Sustainable Leadership Courses for a Better World
Learn how Sustainable Leadership drives high performance, resilience and enables a better future for people and the planet
Looking to ensure high performance and to make a difference in the wider world?
Help protect your brand. Motivate customers and employees. Create long-term value for all stakeholders including society and the planet. Get through recessions and crises stronger.
Each Sustainable Leadership practice adds proven value to
your organisation. E.g. being more ethical adds 7% to profits and return on assets. Training all employees can add 17% to your share price.
Learn how to use these and other evidence-based practices with us.
- Foundations course – find out how to apply Sustainable Leadership to your own team
- Senior Practitioner course – deepen your understanding of Sustainable Leadership and its outcomes
Advanced Practitioner course – become licensed for a new career as advisor to others
Micro courses – keep up with current thinking
Capsules – focus on the expertise you need immediately
Study Tours – meet leaders of sustainably-run companies
Membership – stay up-to-date with our quality, focused content
In-house programs – contact us
Ensure your organisation benefits from Sustainable Leadership.
Our Courses
Signature courses
Foundations in Sustainable Leadership
The Foundations course provides you with a practical understanding of Sustainable Leadership that you can apply in across all sectors from business to government and nonprofits.
Upon completion, you become certified in applying sustainable leadership practices to enhance your own team’s performance and resilience.
Senior Practitioner in Sustainable Leadership
Help your team or organisation achieve high performance by deepening your knowledge of the 23 evidence-based Sustainable Leadership practices that lead to great business outcomes, while simultaneously doing good for society and the planet.
This course builds on Foundations in Sustainable Leadership.
Advanced Practitioner in Sustainable Leadership
This course enables Senior Practitioners to become licensed as Advanced Practitioners in Sustainable Leadership. Here you learn to use our advanced tools to transform organisations.
Gaining this licence enhances your skillset as a consultant or change agent to make leadership across your entire business more sustainable.
Micro courses
Facilitators: Our facilitators are renowned experts in their fields who have taught at leading universities and business schools
Evidence-based content: All courses are based on evidence from research and practice
Applied focus: You can apply the learnings directly to improve outcomes in your own team or organisation
Live online sessions: Each micro course is accompanied by an online networking session with other participants and the expert facilitator
Self-paced: Work at your own pace
Presentations: Material is presented in short videos with lessons and activities that you can complete within a lunch hour
Time required: 10 hours or less
Learning aids: Supplementary materials to aid understanding include expert videos, case studies, activities, podcasts and learning applications
Certificate: Complete the final quiz and earn a Certificate of Completion from the Institute for Sustainable Leadership
Leading Better Meetings
Learn evidence-based ways of making your meetings more productive and enjoyable with organisational expert, Dr Gayle Avery.
- By the end of this course, you will know how to run both online and in person meetings efficiently and effectively, while improving many Sustainable Leadership outcomes in the process.
The Brain and Sustainable Leadership
Explore how the brain affects work behaviour with renowned neuroscientist, Dr Mark Williams.
Discover how to manage people using human nature and behavioural patterns to improve productivity, collaboration and communication, while aligning with Sustainable Leadership practices.
Essential Leadership Tools
Gain highly practical tools that you can apply from day one. Ideal for new managers and leaders and as a refresher for experienced managers.
Dr Gayle Avery shows you how to guide, develop and inspire your team using simple tools that improve team performance, effectiveness and well-being.
Sustainable Leadership in Brief
Dr Gayle Avery takes you on a journey into rethinking leadership around 23 evidence-based sustainable leadership practices.
- By the end of this course, you will have a greater understanding of Sustainable Leadership practices and be able to rethink your practices to enable better financial and sustainable outcomes.
Capsules - 1 hour
Time for Action
Have solid evidence at your fingertips for why your business needs to embrace Sustainable Leadership. Get better business outcomes and make the world more resilient and sustainable.
- This capsule will help prepare you to put your organisation at the forefront of sustainable practices while inspiring and motivating your own team to raise productivity and performance.
Sustainable Honeybee Leadership
Find out the differences between “Honeybee” and “Locust” approaches to running organisations and their dramatically different performance and sustainability outcomes.
- By analysing these differences and the leadership actions in your own organisation, you will know how to make your firm more resilient and high performing.
