The sustainable business: The leadership challenge

To build a sustainable business, leaders must first manage the demands on their time. And that is not always straightforward, particularly with evolving expectations.

At the heart of any successful and sustainable business is a strong leadership team. That will start with the founder or business owners but extends to the entire C-suite and directors.

The demands on their time are immense and can be overwhelming. There is the need to be on top of all issues from managing domestic and/or international growth to navigating economic and political uncertainty, embracing changing technology whilst ensuring an engaged and inclusive workplace, and all the time balancing short-term financial results with long-term sustainable growth.

One of the most pressing challenges is managing demands on their time. It can feel that there are simply not enough hours in the day.

As a business grows in size and complexity, so do the challenges that land on leaders’ desks. The ability to prioritise effectively, delegate and maintain focus becomes an increasingly important skill. But when it is your business, that you have built from the ground up and have been across the entire business, that is not always easy to do.

Changing expectations of leaders

As the nature of the workforce changes, those time pressures are likely to become amplified. A lot of businesses, Kreston Reeves included, now have four generations in the workplace and their needs are very different. Younger generations, broadly speaking, expect a flat corporate structure and regular feedback. They want to be more involved, and that is likely to add greater pressure on leadership teams. The reward is hopefully more engaged and motivated team members!

Pre-pandemic, the much referenced Harvard Business Review’s, How CEOs Manage Time study, published in 2018, found that 75% of a CEO’s diary was scheduled in advance and 72% of that is spent in meetings. That leaves just 25% of the working day for everything else.

Since, research by Srinivasan and Kaas (2024), senior partners at McKinsey & Co and authors of The Journey of Leadership: How CEOs Can Learn to Lead from the Inside Out, outline how following rapid geopolitical, technological, social and environment changes, a new paradigm of leadership is now needed – a more ‘human-centric leadership’. Adding a new dimension and expectation.

With the complexity and uncertainty of the world today, coupled with the speed of change and expectations, leaders act more as a ‘connector’ and ‘interpreter’ of business challenges engaging and inspiring their people and teams. This includes short and/or long-term planning, digitalisation, sustainability and purpose, people development as well as financial performance.

Time is, as it perhaps always has been, the most precious resource business leaders have – and it is in increasingly short supply.

Balancing their time

The actions of business leaders – whether the founder, CEO or directors – matter. They shape the way the business operates and its culture. For a start-up business, it is understandable and sensible for a founder to be all over the business – from finance, sales and marketing to HR. But that is not sustainable as a business scales up and evolves into, hopefully, a large and successful entity.

Successful business leaders quickly recognise that they cannot, and should not, do everything. They have no choice but to delegate. Here, however, a new challenge emerges, where is the line between micro-management and being too hands-off?

There is no straightforward answer, and it is often only after a period of trial and error that the natural balance is found. Every business and industry is different, requiring different types of leadership. Some leaders operate in a more planned and structured way, while others are more fluid. Some are more strategic operators while others are more operationally focused. Some connect with employees through speeches and updates while others by working alongside them.

There is no right or wrong approach, but leaders must find a way to effectively manage and balance their time, so it works for them and their business. It is vitally important that leaders carve time out of the diary to be ‘on top of the business’ and not just ‘immersed in the business’. That is the key to building a sustainable business. In my experience, this time needs to be planned and scheduled – if not, the diary will quickly be filled. This time should be for reflecting, strategising, planning and preparing.

The importance of trust and effective delegation

I have learnt a lot from a very good friend of mine who has built a large multi-franchise business. It is a deceptively simple lesson – it is ‘trust’. Those you appoint to senior positions need to be trusted to do their job, and that often means leaving them to do their job without interference.

Of course, a good leader is there to provide direction, guidance and support, but recognise the talent in your business and empower them to do their job. They will invariably fly.

This will free up a surprising amount of your time, but it will do more than that – it will build a culture of leadership, encouragement and support across the business. And that is worth its weight in gold.

The ‘5 whys’

Using the ‘5 Whys’ problem-solving technique can be a very useful and practical way to help discover the root cause of an issue and find a solution. An example of how this model can be adapted towards this issue is below.

Why… are there so many demands on your time?

Because leaders are having to spend an increasing amount of time on people leadership and areas such as sustainability and purpose than they have in the past. This is in addition to their day-to-day responsibilities.

Why… is there this greater focus on people leadership?

Because the nature of the workforce and their expectations as well as that of the world have changed.

Why… have the expectations of people and the world changed?

Because of the amount and pace of change and uncertainty they have been faced with over the past four years. New generations with different experiences are entering the workforce. People want to be included, to grow and develop. The world wants organisations to care more about society today and for the future.

Why… can’t you delegate people leadership to others?

You can in part, but because it’s important to and valued by your people, you don’t want to compromise that culture. There is a change in expectation that leaders should be more accessible and visible. And you are the leader and want to lead in this area.

Why… can’t you delegate other more traditional aspects of leadership or other areas of people engagement to others?

You can… Take a step back and review what can be delegated to someone else and allocate clear lines of responsibilities.

The expectation of leaders has evolved to be much more people and socially focused than it has been in the past. Leaders cannot control all the areas they always have done as there is so much more an organisation now needs to deal with. They need to have a broader perspective and create an environment, and people they can trust, to help make things happen.

How Kreston Reeves can help

We recognise leadership can sometimes feel a lonely place. Whilst many of will know the firm for the expertise and advice we offer, we also act as a sounding board to founders, business leaders and boards helping them in the journey towards building a sustainable business.

If you would like some additional guidance in this area, please get in touch.