Leading with a purpose – My transition from Quality and business management into Sustainability leadership
Adeepa Chandrawansa’s student blog text from Master’s degree programme of Sustainability Leadership.
My professional life revolved around quality management, operational efficiency, financial performance, customer satisfaction and strategic management for more than a decade. With an Entrepreneurship and Management bachelor’s degree along with 11 years professional experience in the Revenue Cycle management industry , I expertise in optimizing performance and improving financial outcomes. At the capacity of Operations Manager, I was leading a group of team members towards a short term financial goals of clients and long term financial sustainability at organizational level by maximizing efficiencies and performance. Simultaneously, as a certified lead auditor in ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management, I was mastering the quality driven processes and systems to reduce wastage to achieve continuous improvement.
While I am been genuinely appreciative about my achievements, somewhere down the line, I was looking for a change-I would call it as a “meaningful change” into my direction of life. I was searching for a challenge or a shift which can bring me something more than just a qualification to my resume. That led to searching for interesting master’s degree programs which meets the requirements. The Sustainability Leadership program at the University of Eastern Finland (UEF) gained my attention out of other programs as it was newly introduced, and leadership is one of my preferred subjects for a study. Core themes such as circular and social economy, digitalization and sustainability, future leadership, and sustainable entrepreneurship which were published on the UEF website encouraged my willingness to apply for this program. These themes sounded familiar with my background of quality management as I am a person who is looking ways to take maximum out of resources and continues improvement. I thought this will answer a question which I always questioning myself “ is it enough achieving financial sustainability or stability?.”
The first year of study was eye-opening and I am humbly satisfied with my choice. I remember my turning point, where our course system supported me to connect dots between business perspective into environment and social aspects. Learning with multinational colleagues added a unique flavor of cultural and social phenomena to my experience. Given that we are all from diverse backgrounds and work experience, we have a lot to learn from each other. Workshops , group discussions and real world case example discussions have been a major part of my learning journey throughout. My thought process evolved from financial performance to social and environmental sustainability for a sustainable future.
The journey so far was not always a smooth sail, it of course had challenges. The first challenge was the study approach, where I am supposed to take full ownership in planning the learning journey with guidance of my personal study planner. Simultaneously, it was first time, I was learning based on independent study method on some courses and focusing more on reading scholarly articles and books. Adapting to these methods initially felt challenging and surprising as I learnt so far in my life based on a very traditional method. However, this program thoughtfully designed to support students to gradually adapt to this process. Moving beyond business KPIs and metrics was not easy challenge to accomplish at times. This program taught me to bring that business mindset into environmental policies, sustainability goals and social attributes. Shifting to Finland leaving my family in my homeland, was a heartfelt battle . However, nature in Finland, long walks by the lakes, positive mindset and support of my colleagues, teachers and family was a great blessing to overcome this milestone.
As I look forward to the future, I see myself becoming as a catalyst who transforms business perspective into a sustainable business. Utilizing my compliance knowledge and business experience to go beyond the KPIs and compliance checklist to create sustainability rooted business practices is my goal. As I continue this journey with UEF and my professional life, I will be committed to learning and contributing more in a sustainable way.
My vision for a sustainable future comes with business becoming more conscious about purpose and no longer separates profit from purpose. The more I learn about sustainability, I feel like it is about mindset, ability to connect actions into consequences or understand the bigger picture, thereby plan actions to make a better outcome in terms of business, environment ,society and more over creating a world where there is a future for the business to perform more better.
Ultimately, embracing change with confidence is not optional but essential for any personal and organizational development. The “meaningful change” what I was seeking for , I am glad that I found it!
Adeepa Chandrawansa (adeechan@student.uef.fi)