For would-be sustainability professionals, a resume boasting impressive degrees is certainly important, and will help get a foot in the door. But what really counts on the job are interpersonal skills and a passion for sustainability, attributes that are often overlooked by job seekers, say experts.
According to a recent Vox Global/Weinreb Group report, 78 percent of sustainability leaders surveyed said they had assumed subject matter expertise would be the most important factor in predicting success. Once on the job, however, 100 percent of respondents said interpersonal skills turned out to be the most critical element to achieving their sustainability goals.
Ellen Weinreb, founder of the Weinreb Group, a sustainability recruiting firm, said interpersonal skills are crucial in overcoming a sustainability professional’s biggest challenge: moving things forward in a corporate culture that is often entrenched in the ways of the past.
“Sustainability professionals are like pioneers, forging new frontiers,” said Weinreb, who is also a columnist for GreenBiz. “Their job is to convince people who are used to doing things the traditional way to look at things differently.”
Changing mindsets is not an easy task. Sustainability professionals therefore need to act like corporate chameleons, said Weinreb, and learn to speak the language of whomever it is they are dealing with. They also need to work to educate and engage employees, and bring people from different departments together who normally wouldn’t do so.
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This doesn't surprise me. The
This doesn't surprise me. The effective use of interpersonal skills is important in any job a person decides to undertake. We are, after all, social beings, and our success in life will be determined in large part by how well we can relate to others.
You write that 78% of those
You write that 78% of those surveyed thought their experience would be more valuable to their new position but that their answer flipped after being on the job for a while. Thank you so much for calling attention to this. I run a summer program for teenagers in Pennsylvania and one of the things we do is teach interpersonal skills. Of all the things that parents and alumni talk about in the years (decades) after camp, it's the interpersonal skills, and the interpersonal connections, that we hear about most. Yet too often I hear from others that it's only "troubled kids" who need to develop their interpersonal skills. I don't understand it! I'm pleased to see you tying corporate success to interpersonal skills. Thank you!
Matthew Smith
Director
Longacre Leadership
http://www.longacre.com/