Steve Kempster – författare

Realising Good Growth is a practical and purposeful guidebook for leaders wishing to take a different path on a journey towards collective purpose and a better world, where profit is not the destination, just one of the sturdy pillars that supports the journey.

Values to shape your journey

Our blueprint is drawn with values of sustainability, long-term vision, mutual enhancement and cooperation.

Digital support

The guidebook is supported by a range of integrated, tried-and-tested digital tools and accompanying website for practical use.

What''s in it for you and others?

For businesses, the regenerative opportunity is about greater competitive advantage, retaining and attracting the best employees, enhanced innovation and productivity, and a greater return on all assets...

...But that fades into the shade in comparison to enhancing lives and enabling humanity to flourish.

True success is measured not by profits alone, but by the lives we enrich and the future we create for all.

Humanity has a big problem. Growth! More precisely the nature of growth and its consequences.We are passengers on a runaway train, hurtling toward a fractured and barren landscape. If we do not pull the emergency brake soon, we will leave our children stranded in a desolate wasteland, where the fertile fields of today are but a distant memory.But imagine a different outcome if this is resolved.Imagine a different path to follow, one less travelled, where businesses are a force for good.Imagine a regenerative economy led by businesses of all sizes pursuing an agenda of Good Growth – where employees have a deep sense of engagement and ownership in helping to grow businesses that deliver social value.Now, it is about experience, fulfilment and community – not one of self-centred endless consumption.

Realising Good Growth is a practical and purposeful guidebook for leaders wishing to take a different path on a journey towards collective purpose and a better world, where profit is not the destination, just one of the sturdy pillars that supports the journey.

Values to shape your journey

Our blueprint is drawn with values of sustainability, long-term vision, mutual enhancement and cooperation.

Digital support

The guidebook is supported by a range of integrated, tried-and-tested digital tools and accompanying website for practical use.

What''s in it for you and others?

For businesses, the regenerative opportunity is about greater competitive advantage, retaining and attracting the best employees, enhanced innovation and productivity, and a greater return on all assets...

...But that fades into the shade in comparison to enhancing lives and enabling humanity to flourish.

True success is measured not by profits alone, but by the lives we enrich and the future we create for all.

Humanity has a big problem. Growth! More precisely the nature of growth and its consequences.We are passengers on a runaway train, hurtling toward a fractured and barren landscape. If we do not pull the emergency brake soon, we will leave our children stranded in a desolate wasteland, where the fertile fields of today are but a distant memory.But imagine a different outcome if this is resolved.Imagine a different path to follow, one less travelled, where businesses are a force for good.Imagine a regenerative economy led by businesses of all sizes pursuing an agenda of Good Growth – where employees have a deep sense of engagement and ownership in helping to grow businesses that deliver social value.Now, it is about experience, fulfilment and community – not one of self-centred endless consumption.

It is time for the development of a new kind of business leadership. Global needs call for a revision of market capitalism and a move towards moral capitalism; a move "from value to values, from shareholders to stakeholders, and from balance sheets to balanced development" (Kofi Annan).

With the challenge of this transition in mind, this book argues that it is time for a new understanding of leadership, a new romanticism which looks behind the overvalued, heroic leadership notion. The editors explore a romanticized rhetoric and situate it within current discourses of authentic, distributed and ethical leadership, where societal, economic and environmental challenges require us to take a collective lead towards doing good and growing well.

Exploring this dichotomy of romantic ideal and essential requirement, this book combines the insights of leading academics and with those of practitioners in the field. Thought-provoking and engaging it will challenge both thinking and practice, and is essential reading for all those operating or researching in the field of leadership, particularly those who realize the overwhelming challenges of sustainability, and corporate social responsibility which the world now faces.

It is time for the development of a new kind of business leadership. Global needs call for a revision of market capitalism and a move towards moral capitalism; a move "from value to values, from shareholders to stakeholders, and from balance sheets to balanced development" (Kofi Annan).

With the challenge of this transition in mind, this book argues that it is time for a new understanding of leadership, a new romanticism which looks behind the overvalued, heroic leadership notion. The editors explore a romanticized rhetoric and situate it within current discourses of authentic, distributed and ethical leadership, where societal, economic and environmental challenges require us to take a collective lead towards doing good and growing well.

Exploring this dichotomy of romantic ideal and essential requirement, this book combines the insights of leading academics and with those of practitioners in the field. Thought-provoking and engaging it will challenge both thinking and practice, and is essential reading for all those operating or researching in the field of leadership, particularly those who realize the overwhelming challenges of sustainability, and corporate social responsibility which the world now faces.

