If the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that resilient, effective, innovative leaders are needed more now than ever before.
But leading through a crisis, like the pandemic, requires executives to both lead and manage effectively. It’s very much a push-pull, requiring leaders to make fast, in-the-moment decisions, while also making sure to keep an eye on the long-term future.
Bradley Fauteux is a business strategist and management consultant with twenty years of senior management and executive-level experience.
With specific experience in the areas of service delivery, organizational design, business development, relationship management, and financial management, Bradley has been focused on leading with creativity and resiliency.
“Resilience requires vulnerability,” he shares. “You also need to be certain of your values, and make sure you don’t lose sight of what’s truly important to you. Leadership is authentic when it is lived through your own personal values.”
Leadership will look different in a post-pandemic world, so how can executives like Bradley prepare for this next era?
Here is Bradley Fauteux on how can leaders step to the plate, and lead with authenticity, innovation, and honesty in the coming years…
We are in unprecedented times right now. How should leaders learn and grow from this experience so they can help the world move forward?
Bradley Fauteux:
The fundamentals of the workplace have changed forever. I am hopeful that leaders are open to continuing with some of these changes into the future. Adaptability has always been a key leadership trait, and it has been proven during the pandemic more than over. For example, the office as a place to work will never be the same and now the office is everywhere and anywhere. As leaders, we have had to adapt to leading virtual teams in non-standard work environments. As a disruption, working remotely has been an enormous change to so many of our leadership and work environments. Our adaptation to it will need to be the standard ongoing because there is very likely no going back to how it was before.
You’ve spent the majority of your career finding ways to champion the environment and enlisting others in support of sustainability initiatives and the preservation of our natural resources. Why is this cause so important to you?
Bradley Fauteux:
All of us are in this together. The environment is a human issue and it impacts everyone in every industry, walk of life, country, etc. People see doing things more sustainably and in a way that does not impact the environment as a huge challenge and they also see these things as something environmentalists do. I need environmental and sustainability work to be seen as ALL of our work and as ubiquitous in everything that we do.
You’ve been a champion for social entrepreneurship, mission-driven enterprises that play the role of change agents. What led you down that path?
Bradley Fauteux:
I come from a family that believed in service to others as an important value. These ways of working all create meaning for me in the work that I do. We spend so much time at work in our lives and there is so much we can do to benefit others…why not combine the two?
With such extensive experience in the environmental space, in your opinion, what does it take to increase community awareness, support and, ultimately, broader advocacy for environmental imperatives?
Bradley Fauteux:
Advocacy is a function of awareness and understanding. It’s hard for people to advocate for something they have never seen or experienced or that they don’t have a connection to. There is a famous quote from Baba Dioum, “In the end we will conserve only what we love, we will love only what we understand, and we will understand only what we are taught.”
What advice would you give to young, up-and-coming leaders looking to follow in your footsteps?
Bradley Fauteux:
Be yourself. Be sure of your values and that you are finding work that fits those values but also don’t be afraid to choose work where you think on the strength of those values that you can make lasting change.
