While biodiversity declines at an unprecedented rate, it remains poorly considered in business and leadership research. In this paper, our focus is on primary food production, given that changes in land and sea use represent the most significant driver of biodiversity loss. We approached the research question, “What kind of leadership is needed for promoting biodiversity in small-sized primary food production companies?” via a qualitative abductive multi-case study. Our literature review was informed by two strands of literature: environmental leadership and green transformational leadership theory. Our empirical data consists of a multi-case study of eight small-sized Finnish primary food production companies. The analyses applied systematically combining within-case and cross-case analyses. As a result of the analysis, we identified three types of biodiversity leadership – forerunners, rule-followers, and rule-breakers. Taking a closer look, forerunners understand what biodiversity is and strive to develop their activities to promote biodiversity. Rule-followers, on the other hand, do not understand what biodiversity means, and they promote its condition only based on external instructions. And lastly, rule-breakers seem to understand how biodiversity is connected to their business, but they still decide to act in a way that undermines it. Based on the leadership shown by the forerunners, as our main contribution, we develop a biodiversity-promoting leadership framework to guide research and practice.