This book seeks to answer the question of ‘leadership for what?’. We shall outline an answer by focusing on responsible leadership of purpose through an inter-disciplinary perspective. Responsible leadership moves the axis of leadership from leader-followers to leader-stakeholders; away from looking at leadership as person-centric – the qualities, abilities, and effectiveness of the leader, to a focus on the purposes, responsibilities and activities of leadership. Leadership orientation is about realising value for a range of constituencies, not just the shareholders of the business. In this way this book offers up an alternative business model to that of dominant neo-liberal approaches to capitalism and its flow-on effect to the leadership project. This is a model that draws on a most obvious assumption – if leaders maximise the use of all the capitals of their business they will maximise their dividends, and thus deliver their responsibility to the shareholders as well as other relevant stakeholders.

This book explores how five dividends (based on five capitals) can be developed through attention to a sixth dividend (and sixth capital) – the dividend from our planet and communities. The planetary dividend is the flourishing of humanity – but it is also a significant dividend to the business. For example, by engaging the business in a purpose-led orientation to enhance the planetary dividend, the dividend from human resourcefulness becomes manifest – employee sense of purpose, commitment, passion and energy. The realisation of such can also connect with dividends from innovation, operations and brands. For example, the business benefits from a purpose-driven brand.

In short, responsible leadership of purpose outlines a case for leadership to focus on a connected portfolio of ‘good’ dividends as an answer to the question ‘leadership for what?’ The book is written by academics and organisational leaders. It draws on a range of research with leaders from a variety of contexts to illustrate the challenges but also the benefits of this argument. It is an ambitious book: ambitious, in terms of moving leadership towards realising purpose; ambitious by seeking to align a range of business disciplines around responsible leadership; and ambitious because it challenges the dominant assumptions that shape business leadership. However, it is based on a simple question: why would a business not wish to generate good dividends for all its stakeholders?

This book seeks to answer the question of ‘leadership for what?’. We shall outline an answer by focusing on responsible leadership of purpose through an inter-disciplinary perspective. Responsible leadership moves the axis of leadership from leader-followers to leader-stakeholders; away from looking at leadership as person-centric – the qualities, abilities, and effectiveness of the leader, to a focus on the purposes, responsibilities and activities of leadership. Leadership orientation is about realising value for a range of constituencies, not just the shareholders of the business. In this way this book offers up an alternative business model to that of dominant neo-liberal approaches to capitalism and its flow-on effect to the leadership project. This is a model that draws on a most obvious assumption – if leaders maximise the use of all the capitals of their business they will maximise their dividends, and thus deliver their responsibility to the shareholders as well as other relevant stakeholders.

This book explores how five dividends (based on five capitals) can be developed through attention to a sixth dividend (and sixth capital) – the dividend from our planet and communities. The planetary dividend is the flourishing of humanity – but it is also a significant dividend to the business. For example, by engaging the business in a purpose-led orientation to enhance the planetary dividend, the dividend from human resourcefulness becomes manifest – employee sense of purpose, commitment, passion and energy. The realisation of such can also connect with dividends from innovation, operations and brands. For example, the business benefits from a purpose-driven brand.

In short, responsible leadership of purpose outlines a case for leadership to focus on a connected portfolio of ‘good’ dividends as an answer to the question ‘leadership for what?’ The book is written by academics and organisational leaders. It draws on a range of research with leaders from a variety of contexts to illustrate the challenges but also the benefits of this argument. It is an ambitious book: ambitious, in terms of moving leadership towards realising purpose; ambitious by seeking to align a range of business disciplines around responsible leadership; and ambitious because it challenges the dominant assumptions that shape business leadership. However, it is based on a simple question: why would a business not wish to generate good dividends for all its stakeholders?

Academics as well as students will benefit from the research-based examination of leadership learning in the SME context, as it will allow them to stand in the shoes of owners or managers. Policy makers and practitioners will also find the narrative both revealing and informative.

The Editors have selected a diverse range of approaches to leadership development which demonstrate the broad platform of techniques and methods that enable leadership in individuals and organisations to flourish. This Field Guide is embedded in theoretical and academic ideas but still provides accessible and comprehensive knowledge to development teams. Key points at the end of each chapter help the reader to adopt or translate the approaches for their own organisation and industrial context.

This Field Guide will be an invaluable resource for human resource specialists, learning facilitators and trainers, and faculty heads. It will also appeal to leadership academics and postgraduate students, such as Masters students in business and psychology, and those focusing on careers in human resources and education.

Contributors: S.J. Allen, A. Armitage, S. Bainbridge, S. Barnes, R. Bathurst, J. Billsberry, P. Chapman, K. DeCay, G. Edwards, C.P. Egri, S. Endres, J.L. Goolsby, J. Gosling, E. Guthey, B. Hawkins, C. Jarvis, D.M. Jenkins, S. Kempster, F. Kennedy, D. Ladkin, J. MacInnes, N. Modha, J.C. Quick, D. Schedlitzki, A.J. Schwartz, W.I. Serhane, S. Smith, A.F. Turner, M. Uhl-Bien, E. Watton, J. Weibler, S. Western