Leadership And The Environment

I created this podcast to bring leadership to environmental action.Who leads?As much as I value science and education, scientists and educators rarely lead effectively. We've mistakenly looked to them for leadership for too long. For science and facts, I see looking to them, but motivation? I don't see it.Besides, the science is overwhelming and everyone knows enough facts. Even if you doubt global warming, you don't want mercury in your fish or litter on the beach.How about a man who got over 100 million people to stand and cheer, winning the Super Bowl?Today's episode features Philadelphia Eagle #50 Bryan Braman, about to block a punt in this picture.[I predict you'll find yourself happily surprised at how much he cares and acts environmentally---to say nothing of his humility and dedication to give his all on the field, starting years before the game.Does his achievement sound relevant to the environment: giving, acting for an uncertain goal, caring, teamwork, enjoying the challenge?The challenge now is to

I encourage you to review RJ's leadership program in Palestine for yourself. Check out www.leadpalestine.com.RJ Khalaf is my youngest guest so far, still an undergrad at NYU, but achieving beyond student status. He took my social entrepreneurship classes.In this episode, you'll hear RJ on his passion and success: a leadership program that teaches leadership skills to Palestinian kids who would otherwise throw stones or worse, as you'll hear. He makes it happen at the New Askar refugee camp, which has been around for more than 50 years.RJ says he feels in over his head, but he's acting on his values. He teaches leadership to come from kindness and care. He acts with integrity, discipline, compassion, vision, and things leaders twice his age often lack.The camp students and mentors love the message.You'll also hear about his environment challenge---one many listeners can probably relate to, but few have acted on. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

After sharing my "after" stories about after taking on my environmental challenges, in this episode I share the "before" situations. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

David shares what happens when you act on your values:Act on your values -> better life -> act on your values more -> yet better life -> etcThis cycle is the opposite mainstream society suggests---that environmental action distracts from getting ahead, costs more, or whatever excuse.Acting on your values distracts from living by others' values---in particular, the values of people and institutions trying to influence you most. Who are they? Top ones I think of include:Ads trying to sell you aspiration"Food" companies trying to sell you sugar, fat, and saltNews media selling you outrage, fear, and offenseTV and movies selling you violence and sexand so on.Your first steps away from it reveal how rewarding and, after the initial struggle, easy continuing is.David shares his mental blocksYou still have to start, which David shares.Conversations with people who have acted, as David has, differ from with people who haven't. People who act are less defensive, less "what about you", more thoughtful, and

David's challenged himself to reduce his meat eating. Right off the bat, he said he found it way better and easier than expected. He felt good and wants to do more.What are you waiting for?Chances are your choice to live by your values will be easier and you'll want to do more.You'll also hear from David how he made it work---using his community, choosing his beliefs, considering his goals, and so on.He feels physically better. This conversation set a tone for the podcast of finding joy in the change.The value of acting and involving othersYou might wonder why he didn't change earlier. He knew the issues and felt the motivation before. Yet he sounded happily surprised at his results.That's the value of acting, not just talking and thinking. Sharing with others engages and attracts them to help. You have to lead them, not accept their criticism based on the values of a system you are rejecting.As you think about your values and a challenge to act on it, his experience implies you will enjoy it more than y

Having worked with many people and generations, Frances sees great hope in millennials. She points to research that they are like the so-called Greatest Generation, who fought World War II and then helped rebuild the world. Moreover, we see them as having done it because "it was the right thing to do," not fame or fortune.The environment could use such perspective and results. I hope she's right.I recommend listening to how she has made her life about taking on challenges, which bring her emotional reward. She takes them on deliberately. I believe she expects that work serving others will create emotional reward and meaning.I didn't hear her talk about pursuing comfort and convenience. I think she knows that taking easy, traditional routes don't create long-term reward.The result? I doubt you'll find a happier person, nor a more respectable and accomplished circle of friends and colleagues.I share her main environmental leadership message: that working for others improves your life. Serving others makes you f

How do you treat the world?True to form, Joel committed to a double challenge of avoiding bottled beverages and picking up trash, so we talked about both.I recommend trying the challenge of picking up trash daily for a month or so. It takes almost no time or effort but gives you insight into how little many people value material objects or how much they pollute. Or maybe their ignorance.Joel and I talked about the results. We can't figure it out, but you can't help considering it when you experience how people treat the world.When was the last time you littered? Where does it come from? We speculated. Write me if you have ideas. I find it very confusing.We don't value stuff. That's why we give it away.I hope you see that acquiring bags, disposable things, and so on lead to garbage, which is waste, which hurts others. Stop acquiring.Also true to form, Joel remarked that making a difference is "almost too easy," yet he learned more about the environment than he would have reading statistics.TakeawaysHabits make

