Leadership And The Environment

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.

Not often when two men chat on the internet do tears well up and they get choked up.I loved this conversation for its being unscripted and unguarded. Daniel allowed himself to be vulnerable. He asked about posting this interview on his podcast because of the rawness of the emotion that came up.My leadership mistakeI recorded this conversation early and I dropped the ball on leading Daniel.If you listen to this podcast in part to learn to lead, when we reach talking about the environment, you'll hear me make big mistakes that provoked resistance. I led him to do the opposite of committing to a personal challenge---he lectured me on what I should and shouldn't do.Someone you're trying to influence lecturing at you means you didn't lead effectively. See if you can listen to where and how I lost him. Learn from my mistake.Notice how I lead others differently. For example, listen to my interview with John Lee Dumas to hear how I led someone who said he didn't care about the environment to identify something he car

You will not forget this conversation. Dov brings his full self intellectually and emotionally, especially starting about 20 minutes in.I guarantee you will hear a person speaking a way you want to---unfiltered yet thoughtful, enthusiastic yet measured.Dov shares details of his life, authentically and raw, even when it hurts. He shares how he developed his authenticity, radically so because he wasn't always.He shares examples and stories most of us wish we could emulate in our lives. I don't know about you, but hearing someone living it leads me to raise my standards for myself.In regular life I talk a lot but Dov left me speechless several times.He also thought of his personal environmental challenge before we spoke. Not all guests do, but doing so suggests the underlying values, enthusiasm, or both mean more to the guest. I'd say both with Dov. You'll enjoy hearing his challenge and look forward to his results in his second conversation. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

My friend told me this show angered him -- hearing people act as if little changes were significant... not knowing not to get new plastic bags.I shared some of my thoughts on people making trivial changes and what motivates me.I expect I'll share more personal thoughts on leadership and the environment as I develop my voice. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Dan Pink's second conversation was short and sweet, like his personal challenge.After a few guests learning, growing, and leading from having to overcome big challenges, Dan shared an easy, simple experience.The story was that there was no story. While many portray changing your diet as impossible or a big challenge, Dan and his wife simply stopped eating most meat.That's it.He stopped. He could have stopped earlier. What problems arose were small and he solved quickly.If you're thinking of committing to a personal challenge, sometimes it's easy.Listen to the conversation for how to choose challenges so they're easy for you. You can always build to harder ones.Dan's new book When and TEDDan's book was released a few days ago. You may have also seen him in the news.We talked about writing, marketing big releases, and preparing for TED talks. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This conversation was fun and engaging since Judith is charismatic, experienced, and cheerful, even though it started solemnly, owing to a terrorist attack in Manhattan the day before. We covered politics a bit -- now that I think of it, one of this podcast's few forays there.We talked about leadership from many perspectives, including her storied experience, given her experience with globally known leaders (Donna Karan, etc) and top organizations (Harvard, Apple, etc). Most of us rarely get to talk to people with such connections and history.I continued to follow Judith's lead from our first conversation to use her definition of "environment," which wasn't my usual one, roughly meaning the air, land, and water we share. Her definition is more about people and relationships.I treated the conversation as somewhat challenging, to enter someone else's world. I went into this podcast as much to learn as to influence, expecting everyone to have unique views on the environment, leadership, community, and other subj

Tanner's third conversation continues his project beyond just polluting less himself to influencing a store, in fact a whole grocery store chain. You can hear his growing enthusiasm, that the more he works on his project, the more he finds parts of it to love and act on.Do you think because he's a gold medal winner things come easier for him?On the contrary, things don't go his way. But he doesn't give up.If you try projects and they don't work out, which describes me, I think it will help to see that people as successful as Tanner don't succeed on their first tries either. I don't know about you, but when I read their books or see them on TV, their success seems more given. Here Tanner reveals that he had to regroup and restart.From my perspective, he sounds like he holds himself overly accountable, including for things outside of his control, but I also read that he found ways that work for him. Some may look for the positive. Tanner seems to look for the accountable.But listen to how his perspective turns

In conversation 1, Jim shared his values and committed to live by one.In conversation 1.5, he shared problems with the challenge and how he overcame them.In this conversation he shares how it worked. Listen to hear how persevering through challenges to live by your values leads to a better life.Judge for yourself what you find from his experience. I heard:More time with his familyQuality time with his familyFunFinding more challenges (why not, if they're fun?)Things became easier than beforeTake off your wet socksI introduce my wet socks analogy for not living by your values in this episode, which is:Say you step in a puddle and get your socks wet in the morning. You can still go about your day. If you're busy, you might not notice them.It's still a relief when you get home and take them off at the end of the day. Finally you feel fresh, clean air against your skin instead of wet sock. You look back and realize they've been annoying you all day. Making yourself busy distracted you from noticing them, but neve

