Heimans Wins Inspired Leadership Award

Purpose co-founder & CEO Jeremy Heimans was recognized in Lisbon at this year’s annual meeting of The Performance Theater, a non-profit foundation that brings together a community of top CEOs, world-class thinkers, and leaders drawn from across disciplines, philosophies, industries and geographies.

From a pool of seven nominees, Heimans was chosen as the recipient of the Inspired Leadership Award, which is given annually to an emerging leader with an existing track record and demonstrated potential to positively impact lives on a global scale.  Traditionally, the Inspired Leadership Award has been presented to established global business pioneers. Recent past winners include Melinda Gates, Richard Branson, Ratan Tata, and Paul Polman. This year marks the first time an emerging leader has been named.

The award ceremony was followed by a Q&A with Heimans moderated by Jeremy Hillman, the ILA committee chairman.

In the discussion, Jeremy overviewed the new power concept he co-developed with Henry Timms (founder of #GivingTuesday and Executive Director of 92Y), which offers a framework for understanding the growing emergence of peer-driven and mass participatory models and values. Citing an « inalienable right to participate » amongst younger generations, he noted that the leader/follower paradigm might be outdated. « Young people don’t just have the sense that they’re followers or consumers alone – they’re actually making things themselves. If you’re a young person today, you might have a media following bigger than most major mainstream outlets. »

He also highlighted a shift away from the traditional charismatic leader in most modern movements, referencing the #BlackLivesMatter movement in the US and a number of other open source movements that have emerged in recent years. « There’s been a complete move away from a hero-leader. Of course, there’s still a lot of strategy involved, and organizers continue to think deeply about how to orchestrate change. But when some one individual tries to rise up and co-opt the movement, they’re pushed back down. Even so, it’d be wrong to say these movements are leaderless. They’re leaderful, with many working together to channel the momentum. »

Heimans also called on the attendees to take bolder action on climate change in the lead up to COP 21 in Paris later this year, emphasizing the enormous opportunity in combining civil society efforts with progressive corporates mobilizing their consumer base. Drawing parallels to the US fights for net neutrality and marriage equality, Heimans highlighted some recent, successful examples of corporates engaging consumers in more political ways. In reflecting upon the conversations on climate at The Performance Theater, Heimans noted:

« We have to move beyond the comfortable. There were some great discussions about climate here, but I’m not sure there was always a delineation between what feels safe – our commitment to sustainability, the need to address climate change – and the moments at which that becomes more uncomfortable. Specifically, we need the members of this community to use their voices more loudly, more clearly, more bravely on climate moving forward. There are a lot of encouraging words. It’s easy for people to sign up to principles and communiqués. The question is: how are they using their political voice? Is there an alignment between the rhetoric and the lobbying, for example? Between the rhetoric and the core business? And how do we get that closer? »

You can read more about the award here.