If you're here for leadership, especially personal leadership, you're going to hear about one of the most important things you can do to improve.What Joel talks about and how he lives are how you develop skills people think you can't learn, such as integrity, discipline, and resilience. You can, but you have to act---specifically to challenge yourself, not just passively read about or watch.We talk about cold showers, a big sidcha of mine, and one of the simplest ways to challenge yourself. If you've read about my cold shower practice and found it confusing, our conversation brings a couple experienced guys talking about it.You are your habits. Joel turned his life around with his, which is what this podcast is about. From nothing, he lived world class accomplishments, setting records running ultramarathons and starting schools in the process.I recommend watching his TEDx talk to see how much you can change your life.If you want to affect the environment, you will face "I want to act but if no one else does i

Many people excuse themselves from acting on the environment with the complaint "but acting on the environment will distract me from getting ahead."There is national and global demand for environmental leadership. How they miss that opportunity to advance at any level if they act, I don't know. Maybe fear?I think they're expressing a lack of imagination. Most of these people who think they are choosing leadership are actually following traditional paths set by others' values also known as the rat race.Today's guest shows what opportunity you can create for yourself.With no industry experience, connections, or money, Sandy Reisky followed the huge demand he saw for renewable energy production. Without relevant background he just attended industry events, learned, connected, and planned.The results? How about starting a company from scratch in 2009 that now builds about 10% of Americas new wind energy installations (on average over the past three years).Listen for his story and to learn where he sees new o

Alisa Cohn is at the top of the leadership coaching and speaking game. Inc. Magazine named her a top 100 speaker. Marshall Goldsmith selected her as a top 100 coach.Since I've known her for a while, I also happen to know she's a charming, fun, engaging person. Since I think a lot of listeners want to lead more effectively, I wanted to share how someone who is at the top of the game is a regular person at heart, just who worked persistently and with dedication.In our conversation she shares how she chose leadership coaching as a direction, how she reached where she is, and the importance of service when leading others.I think this conversation had the most laughter so far, which is probably related to her success.It relates to how she took on her challenge. I recommend listening for how much she enjoys it---at least that was my impression. She's already acted in several ways to live by her environmental values. Here she takes another step.It's food-related and I think one many listeners are thinking of, so if

Our world is filled with systems based on beliefs that made sense in the past, but that evidence contradicts.Growth and technology are contributing to environmental degradation. The invisible hand doesn't win against the tragedy of the commons. And so on.We didn't create these systems but we can act to create new ones based on new beliefs, such as accepting having enough, or considering the results of our actions on others more, say, when we pollute or expand into new territory.Actions are easier when we adopt beliefs that will work in the future, based on what we know about the planet that we didn't before.In this episode I look at our world from a future where we've made things work to guide our actions today. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

David Biello is one of the few people I've met who understands environmental issues, doesn't complain or vent doom and gloom. Instead he approaches with a simple, but responsible and thoughtful perspective.I met David after reading a review of his book, The Unnatural World: The Race to Remake Civilization in Earth's Newest Age, saying that David says:we already have the money and technology to make profound environmental change; what we need is large-scale motivation. With a defiantly hopeful tone, he profiles some of the most effective change-makers.Large-scale motivation means leadership to me. Having heard this view almost nowhere, but considering it the most important, I contacted him. He writes for Scientific American and elsewhere and is the Science Curator for TED.If you want to know about what's happening environmentally in a straightforward, no nonsense way, listen. Also read his book. He knows the issues and he cares. He's thought about the issues people's motivations, what holds people back, what c

Michael's schedule turned a modest one-month challenge into a five-month one.Many would give up. I suspect most people respond that way to environmental challenges---when it gets harder or unpredictable, they abandon it.I wondered how Michael would handle it.Needless to say, he stuck to it---amid the extra time, involving his wife, travel, and more.What do you know, the challenge was easy. Not trivial, but something he could have done earlier.HabitsMichael is an expert at creating habits, so if you're listening in part to learn to create yours, his story will help.He called some conventional wisdom on habit formation "bollocks," which made me cringe. Until I heard his explanation, which taught me new things and made more sense than what I thought before. I consider myself knowledgeable and experienced on habit formation.As usual, success involved turning community into a teammate. In Michael's case, he enlisted his wife's help and (mutual) support. Sound obvious? It is with experience, but most people find ot

