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🎤Speak Your Truth - the blog |
"Conscious Leadership is Sustainability Leadership"   I sat in a grand hall of the New York Public library listening with my regular skeptic in tow (because she's always there to challenge assumptions) as several influential corporate and NGO leaders took to the podium. With an aura of confident and humble elegance, Fieke Sijbesma, CEO of Royal DSM and host of their annual Climate Week NYC event, "It's no longer business as usual," addressed the hall and my skeptic left the room. His guests up next included, Danone CEO, Emmanuel Faber, Henrietta Fore, Executive Director of Unicef, Professor Rebecca Henderson of Harvard Business School and Anne Finucane, Chairman of the board of Bank of America Merrill Lynch Europe. The event was moderated by the brilliant and engaging Vijay Vaitheeswaran from the Economist. My takeaways were plenty, from strategies around employee incentives like bonuses attached to KPIs that include sustainability performance and social impact to the challenges leaders (conscious CEOs) face around operationalizing sustainability in a landscape that may not be ready to embrace real innovation. Another challenge is integrating purpose and a sustainability mindset throughout organizations. Sijbesma said, "You can't force purpose into people." What I loved about this luncheon was the presence of truth and the epitome of conscious leadership. The sustainability, climate, social and governance challenges we face today are front and center and it's going to take conscious leadership to move the dial on solving big world problems. The smoke and mirrors greenwash of yesterday still prevails but it's not everywhere, and it definitely wasn't in the room at DSM's event. In that hall in the New York Public Library, the premise of the book I've been laboring over for the past 3 years hit home. It's time has come. Namely, "Conscious leadership is sustainability leadership." Chief Sustainability Officers should not divert the responsibility of sustainability leadership from the CEO of large companies with global impact. Every leader needs to be indoctrinated with the soft skill of sustainability. Thank you DSM, for holding this reality as a conscious leader. Yes the hard skills of water usage, design and life-cycles, carbon calculations, human rights and law, finance and accounting are all still very grounded in subject matter expertise requiring hard skills that ought to be left to those experts. However, a soft skill of leaders must include sustainability consciousness. My work includes a process I've developed called, "The Sustainability Mindset Shift." It activates this core sustainability soft skill plus the consciousness and mindset needed for leaders to embody it, feel it, think and decide with it. There are biases the collective has formed toward the very words 'sustainability' and 'environment,' and these biases need to be dealt with intentionally. The Sustainability Mindset Shift process does just that. If one can learn executive presence or mindset management, and one can unlock their own purpose, one can certainly awaken the part of themselves that remembers they are nature, the part that remembers they are part of a whole. "You can't force purpose into people," but you can unlock it out of them. You can inculcate a mindset, you can help people know their Souls a little deeper and this is where we unlock sustainability consciousness in people. Leadership development, according to a Training Industry report in 2018 was a $366 billion dollar industry. Yet, the industry has not integrated sustainability as a soft skill in leadership development. (I propose it needs to and I share how in my forthcoming book) One of the assessment tools in my executive coaching and leadership strategy toolbox, The Leadership 360 Profile, maps self-limiting reactive tendencies and leadership behaviors with creative tendencies and behaviors in a complex yet illuminating chart. It goes beyond the benchmarks of leadership capability and effectiveness, to an integrative understanding of the person’s capacity for creative, adaptive and situationally appropriate responses to the leadership challenges that are prevalent in today’s VUCA environment. (VUCA = volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous).  As we awaken consciousness, grow in our own self-awareness and realize our impact on the 'other' and the whole, we move up the trajectory from ego-centric to reactive, to creative, to integral to unitive. In the higher levels of leadership, integral or conscious leadership, we find sustainability in unison. We see those are the leaders who are accessing sustainability as a soft skill of leadership. It's my life purpose to awaken sustainability consciousness in corporations and the world. To sit in the halls of the New York Public Library during Climate Week in NYC, I marvel at how far we have come. I marvel that 25 years ago I was arrested for saying the same thing. I marvel that we're still so far from where we need to be. I marvel at the opening for all to receive this message and it's time has come, sustainability must be a soft sill in leadership development. The bottom line and reason why it will be a game changer. ... is because sustainabilty, while many things, is also a mindset. Intentionally, Stephanie ©2019 Intentional Paradigms LLC All Rights Reserved * No portion of this article may be copied or repurposed without express permission. We all want a better world, better future of work, better alignment with the work we do and the values we hold dear to our hearts. We are the change agents creating the new paradigm. I help leaders, entrepreneurs and professional change agents integrate sustainability & conscious leadership into all that they do for more impact and influence. Reach out for a conversation about how you as a conscious leader can amplify your impact and lead the change in your company, your business, your team and your life! Ask about my keynotes, breakouts and workshop sessions to ignite your event.  Stephanie Trager, esq.
