*5.1.2 Failure to realise the diversity of strategic thinking competencies*

The pitfall is that the frameworks of sustainable leadership emphasise the necessity of a long-term perspective as if this is the only strategic thinking competence. For instance, the framework by Avery and Bergsteiner [17] refers to only long- or short-term views and the capacity to endure over time. Hargreaves and Fink [29] discuss sustainability vision, values and holistic approach. Davies [20] hinge on the capacity to decipher strategic priorities and cohesive and longer-term development, while Lambert [21] focuses on commitment at all levels of leadership development. In each framework, there is a failure to recognise the broad scope and diversity of strategic thinking competencies critical for sustainability. Ledtka [43] asserts that there are five strategic thinking competencies: Systems perspective, intent-focused thinking, thinking in time, hypothesis-driven thinking and intelligent opportunism. With this in mind, it is clear that none of the frameworks in **Table 2** is inclusive enough to embrace all of these strategic thinking

### *The Nature of Sustainable Leadership: Pitfalls, Insights and New Model DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.108833*

competencies. However, each competence highlighted by Ledtka [43] is crucial for sustainable leadership. For example, the competence of systems perspective is about seeing the inter-connectedness, interdependencies and patterns in the various components over time. Second, the competence of intent-focused or vision-driven thinking is driven by goals, strategic intent and a sense of destiny. Third, the competence of thinking in time is about connecting the past, present and future (e.g. understanding the gap between the present and the desired future and the clear focus on what needs to be done and what can be done). Fourth, the competence of hypothesis-driven thinking is the ability to see and formulate future possibilities and plans as hypotheses. Lastly, the competence of intelligent opportunism requires balancing strategic intent with the flexibility to adapt to emergent opportunities in the environment (e.g. willingness to re-examine strategic intent and adapt the strategy to changing situations). As an aspect of strategic thinking, creative thinking includes gaining new insights and different ideas through existing information to see new patterns of how to reinforce sustainability. Marketoriented thinking helps sustainable leadership to search for alternative ways to attain sustainable competitive advantage. A broad scope of strategic thinking competencies by sustainable leadership helps to create transformative capacity, build resilience and implement systemic interventions while considering unintended consequences and cascading effects.
