Abstract: This paper presents the case that sustainability should be acknowledged as an important proficiency in organisational leaders. Arguably, sustainability requirements have been present in organisations for some time, however, sustainability has not usually been expected of leaders themselves. Conversely, the advent of new requirements of organisations and its leadership are increasing. Therefore, successful leadership will not be solely measured on effectiveness criteria, but gradually on the ethics that leaders exhibit when taking on environmental and social initiatives. In the development of both leadership in organisations and individual leaders, the application of a competence framework is prevailing among human resource practitioners, portraying a popular move toward conceptualising the attributes that ought to be developed in leaders to ensure their effectiveness in organisations. Furthermore, it is argued that if sustainability was a proficiency that was incorporated by the leadership of organisations, then leaders would be better able to achieve the triple bottom line. This paper proposes that individualised consideration, empathy, enthusiasm to serve and modesty are some of the attribute of sustainability proficiency in leadership, which would distinguish this style of leadership from other leadership competencies. The paper also proposes suggestions for further research on sustainability as vital a leadership proficiency.
Index Terms - Corporate citizenship, leadership proficiency, sustainability, triple bottom line.