Globally and nationally in Sweden, we see an increased awareness of the interconnectedness of sustainability challenges and an understanding that no single actor or sector possesses the resources, knowledge or creativity needed to develop and implement holistic solutions to bring about disruptive transformations of the currently unsustainable system. This has led to an increased demand for collaborative governance and values-based responsible leadership. Despite this growing interest, we identify a gap in research regarding what leadership approach and competencies are needed to harness the potential of collaboration. The purpose of this study is to understand individual leaders’ perspectives on responsible leadership in collaborative governance aimed at systemic sustainable development. By gathering qualitative data through semi-structured interviews with 9 leaders active in collaborative governance in Sweden we contribute with research on internal competencies in leadership. We analyze the individual leaders’ reflections in relation to three concepts from responsible leadership: ethics and values, self-awareness and stakeholder relations. Through this study we find that responsible leadership provides a suitable holistic approach to address the complex challenges of collaborative governance aimed at systemic sustainable development. In addition, we find that the three internal competencies in focus for this study are deeply interconnected and create synergies when applied in collaborative governance. Lastly, we identify that leaders’ self-awareness reflects an interconnectedness between the leaders’ perception of their own inner sustainability and the sustainability of the outer world consisting of stakeholder relations and the societal system they strive to change through their leadership. Through our findings we identify a need for further qualitative research applying an integrated approach to responsible leadership studies through which the synergies and interconnections of competencies can be better understood.