Accountability and Leadership
Accountability is the glue that keeps organisations, teams and whole societies together. But how you apply accountability properly depends on the prevailing leadership culture.
This capsule equips you to develop an accountability system that works for your team’s leadership culture, will help with enhancing morale and motivation and aligns with other Sustainable Leadership practices.
Choosing your Leadership Culture
Getting the leadership culture right increases the resilience and performance of your team. Be able to align people, systems and processes to create a leadership culture that fits.
On finishing this capsule, you’ll know how to adapt the leadership culture to increase your team’s performance, productivity and motivation, and why some cultures are more effective than others.
Changing Habits to Change Culture
It can be hard to change the way we do things. A renowned neuroscientist shows you how to hack your own habits and those that underpin your team’s culture.
After completing this very practical capsule, you’ll be equipped to form better habits, modify the triggers preventing change, alter your team’s culture and support members in their personal development, and even help family members change their ways.
Purpose and the SDGs
The evidence is clear – having a purpose that reaches beyond the organisation enhances business performance, financial outcomes and productivity. Leaders are looking to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for inspiration.
This capsule equips you to align your people around a shared social purpose derived from the SDGs and to critically assess your own organisation’s performance on the SDGs.
The Honeybee Practices
Each of the 23 evidence-based Honeybee practices are explained using the Sustainable Leadership Grid to contrast them with unsustainable business-as-usual or “Locust” leadership characteristics.
This capsule will enable you to analyse the leadership practices in your organisation and evaluate which ones will be most productive.
Effective Persuasion NEW!
Being able to persuade others is an essential skill for managers, leaders and change agents to master in order to transform their team or organisation towards more sustainable practices.
In this capsule, rhetoric guru and strategist, Randal Tame provides a set of proven tools and techniques to help you hone your persuasion skills step-by-step.
In-house courses for corporate clients
We provide tailored programs and exclusive online discussions
Motivate your teams
Prepare upcoming leaders
Develop a team of experts in Sustainable Leadership
Transform into a resilient, high performing business
Mini Study Tours
A rare opportunity for a behind-the-scenes visit to companies who successfully follow sustainable leadership, including in person discussions with the MD.
Attend as an individual or contact us to discuss an exclusive customised study tour for your organisation.
What our participants say
Why Sustainable Leadership?
You know that "business as usual" isn't working and want an alternative system with a proven track record.
You're an experienced manager or non-executive board director and want to recession-proof your organisation.
You're a consultant looking to expand your business by providing sought-after expertise.
You want to be sure that your business, government or nonprofit organisation is up-to-date with current thinking.
Our Founders
Dr Gayle Avery
Gayle Avery, co-founder of the Institute for Sustainable Leadership in 2007, is highly experienced in leadership development for executives globally, including in Australia, China, Europe, Laos, New Zealand and Thailand.
She is passionate about helping senior leaders develop a systematic approach to leadership to enable them to create long-lasting and resilient enterprises.
An honorary professor at various leading universities, she is fastidious in ensuring that course material is based on evidence from research and practice.
Dr Harald Bergsteiner
Harry Bergsteiner is a co-founder of the Institute for Sustainable Leadership, and is a long-established thought leader in Sustainable Leadership.
A former adjunct university professor, Harry specialises in developing tools and other resources to help managers implement Sustainable Leadership in their organisations.
Harry’s other areas of expertise include accountability, ethics and country competitiveness. Harry has shown that countries that operate on Sustainable Leadership outperform those that don’t.
Our Membership Area
Become a member of the ISL community working towards a better, more sustainable future for just $99 a year.
- Keep yourself informed with our:
- – Be Inspired! video collection
- – Selected Podcasts
- – Essential Readings
- – Research Tidbits
Enjoy discounts on ISL’s books, conferences, study tours, plus much more…
Who we've taught
Our instructors have designed and taught leadership for corporate clients in Australia and the Asia Pacific region, including:
Abbott, Allianz, AMP Capital Investors, ANZ National Bank of NZ, ASIC, NSW Attorney-General’s Department, Audit Office of NSW, Aussie Home Loans, Avant, Baxter Healthcare, B Braun, China Europe International Business School (CEIBS), Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA), Covance, CSPC (China), CapGemini, Datacom, Delta Group, Deutsche Bank, Employers Mutual, G77, Khungfu (China), Landcom, Lumley, McDonald’s, Macquarie Graduate School of Management, Macquarie University Global Leadership Program, Munich Reinsurance Australia, NSW Sport & Recreation, Pfizer, ProVision, Qantas, Pernod Ricard, Premium Wine Brands, Rail Access Corporation, Reserve Bank of Australia, RSEA Safety, Shanghai General Motors, Shanghai hospital pharmacists, Siemens, Sun Microsystems, NSW TAFE, Tamworth TAFE, TMP, Thomson’s Publishers, Westpac, Woolworths.
