“This is now. Now is, all there is. Don’t wait for then; strike the spark, light the fire.” ~Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī As I noted in a blog post in late 2013, I am currently immersed in a year-long master’s program, a Master’s in Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability (MSLS). Its progressive approach to leadership and sustainability make it one of the only master’s degrees of its kind in the world. I was attracted to MSLS because of the focus on authentic leadership—leadership that believes innately in goodness, leadership that values individual contributions towards collective impact. MSLS is currently developing their thinking around social sustainability as well, which further enhanced the leadership framework. This leadership approach is one of shared responsibility and co-creation, one of deep trust. It promotes the cultivation of environments that encourage risk-taking and value courage and organizational shared vision. This approach acknowledges that all of these factors contribute to an individual’s commitment to an organization and values the individual contributions that each person brings to an organization, and works to support that individual’s success, both personally and professionally. We recently had a reflection session on our first semester, where we explored the capacities, skills, and ways of thinking that a sustainability leader needs to develop and employ, all things that we had been exploring for the previous five months through group work, inspiring workshops, theoretical lectures, and personal exploration. My mind immediately went to EPIP’s Measure of a Leader. The two frameworks are markedly different, yet they […] Read more