purpose offers the right questions to ask in order to:
- Tap and Nurture Your Current Corporate Strengths: Learn how to recognize, cultivate, and leverage the competencies of your current talent to develop your leadership team.
- Hire the Right Team: Ask the right questions to identify the innate personality traits in potential new hires, regardless of level and function, to bring on board those most likely to succeed in and shape your organization.
- Craft Your Culture: Create an environment that unleashes these competencies and traits and pushes them to the fore. Shape how people relate to one another and collectively go for what would be out of reach to them individually.
Many books have described the “what” and the “how” of sustainability, but this is the first to reveal the “who.” Lueneburger changes dated preconceptions to show that sustainability is not an ideological mindset but a cultural trait of a resilient business. For leaders ready to build and strengthen a winning business, A Culture of Purpose is an education, a revelation, and an invitation to the next generation of success.
About the Author
CHRISTOPH LUENEBURGER is a partner at Egon Zehnder, where he founded the firm’s sustainability practice in 2008 and now heads its global private equity practice. His writing on sustainability and leadership has been featured in
People & Strategy, Harvard Business Review, and MIT’s
Sloan Management Review, and he is a fellow of the Aspen Institute. He lives in New York with his wife and daughter.
For more information, please visit www.egonzehnder.com and www.cultureofpurpose.com.
Table of Contents
Foreword (Dan Goleman)
Introduction
Part One: Placing Leaders With A Purpose At The Core
Chapter 1: The Boost of Change Leadership
Chapter 2: The Power of Influencing
Chapter 3: The Impact of Results Delivery
Chapter 4: The Payoff of Commercial Drive
Chapter 5: The Scale of Strategic Orientation
Part Two: Hiring Talent With A Purpose Throughout the Organization
Chapter 6: Spreading Faster With Engagement
Chapter 7: Reaching Farther With Determination
Chapter 8: Going Deeper With Insight
Chapter 9: Staying Hungry With Curiosity
Part Three: Building A Culture Of Purpose
Chapter 10: Energy
Chapter 11: Resilience
Chapter 12: Openness
Part Four: Taking Action
Chapter 13: The Sequence Of Building A Culture Of Purpose
Epilogue