We support the UN’s 17 sustainable development goals.
ISL has always argued, and has supporting evidence, that economic growth and financial success can be attained as part of sustainably-led management.
Frequently Asked Questions
A global revolution in rethinking leadership is well underway. The world is moving rapidly towards Sustainable Leadership practices requiring greater ethics and accountability, caring for all stakeholders while fostering innovation, the environment and society.
Joining now allows you to become an early adopter of this major shift, just as many leading global companies have done.
Yes! We often run special sessions for groups or teams, with their own live calls. This is a powerful way of getting people to discuss and reflect on leadership practices in a particular team or organisation.
Each member enrols in the course, completes the online lessons at their own pace but joins the group for the live online discussions.
Courses with practical training and case studies suitable for SMEs, big corporations, government and nonprofits.
Expert instructors facilitate deep learning, understanding and implementation.
You’ll join an international community of like-minded people who care for their business, people and the planet.
Effective, self-paced, community-based online courses to enjoy while developing your leadership skills.
Yes we do! Take a look at our professional development funding request pack pdf – you’re welcome to use any materials in there that may be useful for you.
Yes! The lecture and activity modules are presented in manageable segments. You can learn at times that suit you.
The online Live Calls are scheduled at specific times. Participants find these interactive events highly valuable, but attendance at these online calls is optional.
We strongly recommend that you attend the Live Calls to meet members of the ISL community.
You can start the online coursework as soon as you enrol. Bring your questions or topics related to the course to the Live Calls.
We have courses for all time budgets!
You can begin with one of our specialised 10-hour micro courses or fit some of our 1-hour learning capsules into your lunch breaks. Stop and start at your own convenience.
Join our 1-day visiting sustainable companies program: Sustainable Leadership in Action.
Enrol in one of our signature courses:
* Foundations in Sustainable Leadership (certification)
* Senior Practitioner in Sustainable Leadership (senior certification) or
* Advanced Practitioner in Sustainable Leadership program that enables you to become licensed.
Stay up to date with the latest developments by taking out an annual membership and enjoy a range of benefits.
Participants in our courses are automatically members for the duration of their studies (up to 12 months).
No! Coming to the Live Calls is entirely optional but most people think these sessions are the highlight of the course. You get to meet and discuss with others who are passionate about sustainable leadership, including your facilitator.
Practitioners and speakers from industry are an important part of our work.
Yes, courses leading to certification or licensing in Sustainable Leadership have tests.
At the end of most modules, short quizzes allow you to test your knowledge. You can retake these quizzes until you achieve a passing grade. The quizzes are designed to help you learn and take the form of multiple choice and true/false questions.
In the last module of a certification or licensing course, the final test covers all the material in the course. This is the only module in a course that requires you to complete the quiz or other set activity successfully (80% correct) within two attempts. If this doesn’t happen, one of our dedicated community of facilitators will make direct contact with you to help you in meeting the requirements of this module.
You will receive your certificate of completion for a micro course after passing the final quiz with 60% of answers correct.
Our learning capsules conclude with a knowledge quiz.
We understand that sometimes people can’t continue a course for a variety of reasons. As such we offer you a 50% refund if you have visited up to and including Module 2, Lesson 2 in the Foundations in Sustainable Leadership, Senior Practitioner or Advanced Practitioner courses. If you have chosen to progress to the next lesson (Module 2, Lesson 3) no refund will apply.
No refunds are available for the annual membership, nor for the micro courses or capsules because of their short duration.
For study tours and conferences, please see the individual information page.
You cease being a member when your annual membership expires and you choose not to renew.
The Australian government requires us to charge Australian residents the prevailing rate of Goods & Services Tax. This tax does not apply to residents of other countries.