Technoversal Leadership for Climate and Biodiversity

United Nations organised the Climate Change Conference (COP26) at the end of the past year. It has been a moment for the countries to remember their pledges made under the Paris Agreement (2015). And policymaker opinions have widespread media coverage. Conversely, the International Union for Conservation of Nature held the first-ever IUCN CEO Summit with more than a dozen global businesses. They addressed biodiversity loss and climate change [1]. Although such initiatives from business leaders are encouraging, business leaders and environmental interaction are needed to approach the subject with a holistic perspective to cover the complete story. The topic requires perceiving what happened and is happening with simple observable facts.

After sensing these facts, we will only find more honest answers if leaders have interacted enough and played a significant role in changing the course of the current environmental situation.

What Is Happening?

The world is chaotic. Overly-populated cities, resource scarcity, climate change, floods, and fires threaten the earth. Humanity caused the extinction of many as a very tiny fraction of all time on earth. Sometimes, even to name it an extinction sounds underwhelming when we observe the whole situation. The majority of wild mammals are already gone. Humans will not see half of the plants anymore.

Almost eight billion people share this planet with others. They eat, drink, and breathe using sources on earth. And does humanity care about all the others with whom it shares the world? The world population was around two billion a century ago. Despite pandemics and big wars, it went up four times while all the others were wiped from the face of the earth forever.

The little part of humanity is acting to aid the others that humans live together on the planet, but the Big Picture tells us many stay ineffective. Everyone does not have the conscience to feel sad about what happens to animals and plants, which is a bitter fact history has proved to us. It inevitably is a grave issue for all breathing on this planet, and everyone must remember that these extinctions are more threatening than ever.

It is time for humans to be smart enough to understand this fact, especially business leaders whose most significant concern is resource scarcity must act. Environmental ethics must be a component of their leadership style, and educators and trainers must raise leaders with a mind for biodiversity protection and against climate change.

T-Leaders

The author gives a couple of widely accepted leadership styles as examples to help readers understand the environment and leadership interactions broadly. They are Transformational and Transactional styles. The status quo of the world, leadership, and their interactions make him offer and include the Technoversal leadership style.

Regarding research conducted about them, Transactional leaders find much interest in the literature.

On the other hand, Transformational leaders have been considered an impactful business leadership style [2]. Technoversal joins the group, and it offers environmental consciousness in its foundation, which makes this style rare. Combining this consciousness with a well-defined skillset makes the Technoversal style a promising one.

Since transactional, Transformational, and Technoversal all have the initial T, T-Leaders will suit them well!

There are many papers about Transformational and Transactional styles. Yet, there are a few about Technoversal since it was first introduced in a thesis in August 2020 [3]. It is a novel style in many senses. A Transformational leader would inspire his followers to achieve a common goal, but a Transactional leader would direct his employees to complete a task. When we look at transactional and transformational styles, we observe that their essence boils down to leader-follower interactions, as expected.

Businesses and Environment

When many leaders were born, generating revenue and growth and having leader-follower interactions were central for businesses. So, consultancy companies typically study these styles in this context and do not often study leaders for their consciousness of the environment, climate, and biodiversity.

Although many decades passed and the world’s needs changed, people continue to evaluate and analyse leaders in the same circles—in the profit and growth context. Businesses use many fancy terms to more humanely express this profit-making aspect, for they can gloss over their negative impact on nature and climate.

They have been successful in many geographies in terms of economic sustainability. The last 100 years have shown us this success because too many companies operate in different global sectors. And they generate a lot more revenue than in the past.

They continue to look for more growth and profit, and obviously, this will continue until something catastrophic happens. But what do they do for the climate and biodiversity? When we look at our world, we can observe that they failed in different aspects. These aspects are very significant indeed.

They did not heed the other creatures with whom they shared the world enough and remained indifferent. The leaders who do not have emotions for animals and plants will finally affect everyone. An entire planet will bear the consequences of this apathy, and eventually, all humanity will share these consequences.

Leadership for the Climate and Biodiversity

Technoversal Leader comes into play like a fresh breath and a game-changer.

