I am taking a deep dive into climate leadership.
In order to build a life-giving future, we need to build the biggest team possible, an ecosystem of diverse roles and practices across all sectors, across all fields. While the term climate leadership has often been associated with a specificrole or industry in dominant culture, climate leadership has the potential to exist at every level in any sphere. Leadership can mean many things, but here I am framing it as a way of being in the world. Climate leadership is an essence to embody regardless of the role or title one currently holds. While leadership skills and taking action are essential, focusing on the being, the foundation from where to take action is where transformation lies.
Changing the Leadership Paradigm
What does leadership that incorporates rest, renewal, inner and outer alignment, and visions for the future look like?
Climate change requires a different approach to leadership, one that no single sector or person can solve alone. Rather than a top-down, hierarchical, power-over model, leadership that emphasizes collaboration, creativity, and courage, is essential in repairing and building a life-giving future. In other words, feminine climate leadership, (a form available to all genders). A growing body of research shows that women’s leadership and equal participation result in better outcomes for climate policy, reducing emissions, and protecting land. “Centering the work and wisdom of women, especially women of color, leading at the grassroots/on the frontlines, in elected office working to change policy, in media and communication working to shift culture, and beyond” -Katharine Wilkinson.
When you think of climate leadership, what characteristics, people, or ways of being come to mind?