Leadership And The Environment

David and I talked about the ocean, water, and sailing in this conversation for a couple reasons.For one thing, we find open water beautiful.For another, he helped spark my interest in learning to sail as a way to cross oceans without burning fossil fuels on the scale that flying does. Last time we spoke he mentioned an event in Europe next summer that gave me a deadline to take sailing lessons, which I did. He grew up sailing, which led us to talk about it.For another, his challenge was to eat less fish and to take more care about where the fish came from.Most guests find their challenges easier than they expected, leading them to wish they'd done it earlier, or, if challenging, a rewarding challenge that enriched their lives.David was no exception. Hear how he improved his life and lowered his environmental impact at once. Also hear him talking about halyards and other sailing talk. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

What happens when you start with your passion and what you care about?Robbie Samuels is also a podcaster who has created great relationships through his show. He shares how he learned. He sounds like a natural, but he didn't start that way.In this episode we discuss the value of the skill of creating meaningful conversations with influencers. We talk about relationship building skills, which Robbie builds his podcast and business on.We then discuss the challenges and joys of composting and how Robbie has brought into his household. Where many people see problems and give up, Robbie sees potential to build relationships. Listen to how much he laughs.Leaders don't see other people as problems. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Can you enjoy leading a movement to change a neighborhood?In this episode we dive deeper into Jeff's experience leading the charge to bring recycling amenities to his housing association.His voice reveals and exudes the emotional reward the challenge creates for him and how he’s creating relationships with his community.I don't think there's any question that this activity is not the end but the start -- of action, connection, and fun.As a leadership author, I can't help but repeat that Jeff has reviewed hundreds of leadership books. He could have taken this leadership role at any time, but books about leadership don't develop leadership skills, experience does, which is why my book and podcast teach leadership experientially. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Do you care about the environment?Do you care about leading?The Leadership and the Environment podcastNYU’s School of Liberal Studiesinvite you to listen in on our Panel of Leadership and Environment Expertswhich was held on Tuesday, April 3rd at the NYU Silver BuildingFeaturing Vincent StanleyVincent, co-author with Yvon Chouinard of The Responsible Company, has been with Patagonia since its beginning in 1973, including executive roles as head of sales or marketing. Informally, he is Patagonia’s chief storyteller. He helped develop the Footprint Chronicles, the company’s interactive website that outlines the social and environmental impact of its products; the Common Threads Partnership; and Patagonia Books. He serves as the company’s Director, Patagonia Philosophy, and is a visiting fellow at the Yale School of Management. He is also a poet whose work has appeared in Best American Poetry. Robin NagleRobin’s book, Picking Up, is an ethnography of New York Cit

Balint Horvath and I are physicists and both podcasters -- a rare combination. I think the connection helps make this conversation inspire. That's the goal.I originally appeared on his podcast, where we connected. His love for environment and interviewing skill brought out mine last summer, when this podcast was taking shape in my mind. He played a big role in Leadership and the Environment forming and my taking the necessary concrete steps to implement it.We talk about his podcast and how he separates entrepreneurship and academia. We discuss how he views environment and leadership as related and important.This was this podcast's first recording, which for various reasons emerged from the editing cycle later, so we dive into what my mission and goal is with this show and why creating these challenges are there to change the world. Listen to hear Balint's challenge, which many listeners think about, and why he enjoys it. I think you’ll enjoy it too. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out

David Burkus returns to share his cold shower challenge.He's a leadership expert and shares great insight, especially about networking and tolerance. There's a lot to learn from him.If I'm honest, in contrast to my usual enthusiasm at a guest's actions, you'll hear a failure of leadership on my part. I believe effective leadership is based on learning the motivations and cares of the other person and connecting them to the task, which imbues the task with meaning for them. I don't think I did that with David. It sounds to me like he did something out of motivation for me as a friend since he heard me respond positively to cold showers. The result, to my ears, is that he sounds more like he's complying than acting on his values.The result in this case is compliance without passion or desire to do more.I would say that my interaction with David shows how you can get close to effective leadership and show many signs of it without achieving it. I didn't pick up on it while talking with him, only after. I think th