Why is the Technoversal style necessary? Answered as follows: In this new world order, leadership has reached a stage where there is a need for ultimate leaders. These originate from the very elements of this disruptive environment and rise with distinguishing skills and epoch-making perspectives [4].

Technoversal leader connects the concept of leadership to nature. As part of T-Leaders, it is a new bond between leaders, animals, and natural habitats. It plays a significant role in explaining the leadership for the environment. It is the core that sets the stage for leadership and environmental interactions.

The Reality

Although making money signifies everything for many businesses around the globe, and they do many things for it, the reality and need of the world is not only economic development anymore. Climate change, resource scarcity, breathable air and fresh water, and what some benighted humans destroy non-stop.

The conditions in overly populated countries are making the living conditions worse daily.

Many technological inventions and innovations are somehow part of vicious cycles.

After each industrial revolution, businesses used new machines that polluted or contaminated the environment. Other types of equipment are produced to counter the effects of this pollution. But what is actually happening is a self-created problem-solution cycle that kills Mother Nature.

Technoversal Leader, a new figure, appears with an epoch-making perspective. It defends that current leaders must embrace all and care for nature, and future leaders must raise nature consciousness.

This word derives from Technology and Universal. The former is for the leaders using technology for good in the Digital Era, and the latter is for being sensitive to animals and plants.

This style has another central factor. It guides leaders to a well-established skill set. It is essential for excelling at leadership in the technology era, and corporations need well-defined, skill-based leaders in the redundancy of leadership styles today.

In context with skills, the Technological style is skill-based, so the leader can also successfully meet conventional business goals. Technoversal Leader is at a special place where technology, environmental consciousness, and adaptable qualities intersect—these qualities are known as APARTS behaviours.

A.P.A.R.T.S Behaviours

The author has extracted these behaviours with analyses and research to find the most needed skills and behaviours. The leader of today and the future, a Technoversal Leader, must be Agile, Problem-Solving, Adaptable, Respectful, Tech-savvy (having a data-driven mindset), and Seeking Perspectives.

“The mnemonic device APARTS fits well to abbreviate the essential qualities that will prepare the leader for many challenges in these disruptive times and take the leader ahead of the crowd and beyond the time. These qualities will make it easy for us to tell the leader Apart[s]” [5].

D.O.E.R Behaviours

He coined APARTS as Gold Medalist Behaviors since they derive from comprehensive research and are significant in answering conventional business expectations. He also contributes another concept for leadership as DOER Behaviors, which stands for Diligence, Opportunism, Empathy, and Resilience.

It is the second set of Silver Medalist Leadership Behaviors, as they follow APARTS. A leader who possesses DOER behaviours becomes a DOER leader, and so does the Technoversal leader. DOER and APARTS make the Big Ten of Technoversal Leadership [6].

The creator knows that a leader has to meet conventional business expectations to be accepted by the business world and consultancies. Thus, a Technoversal leader is also required to run a business successfully. Otherwise, standing for climate and biodiversity alone will not be satisfactory for corporations, and the business world will reject it and do so.

So, it becomes crystal clear that technological leadership must answer the Planet’s needs and businesses’ goals together. So it offers well-determined skills, which will meet business expectations and create hope to stand a chance for the future of the Earth—our only home!

Messages to the Next Generations

Plants and animals are inevitable for sustainability. They are also irreplaceable for giving tranquillity to the people.

As they coexist in harmony, they mean peace to the human soul. Few things can feed our souls with serenity, like a singing bird or a calmly dancing tree in a soft wind.

Money cannot provide beauty and calmness in a world where trees and birds do not exist.

Leaders are responsible for conveying even a part of these messages to the next generations. As the driving force of businesses and societies, leaders are key people who must initially adopt crucial ideas. They play a significant role in the propagation process of these ideas and phenomena as they inspire their followers. The followers can spread these ideas, so leaders can and must help recover the unrighteousness against nature and avoid a butterfly effect.

Leaders must discipline others for the greater good because if we do not act rapidly, many parts of the earth are only a few generations away from an uninhabitable planet [7].

World Leadership

Another question will reveal leadership significance at this point: Who presides over the world? Governments, civil organisations, armies, or are they the corporations behind the scenes? Corporations hold a strong position. Hence, if some people impact the destiny of all living things, business leaders must play a significant role in determining the right course.

