Leadership and the Environment

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.

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 companies such as Apple, Burberry, and Donna Karan. She's written seven books. She's on several boards. 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. Our conversation was friendly and behind-the scenes.

I know I will refer to Jim's conversations more than most, maybe most of all. 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 twists will prompt him to show what makes him a leader for whom hardship just prompts him to grow more -- skills we can all learn from him.

Tanner Gers has been through more than you have. If you want a role model for taking on challenges that you know will improve your life but you aren't sure how, listen. I wanted his conversation early. 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 count as a problem. Tanner will help you grab life by the reins and forget your problems.

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 covers more issues most people are too uncomfortable to learn about: overpopulation, the limits of technology to solve the problems most people think technology will solve.

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, the podcast has the story). 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 great tips from him.

Michael is a coach's coach. Our conversation became a two-way interview on leadership, values, and acting on them. I was pleasantly surprised that though he wasn't sure what to do specifically, he had thought about acting on the environment. I think a lot of people feel the same way. If that fits you---that you want to act but don't know how---our conversation may give you direction.

I first heard of Marshall when business school leadership class assigned reading the New Yorker article about him in 2005. He became one of my most influential mentors since I met him in person shortly after. My practice of leading and influencing people through simple (not always easy) action, not by authority or expecting giving facts to influence behavior, owes a lot to Marshall. Marshall's advice and views merit listening multiple times to learn from and implement.

Episode 000: What Leadership and the Environment is about