Can a small change lead a community? Our conversation with Jeff Brown shows how a small action on what you care about can inspire and lead a community. Even small actions, when based on your values---what you care about---can make big differences because humans are social and share many values---for example, clean air and water. Helping his neighborhood recycle acts on those shared values.Jeff likes business ideas and leadership---enough to start a podcast on it. You can hear the potential he anticipates in being a leader to help people around him. Acting on the environment starts the process. Helping others and himself make it more meaningful, at least as I hear it.Jeff shows that simple beginnings, acting on your values, can change your life, your town, and the world. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

For such a successful man, Vincent Stanley is as down to earth as they come.He returns to discuss his experience disconnecting from technology and reconnecting with his values, especially his words. People seem to believe that technology saves time or gives us attention despite experience, research, and headlines to the contrary. Vincent shares that disconnecting actually created more time for him. He felt less consumed and the need to be doing multiple things at one time truly diminished.We all know it will happen. The experience of doing it helps more than talking or reading about it.Vincent says that the experience of this challenge was “wonderful” -- something he wanted to do before we met because this is what connects with his values. Isn’t it funny how “disconnecting” allows us to “connect? We dive deeper in the reasons behind Patagonia suing the government, why it was natural and normal for them, not PR. We discuss how doing something that stands true to your values and spending time and resources

In our first conversation, David and I talk mostly about creating a work of enduring value. As David says, the way to keep you book so high up on Amazon is by writing a great book.If you want your work to endure and for people to follow, creating quality work is how to do it.David shares about his years of developing, rewriting, and creation, as opposed to get-rich-quick marketing so prevalent today. Without pretense or affectation, we bring in historical masters like Rembrandt, Van Gogh, and Mozart.Want to be a great leader? You can learn from present-day and historical masters.On the environment, he shares a common issue---that when you've already changed a lot to live by your values, it can feel harder to find new things.Many Americans compare themselves to other Americans, see themselves polluting relatively less, and let go of their values. Since Americans pollute more than nearly any of the billions who have lived since the dawn of humanity, that's about the lowest bar you could use for your integrity.S

This episode contains a lot of laughter.It's about making behaviors conscious. Many people tell me how hard they envision living by their values. They think you have to prepare with planning, analysis, and so on.Anisa's experience suggests the opposite: starting and acting leads you to figure things out. As she points out, if you try to solve everything, you'll never start. If you start, you'll find you can solve more and more things.Hear from Anisa how much easier changing is when you just start. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

At last I spoke to someone with a systems perspective!Michael spoke about how many areas we could work in, not to say it's too much but that you can find a place to contribute.Many people wish there was a silver bullet. As far as I know there isn't one. His about-to-launch book, Can Business Save the Earth, treats action on the environment systemically, a perspective I consider essential for environmental leadership.What may seem initially overwhelming doesn't end up that way when you see the big picture, which is what his book covers, and when you find a place to act.Plus, his personal challenge is one a lot of people think about doing but don't, so if you've thought of changing your diet, I recommend listening to Michael's challenge. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Why do people who haven't tried it call not flying impossible, yet it was just as challenging for me and I find it one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.Being in a system without realizing it makes it easy to confuse that system's values with your own or with absolute reality. What looks impossible is just impossible within that system.To change, it's easier to exit the system first so you don't feel constrained by its constraints.We were born to some strong systems that make not flying look impossible but not flying is simple. You're probably not flying right now.I present a couple cases -- one simple, the other complex and expensive -- that illustrate what happens when you're trapped in a system versus when you free yourself from it. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Anisa is another counterexample to believing that working on the environment distracts from getting ahead.She rose to become the director of the Center for Green Schools at the U.S. Green Building Council despite being early in her career. Though she was doing fine in architecture, she responded to the call for help people and communities in New Orleans after hurricanes Rita and Katrina.Doing what people cared about helped others and led her to positions to help more people, leading her to Washington, DC and being named one of the Most Powerful Women in Sustainability.Still friendly and humble, she shared her environmental values, including where she felt she wasn't living up to them---what many people hide. Then she chose to act on them, recognizing the difficulty.I see her as a role model for improving one's leadership through self-awareness and action. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Jeff has interviewed authors of leadership books since before I started writing mine. I enjoyed being a guest on his podcast.This time he's on mine, and it's a landmark event, as the next section describes.If you're here for leadership, Jeff is a great example of turning an interest into becoming an important person in a field.If you're here for environmental leadership, listen for Jeff's project---one of the biggest of any guest so far in terms of leading himself and others. I'll let you listen to find out the details, but I'll mention that he takes a leadership role in his community to help people achieve something they all want but no one else has done.Later episodes will reveal how his project goes, but already you can hear his interest in acting over just waiting.Why I'm proudI note that Jeff has read hundreds of leadership books and spoken to hundreds of leadership authors. My book, Leadership Step by Step, and this podcast are the first that led Jeff to lead---not just to talk, read, or write about lea

