YD's Diary #15 What I Would Do First If I Became a CSO

If you became a sustainability leader, what would you do first? After thinking it through, I came up with three clear and useful actions that I’d like to share.

Step 1: All Employees to Read the Company’s Sustainability Report with guide from company

Reading the company’s Sustainability Report (or ESG Report) was more meaningful than I expected.

As an employee, it’s easy to get caught up in daily work and not really know what the company is doing overall. Especially normal people's job is usually small part, it’s hard to see the full picture. We work so hard every day that we rarely stop to look back. But this report shows how everything fits together. When I read it a long time ago, I thought, “Wow, there’s a lot of info here.” But that's all. And when I read it again and understood why it was written, it felt totally different. 

The report helped me see where the company is heading and what the top leaders are thinking. If people read it even once carefully, it becomes much easier to align their work with the company’s goals.

Also, reading old reports helps you understand the company’s past, present, and future. Some tasks we used to take for granted now seem more valuable. And when employee find the work who did in the report with real numbers, he will start to realize that your job has meaning—not only for business, but also for social and the environmental agendas.

 

Step 2: Hold a Workshop About “What Sustainability and ESG Mean” and What Our Main Issues Are

After reading the report, the next step is to really understand what sustainability and ESG mean for our company.

I hope people take time to think about questions like: 

  • What is the real purpose of a company?(only earning money?)
  • How much profit is enough?(how about 50%?)
  • What does “sustainability” really mean?(it is needed? what is difference with ESG?)
  • How responsible is a company for the Earth?(Do we have to spend our budget to save the earth? really? how much? until we bankrupt?)
  • Why do companies do social work?
  • Who truly owns a company?

There are no right or wrong answers. People are still arguing this issue. But by thinking about these things, we start to see what values our company stands for. And that helps us find the most important topics—called material issues—that matter for our future.

If we think about these things together, we can better understand where the our leader are coming from. We can also work toward a common direction with stronger motivation and teamwork.

 

Step 3: Let Teams and Individuals Create Their Own Practical KPIs

Once we know our direction and goals, we need a way to turn them into real action. So I think each team and each person should create their own KPIs—simple goals that are easy to act on.

These goals isn't be made by their boss. Instead, they should be made by the person who will do them. That way, people feel more motivated and proud when they complete them.


Final Thoughts,

If we have above 3 steps, then I think that we can have self-motived work performance from employees. When people find work by myself and put in the effort, the results are better, and they feel more strong.

 

Wouldn’t it be nice?

#MBA #CSO

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