About That Leadership Energy and Visibility You Gained at Climate Week NYC:
Grow it and use it.
Whenever an event like Climate Week NYC has passed, there’s a wave of reflective posts and lots of happy-to-meet-IRL photos. Then, the energy of that whole complicated, bedazzling moment in time drops and we all get back to normal. Any bit of increased leadership visibility or buzz returns to its box, ready to release again when the time comes. But, why would anyone invest the time and money to make *something* of a Climate Week presence and then let the momentum drop?
This was on my mind upon returning from a fantastic experience of my own last week in New York. How can so much time, money and travel emissions, be used to get so many people into this creative, nurturing and collaborative space without an intention to then further build on that energetic momentum?
Don’t let this happen to you.
Let’s get back to why you THINK you feel so energized and inspired by the new collaboration potential just after these sorts of events?
It’s because you’ve tapped back into your personal values around climate action, you’ve realized there are many wonderful, like-minded folks with influence in a range of spaces, and you… flat out… have been re-awakened to your own agency and the potential for building unstoppable, collective leadership power.
You are now responsible for taking it forward in a way that feels right to you, and that will keep your energy up and continue to open doors of opportunity as happened in the various conference halls, VIP lunches and fun happy hours last week in NYC.
And, yes. There are ways to keep a semblance of this incredible energy rolling and to use your own platforms to further nudge your peers to do the same. This is my near-constant refrain and the reason behind this Substack: find, build and amplify your own Climate Influence. It’s not a one-off or occasional pursuit. It’s a self-perpetuating, rewarding practice.
When a person with any influence (and lots of people have some) is public about how their own behaviors have shifted due to climate change, their stakeholders will then be much more likely to trust climate values-aligned decisions and policies. If a corporate, NGO or political leader is up for talking the talk, let’s actually see them walk a bit of the walk. That’s the part that peers will notice and be inclined to follow.
Worth note on this topic: I highly recommend the video from last week’s Futerra / Solutions House panel on “Working Together to Address Lifestyle Emissions.” It was one of my favorite sessions.
