From Overworked Sustainability Team to Company-Wide Buy-In
How Ben transformed sustainability from an uphill battle into a company-wide strategy
Renishaw PLC, a large, high-precision technology UK-based company, used to have an unfocused new sustainability team, which struggled to influence its colleagues to change the way they operated.
Despite his best efforts and hard work, their leader Ben felt overworked and like he wasn’t as effective as he wanted to be.
Now the company has a smaller, influential team that has transformed the whole company, including embedding sustainability in its strategy and finally securing its colleagues’ buy-in.
I worked with Ben and his team to hone their engagement and communication skills and overcome their specific challenges.
Ben’s turning point was when he realised he had more agency than he thought he had, and started working on his mindset.
Building influence through communication and relationships
He then started to engage his board and team members individually, asking them how he could help them, instead of making demands. He focused on their different personalities and styles of communication, and learned to speak to them accordingly.
The Result
Stronger relationships, buy-in, and a more aligned team
This strategy had a double impact: it transformed Ben’s relationship with the most influential board members, who now paid more attention to what he and his team were saying.
And his team felt listened to, with a clear pathway of actions in front of them.
Watch Ben talking about:
- How he struggled to provide a direction for his team
- How he changed his mindset and managed to focus on what he could control, and how to work with his team in line with their personalities
- How this process completely transformed his team’s role within the business to become more strategic and influential
Watch this other video in which Ben talks about his experience of working with me
” It’s an opportunity to challenge who you are, and question your values, what you are trying to achieve and how you’re trying to achieve it, and come out a better you, equipped to do what you need to do. “
Ben Goodare
Head of Sustainability, Renishaw
Amit’s success story
From Technical Expert to Influential Sustainability Leader
Amit, the Head of Sustainability and ESG at a medium-sized construction company in Italy, used the method you’ll learn in this programme to prepare for an internal meeting about how to present two environmental certification schemes to a key client. Previously, he hadn’t given much thought to tailoring communication styles to his audience.
Previously, he hadn’t given much thought to tailoring communication styles to his audience.
As a technical professional and keen environmentalist, Amit’s instinct was to focus on the schemes’ technical and ethical aspects. However, this approach didn’t align with the MD’s focus on ROI or the Project Coordinator’s detail-oriented mindset.
The Preparation Understanding the audience before the conversation
I worked with Amit over the years, so before this particular important meeting, he did some prep work following the method.
He spent some time working out his audience’s personalities, potential objections, needs and wants, and as a consequence, he adapted his standard presentation to include economic and technical evidence, and left out the ethical arguments, because he knew these would not appeal to them.
The Result
Greater buy-in, stronger communication, and enhanced credibility
This targeted approach led to his strategy being accepted and enhanced his credibility as a well- rounded leader.
“Being mentored and coached by Virginia was transformational. With her long experience in sustainability, her sensibility and her ability to see the big picture, every session was amazingly useful and a pathfinder
Amit Anafi
Head of Sustainability & ESG, II Prisma
Wanna be the next success story, but don’t know where to start?