Do you want to improve your life?... and enjoy doing it?I usually don't laugh out loud at people talking about the environment, but Tanner made me.Listen to Tanner's second conversation to hear how a master approaches a modest challenge, makes it fun, makes it bigger (if it's fun, why wouldn't you), involves others, and keeps building.He shares what makes him a top athlete, husband, and all-around fun guy. He's no more or less human than anyone.We talk about challenges, successes, Navy SEALS, and what makes a person and life great. It all starts from plastic bags, the awareness that comes from paying attention to how you affect others, and acting with integrity. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

I will recommend this episode a lot. You’ll hear an accomplished man struggle with a goal he expected to be easy. You’ll also hear him triumph, bringing his wife and children to the triumph—creating it with them. I’m releasing it on a holiday because it’s as heartwarming a story of a father bringing his family and community together as any—despite, or because of, adversity and the skills he’s learned to handle it. Skills you can learn, starting by listening to his story. You think challenges are easier for him or anyone else? They aren’t. He’s just learned to handle them. You can too. This episode is a real-time update from someone implementing a change in his life, facing resistance, figuring out how to handle it, and succeeding through failure where most people give up. I scheduled this conversation because Jim wrote me that he was struggling to meet the personal challenge he came up with. Between that email and scheduling the conversation, he figured out a solution better for him than the original challeng

A 30-minute highlight version of conversation 1 with Judith Glaser. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Judith co-founded the Harvard Coaching Institute as well as her own consulting and coaching firms -- Benchmark Communications and Creating WE -- through which she has worked with culture-setting companies such as Apple, Burberry, and Donna Karan. She's written seven books. She's on the board of Expeditionary Learning. And more, so if credentials are important to you, she has them. Yet she's almost counter-cultural in her way of going against the mainstream grain when it holds her or her clients back. Yet she's friendly and approachable. Since she lives a subway ride away from me, I met her in person, which made our conversation more friendly and behind-the scenes. I'm nerdy and look at the world more conventionally than she does, so we'll see a different way of looking at the environment, science, and nature than my usual way. She talks about her big breaks, making mistakes and rolling with them. She walks through how to use her books and materials. You can see how she's gotten great clients and speaks to suc

Jim and I have become friends since I did his podcast, Success Through Failure, twice. He's as friendly and approachable as anyone you'll meet, despite or maybe because of his reaching the top levels of one of our most demanding sports. I'll put his description below, but printed words don't express his enthusiastic approach to life and helping others. You can almost hear the excited sparkle in his eyes at what fun and growth he extracts from life and that he enables his clients to. I expect to refer to Jim's episodes more than most, maybe most because how he approaches changing himself is so effective for himself and people around him. It comes from his attitude, the questions he asks himself, how he involves others, and more, all of which he shares. We get to know him in this episode---a regular guy who happens to have been an All-American Wrestling champion and now coaches people to potentials beyond their dreams. We also hear his challenge, which sounds simple, but its unexpected twists will prompt him to

Tanner Gers has been through more than you have, almost surely. If you want a role model for taking on challenges that you know will improve your life but you aren't sure how, listen and learn from Tanner. I wanted his conversation early because whatever most of us have been through, materially speaking, he's had it harder than most of us. I say materially speaking because emotionally and purposefully, the car accident that left him blind doesn't register as a problem. Tanner will help you grab life by the reins and forget your problems, or use them to advance. His personal challenge starts modest in this conversation but grows in later ones, so listen on. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Reading Elizabeth Kolbert's haunting The Sixth Extinction was difficult but enlightening. She presents what most people fear facing but is happening around us. We are causing the loss of almost unbelievably large parts of the natural world on which we rely without realizing it---sleepwalking, I would say. Her writing in the New Yorker cover more issues most people are too uncomfortable or lazy to learn about: overpopulation, the limits of technology to solve the problems most people think technology will solve, and the like. She presents the issues simply and directly, forcing you to draw your conclusions. I considered it critical to bring a guest so thoughtful and knowledgeable about relevant issues she saw firsthand. Her perspective is difficult to face, but the alternative of putting your head in the sand prevents you from solving the problems. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Everyone in leadership knows Dan Pink, his books and his TED talks.If you want to lead, influence, or motivate people, it's a matter of time until you read or watch something of his. I started with Drive: the Surprising Truth of What Motivates Us, which led me to contact him (and criticize his work, listen to the podcast for the story).Since then, he's supported my work and was enthusiastic about his personal challenge. As a writer and educator, I indulged in asking him about his technique, so if you're interested in improving your technique and style, you'll hear some great tips from him.You also get a sneak preview about his new book, When: the Scientific Secrets of Perfect Planning, if it's before January 9, 2018. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.