Their thoughts, characteristics, and nature matter. We must accept that the very reasons for this decimation that drags us to an unlivable planet are the frailties of human nature, which come into play as a variable and change everything beyond recall.

Imagine a world described as the end in science fiction movies. Only made of concrete, there is no green; not even a single bird is flying. Do not forget the oxygen tank on your back. And now, imagine you have millions of dollars in that world.

Are those millions saving your life? Or is it a leaf on the tree branch? As a significant part of the systems, leaders are prime messengers who can communicate and teach these necessities to their followers and next-generation leaders. The Technoversal Leader is the messenger of these vital messages [8]. And all leaders ought to do it for all remaining living to sustain their existence before it is too late.

Actual Role and Place of Humans in the Life Circle

Humans are not at the centre of the life circle, but they are only a part of this sensitive chain, which they broke themselves. There has never been a species that is in disharmony with its ecology. And if we are to have even a slight chance to fix it for once, we need a leadership style that transcends traditional and economic mindsets.

A Technoversal Leader courageously and insistently speaks out about the truths and actual needs, such as the need for population control and shifting from fossil fuels to natural energy at any cost.

One that challenges technological disruption embraces all living things and rises with distinguishing skills. Thus, a leadership that is not limited to time and place, a leader for all and always.

Leader’s Role in the Human Circle

Wars break out, climate-based disasters hit all things living, and biodiversity loss continues. When all this happens, leaders with broad influence ought not only to focus on growth and leader-follower interactions.

They can and ought to take more responsibility. There would be less need for leadership in a world where things are better, as it typically comes from problems and challenges.

So, leadership is the child of chaos and disorder. What distinguishes a leader from others is the capacity to answer these urgent needs and all the good that leaders can do. For the next decades, these goods that will make a leader pass beyond expectations will be teaching the responsibilities for climate, biodiversity, and peace.

If we wish to change the destiny of our planet, we must change businesses. And if we want to transform businesses into this course, we must change leaders.

References

[1] International Union for Conservation of Nature (2021, September). Global business leaders outline efforts to build a nature-positive future at the IUCN CEO Summit. Retrieved November 12, 2021, from  https://www.iucn.org/news/business-and-biodiversity/202109/global-business-leaders-outline-efforts-build-a-nature-positive-future-iucn-ceo-summit

[2] Schwartz E. I. & Anthony, S. D. (2017). What the best transformational leaders do. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2017/05/what-the-best-transformational-leaders-do

[3] Kapucu, H. (2020). The effect of digital transformation on the leader behaviours: An implementation at intermediate goods industry. (Master’s Thesis). Bahcesehir University, Istanbul, Turkey, pp. 1-84. Retrieved from https://tez.yok.gov.tr/UlusalTezMerkezi/TezGoster?key=fl0Kw4p1rmMDotyKR dYv1B4RXrWKR7W0Gae_P9Uw2d0NNEF45ek-Cr5L_M3-oobZ

[4] Kapucu, H. (2021). Business leaders’ perception of digital transformation in emerging economies: On leader and technology interplay. International Journal of Advanced Corporate Learning, 14(1), pp. 43-56. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3991/ijac.v14i1.21959

[5] Kapucu, H. (2021). Digital leadership: A new way of leading or a crucial skill? Leadership Excellence, 38(09). Retrieved from https://web.hr.com/jl0w

[6] Kapucu, H. (2022). Be a leader rather than a doer. How about a DOER Leader? HCM Excellence APAC & Middle East, 4(01). Retrieved from https://www.hr.com/en/magazines/all_articles/be-a-leader-rather-than-a-doer-how- about-a-doer-le_kyjogynq.html

[7] Young, R. & Mitchell, J. (2019). The author of ‘ Uninhabitable Earth ‘ says humans have 30 years to stave off climate catastrophe. Retrieved from https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2019/05/13/climate-change-uninhabitable-earth-david-wallace-wells

[8] Kapucu, H. (2020). Technology affects leader behaviours in the digital era. Business & IT, 10(2), pp. 12-31. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14311/bit.2020.03.02