Who doesn't have a dream car?If you can afford it, especially if you've aspired to it your whole life, isn't owning and driving your dream car one of the great joys and well-earned accomplishments in life?What if you found something better? What if what you liked better was not having the car?Does the idea of getting rid of one of your highest value sound crazy?That's the value of knowing your values. You learn what's better for you.Dov loves his Jaguar. He worked his whole life to get it. His personal challenge led him to consider that letting go of it could improve his life more than keeping it?Sound crazy? Listen to this episode to learn how his greater experience led him to see greater values than his car---in freedom, consciousness, responsibility, and things many people with authority talk about but few live.Speaking of values, freedom, responsibility, and so on, I've read a lot of leadership books. They all talk about values and so on, abstractly. In this episode Dov talks about them in his life---genu

John Lee Dumas and I met at a talk at the New York Public Library a week after the hurricanes hit his home in Puerto Rico. I was surprised at how that context affected his perception of the environment.When I teach leadership based on people's existing motivations and passions, people often ask, "What if the person has no motivation or passion." I usually answer that people care about things more than they let on at first. To share what you care about makes you vulnerable, so many people protect their vulnerabilities by hiding them.When I first asked him for what he cared about the environment, he gave me very little to work with. You'll hear how I handled it. If you're here in part to improve your leadership, I think you'll hear things to learn from.John ended up sharing something he noticed, thought about, and cared about a lot, but never thought about acting on. By the end, he committed to one of the biggest, most enduring challenges of the podcast so far. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out info

During a book launch, Emily still turned off her computer in a stressful time. Book launches are crazy and people want your time like crazy. She still did it.Despite her defining environmental differently than I expected, her experience was similar. As others found, it's not what you avoid, it's what you replace it with. I didn't hear her describe the experience negatively.Instead I heard her talk about ritual, alignment, values, relationships, family, and other things the experience contributed to. As others found, acting on values leads to finding value and wanting to do more.We also talked about bravery, her just-released book, and the experiences that led to it.Beyond her challenge and book, you'll hear her sign up for another personal challenge. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

I describe the big picture of this podcast. So far I've influenced a few people to make modest changes.The big picture for this podcast is systemic change on a national, even global level.I'm not just hoping to achieve it. I have a strategy. It's different and I expect it to work more than the existing strategies.I describe how you can help. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

I've been part of Emily's community since she interviewed me on her podcast in June. I've seen support, growth, openness, and everything you'd expect from a group formed around bare naked bravery.Learning more about her just-released book, Bare Naked Bravery: How to Be Creatively Courageous, I see why I like her methods of developing bravery. They're based on the same effective techniques I base mine on for developing leadership---active, experiential learning, starting with the basics and building. She brings her techniques from music---the Suzuki Method in particular---which makes sense. Think of the bravery to perform in front of an audience, to reveal your truth and beauty, knowing others will critique and criticize.If you want to be more brave, I recommend listening. We talk about how acting---to be brave, to act on your environmental values---apply everywhere in life. Explore her community online and read her book.Emily's personal challengeEmily interpreted environment differently than others, which giv

I coined the term Enron Environmentalism to explain the gap between what people say they value about the environment and what they do.If you're an American, you probably practice Enron Environmentalism. Sadly, it's the opposite of self-awareness and integrity, as this episode of the podcast shows.Here are the articles I mention:My Inc. article: Are You an Enron Environmentalist?From Energy Policy Journal: Does pro-environmental behaviour affect carbon emissions?From Environment and Behavior Journal: Good Intents, but Low Impacts: Diverging Importance of Motivational and Socioeconomic Determinants Explaining Pro-Environmental Behavior, Energy Use, and Carbon FootprintEnjoy the episode. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Talk about a generous conversation!Dorie Clark shares about how to make yourself known, to become a leader, and to connect with others.She shares her personal experiences, since she didn't start with any advantages, and some of what she shares in her books. We talked about one of my big questions: do you need to go through a major life challenge---a crucible---to achieve greatness or to become a leader.When we got to talking about the environment and her personal challenge, you can hear in how she takes on hers that she's taken on many challenges before. If you want to improve your skills in taking on challenges and succeeding at them, her perspective reveals a lot to learn from.Her challenge is, I think, the longest challenge someone committed to as her first. Listen to hear it. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.