Leadership and Sustainability

RUNNING HEAD: LEADERSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY
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Leadership and Sustainability

Leadership and Sustainability
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Leadership........................................................................................................................................3
Tesla.............................................................................................................................................3
Challenges for leaders because of global environmental issues..................................................6
Sustainable strategies applied by leader in the organization...........................................................9
CSR and Shared Value and role of leadership...............................................................................10
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................13
References......................................................................................................................................14

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Introduction
Leadership is defined as the way an individual or leader influences others for achieving personal
or organizational goals. At present, the role of leadership in achieving sustainable growth is
gaining importance. In order to be sustainable, businesses require leaders that act as a change
agent and help the organization to gain first-mover advantage in the market by following
sustainable practices and sustainable goals. Leadership for sustainability requires the
extraordinary abilities of a leader, this includes long term vision, solving complex problems,
bringing change and have emotional intelligence. Leadership and leader is a key to gain
sustainability goals as leadership through sustainability is a new idea and that includes “a
radically expanded understanding of leadership that includes an enlarged base of everyday
leaders in all walks of life who take up power and engage in actions with others to make
sustainable differences in communities and organizations” (Metcalf and Benn,2013).
This paper focuses on the application of leadership theories with sustainability in order to do so
Tesla is selected. Tesla is a leading player in the automotive industry in the US and leads by Elon
Musk. He transformed the organization and at present, the company follows sustainable practices
in order to achieve sustainable goals. This paper discussed the role of leadership in bringing
sustainability and change in the organization and challenges that leaders face because of external
environment factors at the global level. Further, tools of sustainability that the organization
adopted and benefitted from this are discussed and at last sustainable strategies of Tesla are
included.
Leadership
Tesla
Tesla is an American company that operates in the automotive industry and offers electric
vehicles across the world. Tesla is amongst one of the companies in the automotive industry that
has taken this industry to the next level. Its vision and mission statements have been changing to
integrate with its new strategies that are to focus on efficiency, reliability, and sustainability. The
mission statement of Tesla is “to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy”. As
organizations are led by leaders the changes that are carried in any organization depend on the

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leader's ability to take the risk and to make change acceptable by other people (Strielkowski, and
Chigisheva, 2018). Here, Elon Musk's leadership style is highlighted as he is a leader with great
vision that leads Tesla and focuses on bringing changes in the organization that result in the
success of Tesla. In the below sections, the case study of Tesla is discussed using applications of
leadership style used by the company and the theories that are applicable to the present scenario.
Further, theories that are highlighted in the below sections include trait theory, the sustainable
leadership style of Elon Musk, situational theory and behavioral theory (Lang et.al,2018).
Theories and Application
Trait Theory
The trait theory of leadership can be applicable here in order to understand the traits that Elon
Musk possesses and that helps Tesla to be a successful company in the market. Some of the
leadership traits of Musk are powerful vision, self-confidence, innovativeness, and focus on
leading by example. Other traits are collaboration, changing agents, hiring carefully, optimistic
and focus on the big picture (Marshall et.al,2017). Tesla is building and becoming a successful
company because of Elon Musk's long term vision that is focusing on maximizing their use of
green energy. His vision and mission are simple, attractive, beneficial and understandable and
shifted Tesla's focus to sustainable goals.
Transformational style
The transformation step that Tesla has taken is the result of global issues and concern. The focus
of the government on green initiatives is the reason behind the change in Tesla's strategies. The
global concern towards safety and protection of environment shifts tesla focus to sustainability.
With the help of leadership, sustainability can be achieved that helps to reduce the negative
impact of operations of the business on the environment and to focus on global concerns.
Leaders are the one who supports and direct others (Kuenkei,2015). Tesla moved to
sustainability because of Elon Musk and the traits and characteristics that Musk possesses leads
to the success of the organization. In bringing sustainability, the leader’s role is crucial and their
style defines many aspects of the organization. For instance, Elon Musk's leadership style is
transformational. Transformational leaders are the ones who can take the risk and works with a
team to bring revolutionary change. Under the transformational leadership style, Tesla becomes