Seeking sustainability leadership

This paper critiques mainstream leadership and leadership development approaches to help inform the emerging field of sustainability leadership. Traditional leadership theory and education is argued to be highly problematic for the pursuit of sustainability leadership. A more critical approach is required, drawing upon insights from social theory, critical discourse analysis and psychology, which is attempted in this paper. Once deconstructed, leadership can be a useful framework for exploring needed learning and unlearning for people to become agents within leaderful groups to create more significant change in organizations and society, in light of unsustainability and injustice. The initial outlines of a reconstructed approach to leadership and its development, which are used at the Institute for Leadership and Sustainability (IFLAS) and Impact International, are outlined.