Cultivating Leadership didn’t have a blueprint for how to tackle B Corp recertification, and there’s a lot to be learned from their collective approach.
Cultivating Leadership started small. In 2011, four friends gathered around a kitchen table on the Kāpiti Coast in Aotearoa New Zealand, dreaming of how they could help leaders navigate the complexities and messiness of human life.
Fifteen years on from those humble brainstorms, the leadership development consultancy has grown to more than 100 people globally, with five trading companies worldwide. But its founding principles have remained consistent.
“Our purpose is – and always has been – to make a difference in the world. Our purpose is to cultivate leadership that shapes a just, diverse, flourishing and sustainable planet,” says Diana Manks, Business Manager at Cultivating Leadership. Becoming a B Corp in 2024 enabled them to ensure these core principles continued to guide the business as it grew. “B Corp’s purpose and values so closely align with our own; it made sense for us to choose to be assessed against their rigorous, globally respected standards.”
For Cultivating Leadership, B Corp Certification was an integral framework for aligning their internal practices with their external purpose. Which is why the business didn’t waste any time undertaking certification for B Lab’s Standards V2.
“It’s important we walk the talk,” says Zac Hardy, Finance Assistant. We deeply believe that all business can be conducted in a way that shows people and place matter.”
B Lab’s Standards V2 signal a significant shift in how B Corps get certified, and are designed to ensure the integrity of the certification over the long term. Rather than a points-based system, the standards feature minimum requirements across seven impact areas: Purpose & Stakeholder Governance; Climate Action; Justice, Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion; Government Affairs & Collective Action; Fair Work; Human Rights; and Environmental Stewardship & Circularity.
For their first certification, Cultivating Leadership worked with a B Corp Consultant. For the recertification, leadership took a different approach. “We treated the recertification as an internal development project,” says Tracey Ralston, Catalyst. “Which turned the work from an overwhelming compliance exercise into a shared goal we could achieve together.”
Using the incoming Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition (ECGT) Directive as a deadline motivator, three Cultivating Leadership team members took on the project with gusto. Over the course of 12 months, the team met biweekly to maintain the momentum, troubleshoot any issues, and support each other.
“This approach complemented how we already operate as a business – because we’re spread out across the globe, we try to ensure we check in on our colleagues and bring our full selves to work. So we’d use this time to make sure we did that as well,” says Tracey.
Once they’d nailed down the Foundation Requirements, the group started working through the Impact Topics and subrequirements based on personal interests, knowledge base, and roles. Rather than using the platform itself, they found the best way to track progress and changes was to create a shared spreadsheet, where they could each easily access one another’s work.
“At first, the spread of data felt daunting; but we leaned into collaboration, splitting the responsibilities.”
Realising that some standards aren’t required until years 3 and 5 significantly guided the team’s focus. “It allowed us to select actions in our plan that we either knew we already met and that just needed to be confirmed, or simply needed to be put in place formally,” says Diana. “Or we could select items that felt particularly relevant for us and our work and our people. This made it possible to meet our self-imposed deadline.”
While the process came with some challenges, Cultivating Leadership was most confident when approaching the Impact Topic of Climate Action, Diana explains. “We had a colleague in a gardener of sustainability role who led a sustainability group. This group led a range of experiments to capture data and analyse home office energy use and flight carbon impact. The B Corp requirements helped us focus on the things that we have control over as a low-impact service delivery business.”
As they worked through recertification, it became clear to Cultivating Leadership that the business was already doing quite a lot of what was required. They just needed to make the processes and procedures explicit and get them down on paper.
“We ended up spending quite a lot of time drafting policies, procedures, and new documents,” says Zac.
“It’s time-consuming, but it’s valuable because it ensures that all businesses in the B Corp community are on a level playing field and have formalised processes in place.”
Some of those new practices included a new way to evaluate potential client and supplier engagements, including creating a risk matrix and suggested mitigations.
“The new standards pushed us to give structure to what was previously an intuitive, values-based decision-making process. The changes have made our operations more robust and will help our colleagues make well-informed decisions about the work they choose to take on, and will support our procurement practices.”
After all that hard work, Cultivating Leadership is proud of what they’ve achieved through certification and the way the V2 Standards have set the business up for the future. “This process is not for the faint-hearted, and it takes a significant amount of resources,” says Zac. “But that’s ultimately a good thing; the process demands that organisations be genuinely committed, willing to dedicate time, practice, and mindful effort.”
Ready to take the next step?
Whether you’re starting your B Corp journey or preparing to recertify, B Lab’s Standards V2 are a chance to recognise what you already do well and find the corner you might have missed. Get started on B Impact.
