Soft skills for hard targets: Why leaders need IDGs to reach the SDGs 

Why is a new type of goal necessary?

Driving sustainability transformation is much harder than many had anticipated. Meeting the SDGs poses multifaceted challenges for which there are no established models or easy answers. To tackle them, leaders need to be emotionally intelligent, resilient, and willing to engage in ongoing development and collaborate with multiple stakeholders. Meaningful progress thus requires strengthening the leadership capabilities of sustainability champions – not merely their strategic acumen and mastery of practical tools.

What are the IDGs?

In November 2023, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), together with various non-profit and business education institutions established the Inner Development Goals (IDGs) as a necessary supplement to the SDGs.

The IDGs start from the premise that accumulating more knowledge about the climate crisis and other societal problems will not lead to the required level of action – simply investing in more think tanks, technologies, and policy instruments seems unlikely to resolve them.

The IDG framework consists of five dimensions and 23 transformational skills that are critical for leaders to drive necessary change. These so-called ‘soft’ skills are needed to capture existing inner resources and help organizations turn them towards their ongoing sustainability efforts. The five dimensions are:

1. Being – Relationship to Self
2. Thinking – Cognitive Skills
3. Relating – Caring for Others and the World
4. Collaborating – Social Skills
5. Acting – Enabling Change