Walking The Talk Is How We Do Climate Leadership

Post Climate Week and heading into COP28, I keep reading debriefs and media analyses about how we are not yet seeing leaders showing leadership or truly acting. Meanwhile, we’ve got nothing but steady reports on increasing emissions and how far we are from meeting Paris Agreement goals. Argh.

People! Have we not had enough years of going-nowhere climate action platitudes and pledging?

Here’s the thing campaigns and leadership calls have been missing, and it’s a phrase almost too common to take seriously. BUT, I’m pointing my neon arrows at it now:

We need visible, celebrated walking of the talk. 

If even a handful of influential leaders (like those on global stages last week in NYC) get intentional about being seen doing the personal practices and expressing values that align with their professional language and policy focus areas, it’ll make a big difference. The more the masses of constituents and stakeholders looking for talk-walking actually SEE examples in such a handful of leaders, the more they can be compelled to amplify and loudly support it.  

Together we can make it seem as if the social norm of corporate and political leadership is shifting to living change (there’s a reason that’s the name of my podcast) and using their climate influence in their work.  Building social capital by walking the talk - starting now - will give any leader a lot more political will when they really need it. 

And, we MASSIVELY need more political will from you, leaders.

You do that by:

Building resilient trust.

You do that by: 

Showing us more of your human path (it need not be perfect) and how that aligns with your professional decision-making.

You continue this virtuous cycle by:

Intentionally continuing to be seen DOING the things - personally and professionally -  that reflect your story of being climate-driven. 

To be clear: even if there are even ten of these talk-walking leaders around, those of us - including the media - who are LOOKING to name and fame such leadership should be able to easily find them. When we do see these folks, we stakeholders/constituents are then compelled to help carry that load of changing the climate leadership social norm.  

By amplifying even the few (the brave, the bold), we forward the perception of an earth-shattering thunderstorm of climate impact.  

This is how we do it.

(Advising on this - for leaders and organizations - is all I do.) 

News To Use

I met Dr. Yael Parag in line waiting for a Climate Week event to start. Her work, with Dr. Kathryn B. Janda, on why to find and leverage “middle-out” climate influence, is fascinating. Heads way up.