Transition Leadership Competencies

ASI’s Transition Leadership competency domains serve as guidance for the non-technical skills leaders will need to make meaningful progress towards a low-carbon, socially-inclusive future.

Social Innovation & Learning

Sustainability leaders need to question and challenge the status quo, create and facilitate transformative learning opportunities, and change system dynamics.

Critical skills in this area include:

Experimentation and prototyping,
Reflection and iteration,
Entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial thinking, and
Strategic scaling for impact.

Strategic Futures Acumen

The capacity to envision and articulate alternative future scenarios is imperative to the success of climate action measures. Leaders should have the ability to distinguish between incremental and transformative change.

Critical skills in this area include:

Futures thinking / scenario planning / backcasting,
Hosting inclusive and generative dialogue with stakeholders, and
Illuminating and navigating systems change dynamics.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Progress toward sustainability goals and climate action must include taking deliberate action to include, support, and uplift systematically disenfranchised and underserved communities.

Critical skills in this area include:

Decolonization of language, pedagogy, and knowledge,
Embodying anti-oppressive approaches, and
Bravely engaging in personal learning and unlearning.

Climate & Sustainability Literacy

Sustainability leaders should demonstrate a broad and systemic understanding of interconnected social, ecological, and economic imperatives, including up-to-date understanding on climate data trends and biophysical limitations.

Critical skills and knowledge in this area include:

Climate science, including the complexity of feedback loops,
Socio-economic and ecological system data and trends, and
Science-based targets.

Adaptive Leadership

Managing transitions, dealing with the human side of organizational change, leveraging emergence and uncertainty, and understanding complex system dynamics are vital to a sustainable future.

Critical skills in this area include:

Emotional intelligence (awareness, empathy, etc.),
Sensitivity to power, politics, and personal motivations/behaviour, and
Flexibility in the face of uncertainty and complexity.

Collaborative Leadership

Cultivating networks of relationships is necessary to better understand and engage with complex dynamics. Additionally, leveraging the skill sets, expertise, and leverage points of others will be critical to advancing systems-level change.

Critical skills in this area include:

Centering community → “Communityship”,
Building bridges, relationships, and partnerships, and
Openness and transparency.

Leadership is evolving. Here’s how:

Conventional vs. Transition Leadership

Hero/Solo Leader

Community of Leaders

Hierarchical & Siloed

Distributed & Connected

Change is Linear

Change is Emergent

Primarily Directive

Facilitative & Empowering

Transactional

Relational

Transition Leadership Competencies

Transition Leadership Competencies

Leadership is evolving. Here’s how:

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