Unicorns Lead In Climate Influence

Let’s change the entire game. We can do it by jumpstarting a switch in who we raise up as leading in business and politics in our society. The strategy? Focus on raising up ONLY those leaders who share how their personal climate values have changed - and how that now impacts their professional decisions and policies (….and then watch these folks get the broader media coverage, the podcast guest opportunities and the ClimateWeek stage moments).

WHAT?!

In my latest audio post, I share about how we have a lot more influence than we’ve realized in “naming and faming” the admittedly very few, bold leaders who are public about how their *personal* climate values have changed their professional world. It all boils down to basic human vanity (But, let’s not make that a bad thing. It’s how the world works, so let’s work with the system to make a big shift.)

Here’s a bit from the transcript (on convincing leaders who may be hidden unicorns):

They need a nudge to realize that being seen doing that is for the good and is a leadership quality that we as, especially me, and I'd love for everyone to start doing this, we need to find people who are doing the stuff based on personal values and making that shift because those are the unicorns that we can elevate to such a degree that they get the climate media coverage, they get the podcast interviews, they get the love and the press because they are flipping leading the way, even if there's only a couple of 'em. And here's the thing, by doing that from a human vanity perspective, all of the other leaders who keep going on stages and keep being at COP and keep having fossil fuel companies as partners, excuse me, in some regard or another, they're going to look like idiots. They're going to look so irrelevant.

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And - which of you will be at Bloomberg Green Festival, July 10-13? I’ll be attending a lot of the events/sessions. I’m also planning my own (not affiliated with the Festival) small, informal eBike ride (bikes provided) on a 60 minute, route-with-a-view that any regular Seattle tourist would not otherwise see. If you are interested in experiencing that, please email me to get on the waitlist. Connecting by eBike is the BEST way to build new partnerships and collaborations!

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More context on my audio post and why you should want to either become a visible Climate Influence norm-shifter yourself OR why you have a massive opportunity in shifting the way you *brand* your CEO or other key leader’s platform.

• Very few are doing it at all, let alone doing it well. The potential to be seen as a pioneer and one future leaders will point to (like Ray Anderson) is massive.
• #LaterIsTooLate If you are watching this election season, following global climate news or listening to the occasional podcast, it’s pretty dire.
• There’s a line from David Hawkins’s book, Power versus Force, that points to the power of being a leader who is a living example of change that I am going to keep sharing widely: “Successful solutions are based on the powerful principle that resolution occurs not by attacking the negative, but by fostering the positive.” As I said in the audio post, YOU have a chance to be that example that it can be done, and that media and other storytellers can wrap and amplify to make it seem as though - making these changes in your diet or in how you get around town for local transportation - is THE new norm of leadership. Unicorns are all about fostering the positive.
• If you’ve been feeling a conviction in your gut about how to better use whatever profile or platform you have for more effective climate shifts, this is it. When your employees see you ride to work, or when your Board members notice your team orders all plant-based food for meetings AND that you walked into that meeting with a bike helmet on your arm, that absolutely gets noticed. You are making that behavior seem do-able by whole new layers of stakeholders. AND, you’ll get more comfortable being more visible about it, and quickly.
• We need a bigger bench of people who fit the Living Change podcast guest description: You are on big stages and big lists (maybe even Fortune or Forbes) for your business or political leadership, including some that are talking a good climate game (see Davos, ClimateWeek and COP), AND you have been driven by your personal climate values to do a few basic things very differently - and to get comfortable being seen doing them. The former without the latter is truly irrelevant at this stage of the climate crisis.

I hope your summer has been shaping up nicely, and that you are getting some great down time to gear up for fall and events like ClimateWeek NYC. My plans for Season 2 of Living Change, a Climate Influence book and a short documentary on my work are rolling, and I am on the lookout for partners for any and all of those things. Telling better stories about true *leadership* founded on personal values shift is the gold we have not yet tapped.

I’ll keep you posted! And, thanks so much for your interest in my work. Please tell a friend or colleague!