To Build Momentum (and Trust), The Story Climate Leaders Tell Must Be Their Own

The excellent New York Times piece by Nicholas Nehamas about Ron DeSantis on the campaign trail describes a situation that may also be stalling our collective climate influence. (And, no, DeSantis and climate influence are never normally mentioned in the same sentence. )

He doesn’t share in any sort of personal, relatable way.

Here are a few truths about his ineptness with personal storytelling (via quotes from the Nehamas piece) and my comments in parentheses. See these as lessons that anyone hoping to build a climate leadership narrative must absorb:

“American politics relies as much on storytelling as on policy. “

(So does our hope to speed up climate action rely on folks with corporate and political influence to share better stories.)

“His stump speech is about facts, not feelings.” 

(Leaders who have influence mostly speak to well-tested bullet points, but can be wholly uncomfortable sharing even slivers of their personal values.)

“When Mr. DeSantis does invoke his life experiences, it can sound more like bullet points he is ticking through on a résumé, rather than moments to which voters might relate.”

(Potential climate leaders must find ways to become more relatable to their various audiences in order to build trust and influence their peers.)

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If all angles might otherwise point to success, it’s this presidential candidate’s lack of relatability that holds him back. 

So, what’s the climate influence lesson?

We have the climate solutions and most U.S. citizens are IN on acting (see a recent report from Potential Energy) - both massive angles of success. And yet, we continue to fail at addressing climate action to the scale necessary. Amazing consumer-facing campaigns have existed for years, but they have not worked well or fast enough. 

Bottomline: the leaders who could be shifting leadership social norms on this front lack relatability and understanding of delivery.

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While I am fine if this particular presidential candidate is doing poorly, I am beyond energized by the opportunity to help more folks with influential platforms (of any size) better connect their personal story with their commitment to acting on climate. It’s exactly these sorts of stories that I highlight in my Living Change podcast interviews and in what I described during a recent interview on the An Honorable Profession podcast from The NewDeal Leaders organization (more on this later in this newsletter):