Leadership Lessons with Michael Cross

Our sustainability practice lead, Johnny Goldsmith, recently sat down with Michael Cross, National Head of Sustainability at Willmott Dixon to discuss what it takes to be a leader in the industry today.

Drawing on his own background in agriculture, Michael shared insights on leadership, the key challenges facing the sector, and more. From the importance of building consensus and driving meaningful change, to how business leaders can better navigate the complex landscape of environmental and social responsibility, read the full interview below:

What initially drew you to working in sustainability?

My family have been farmers for generations, so I’ve always cared about the environment around us. I think when people have a connection with the environment and landscapes they live in, they make much better decisions about the future of them.

A big part of my life is that connection. So ultimately, that’s what drove me to make the choices that led me to where I am now.

What qualities do you think sustainability leaders need in 2024 and beyond?

The qualities you need in sustainability to lead are pretty much the same as the ones you need to lead in any discipline or sector. Resilience is crucial. As a leader, you experience successes and failures. You need to be able to pick yourself up after those failures and say “okay, we’ll start again.”

When it comes to sustainability specifically, I’d say the ability to build consensus is the most important thing. You’re trying to change established thinking and behaviour, and if you just try to impose that on people, it doesn’t work.

Instead, you’ve got to be curious about why people disagree with you, or why they think differently. You have to be emotionally intelligent, even when you don’t feel like being emotionally intelligent, because that’s how you drive change. And that’s ultimately what sustainability people have to be good at – driving change.

What key industry challenges are you facing right now?

Now, we’re at a place where sustainability is a priority for most big businesses. Or if not a priority, at least fairly embedded into business goals. So, the challenge now is getting down to specifics.

Carbon reduction, for example, is becoming much more challenging. For businesses like Willmott Dixon, who have a long track record of decoupling growth from their carbon emissions, there are no easy solutions left.

Businesses are becoming more competent at managing their scope one and two emissions, so now we need to get to grips with scope three. That’s really challenging, particularly in construction, which is quite a fragmented industry with lots of SMEs that don’t really manage or look at carbon in a structured way.

How do you see the sustainability industry evolving over the next five years?

I think we’ll see a lot more legislation and a lot higher expectations from customers. In some ways, this will help businesses rise to the big challenges we face. The expectation – and in some cases, the law – will be that we understand and can drive down carbon in our own businesses and the businesses we work with.

And we’ll need to do it fast. The next five to ten years are really important. As a society, we’re not on course to curtail global warming – and after we hit 1.5 degrees, we can’t predict with much certainty what will happen, but it wont be good.

So how should leaders look to navigate this?

I think artificial intelligence is something we really need to explore – we need more people who understand it and who can help us to harness it properly in a way that drives change quickly. That is the biggest chance we have against environmental challenges. On that basis, I think we’ll see more AI related roles, and higher demand for AI skills.

There’s an awful lot at stake, but that means the sustainability discipline is an extremely exciting one to be a part of.

How important is sustainability representation at board level, from your perspective?

Luckily, we’ve had strong sustainability representation on the board for quite a long time now. Not only do we have non-executive directors and a Chief Sustainability Officer, but our Chairman and CEO care very much about the impact the company has on both people and the environment.

For me, if organisations don’t have that representation at board level, they’re missing a trick. We know long-term investment is needed to tackle sustainability challenges, and that investment requires buy in from all levels of a company.

What advice do you have for people looking to enter the discipline today?

My advice: pick something you care about. You don’t necessarily need to be in the sustainability sector or have the word sustainability in your job title to make a difference.

Pick a discipline you find engaging, whether that’s designing buildings or delivering healthcare. Everybody has a part to play; use your skills to deliver the change you want to see.

Everything in business can be done better with a longer-term sustainability strategy.

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