21 million books sold among 60 titles---including one I remember from my mom's shelf as long as I can remember---a lifetime of research, speaking, and consulting, and more.Since I don't often get to speak with people who have achieved so much, I was torn between acting like a fan and speaking to him like a regular guy. I hope I balanced them by sharing my One Minute Manager story at the beginning, then talking servant leadership.Ken just released his latest book, Servant Leadership in Action, compiling lessons from top leadership thinkers and writers. He spoke about the book, the people in it, and their stories. More than one has been on this podcast, so click the link to find which.Ken shares increasingly valuable wisdom as the podcast goes on, so I recommend listening to the end. There is no substitute for experience (why I teach experientially) and Ken has more than nearly anyone. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This morning I volunteered to pick up trash along the Hudson River.The experience included baby geese, a crab, lots of plastic and waste, and people not connecting their behavior with all this garbage. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

David has helped me many times. I felt honored to host him and, I hope, help start his environmental legacy.We covered two main things.First, his new book, Friend of a Friend, on networking. His background as a professor and practitioner means he approaches networking systematically and practically, so beyond learning to network more effectively, you understand networking as a process.Second, his environmental commitment. I loved his choice for reasons you'll hear when you listen. I believe it will improve his life beyond just living by his environmental values.David is direct, knowledgeable, experienced, and plain-spoken. Enjoy! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Which is easier, for a slave owner to free his or her slaves or for you to stop using disposable water bottles and food packaging, flying around the world, turning down the thermostat and wearing a sweater in the winter, and so on?If you had slaves, would you free them?I think most people would say it's a lot easier to avoid plastic than to free slaves, but they would also say they would free their slaves -- at least when no one can check. But they don't act environmentally.If you believe you would make the difficult choices hypothetically, will you also make the easier choices here and now? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Vincent shares several stories of Patagonia growing from a few dedicated outdoors people to discovering business growth, the usual ways businesses abandon values besides profit, and their not accepting that abdication of responsibility.The company grew financially, its employees grew emotionally and socially, and its community grew numerically.If you think you're alone in wanting to act, Vincent and Patagonia go farther. Vincent shares how the company made difficult decisions to protect the environment, its employees, its suppliers, their employees, and so on---decisions most people think would hurt companies financially---but didn't.As someone who dislikes many major corporations for what many consider standard business practices, I find in Patagonia and its decision-makers role models we can learn from. Having been there from nearly the start, Vincent gives an inside view.His personal challenge also differs from many others', but I expect you'll like it. Mechanically simple, I bet he'll find it insidiously

RJ and I talk about the early success of LEAD Palestine, the organization he began to teach leadership to youths that most of the world abandoned in Palestine.Where their environment made it natural to respond with hopelessness and what comes from it---desperation to the point of aspiring to blow oneself up---RJ is bringing social and emotional development to create hope themselves.They happen to have been born into a world where leadership meant in politics authoritarianism and militarism, which bled into personal relationships. Nobody taught alternatives and those who acted on those models succeeded, however much at others' costs.RJ is teaching an effective style of leadership built on personal skill. I can't help but imagine a lot of it came from my class, though, obviously he deserves the overwhelming credit for implementing it. Though the class he took with me was social entrepreneurship, that semester, several students showed great interest and initiative and I'd stay after class to teach and coach lead