Catalyst Coach to Change Agents Catalyst Coach | Purpose, Impact & Business Strategist Sustainability Change Agent | Attorney | ESG | CSR s@intentionalparadigms.com www.intentionalparadigms.com Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn Unlock Purpose, Unleash Potential Create Your Legacy Impact! Let's schedule a complimentary exploratory strategy call
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  Impact Activism In an era of impact -social impact entrepreneurs, impact corporate social responsibility initiatives, impact investing, impact and sustainability, impact philanthropy, impact reports, it’s time we add ‘impact activism’ to give her the edge and acceptance she needs and deserves. Greta Thunberg, the young no BS European teen building a global movement and taking the world by storm is busting biases with the pure truth of an activist. A catalytic moment is upon us where people are waking up their own inner activist and not sure where or how to let it unfold. One reason for this is that bias has existed against activism for a long time. Just like bias existed against the very words, ‘sustainability’ ‘green’ and the ‘environment’ (especially in investing) for a long time and they are now 'becoming' evidenced-based opportunities, it’s important we reconcile within ourselves and as a culture where these biases still exist. In 1997 I was a tree-sitter. Then I became a lawyer. (after my friend was killed by a logger) ‘Tree-sitter’ stirs quite the judgement, at least it did before the ‘L’ word gave me some street cred. What I’ve witnessed over the past 22 years since my days of front-line activism- beyond marches but spending weeks alone with a harness sleeping 280 feet up in a 2,000 year-old redwood tree to protect that grove, is an interesting shift in people’s bias towards three words:
These words were met with judgement, stereotypes, and beliefs that so viscerally exuded from faces in mainstream circles it was like a coming out party every time I said, “I’m an environmental activist focused on long term sustainability initiatives.” (circa 1997-2000) How would that be received now? A lot different. The 3 letters, E. S. G. were still in gestation. Akin to women sitting on corporate boards, black CEOs of multi-nationals, and other diversity issues that are fully embraced now (arguably) but in the 70’s and 80’s would cause aghast, biases still exist and are deeply ingrained in our culture. Until we recognize the bias in the bias a certain flavor of activism will only be a white person’s prerogative. Let’s celebrate activism, opportunity for catalytic change and of course the greatness of what Malcolm Gladwell might call an ‘Outlier,’ Greta Thunberg. And let’s be honest, the criminalization of activism is real in communities of color and those who support them. One obvious bias that not many are talking about is why the world accepted Greta (and thank Goddess they are!!) and not the young Takota Iron Eyes, a Lakota Native American, who full stop started a movement that went global to protect Standing Rock from the Dakota Access Pipeline? Why Greta? I think we're not at the point of that reflection yet because the positive force she is stirring is so incredibly necessary and awe-some. One reason why activism has been frowned upon or called out in the past (I've been the curmudgeon in the room for a long time pointing out the obvious) is that activists will readily point out the uncomfortable. We’re still, as a culture, only comfortable with some uncomfortable. We haven’t fully embraced truth and reconciliation. We want to focus on optimism and sometimes, not always, this comes at the expense of truth. If bite size chunks work, great, let’s embrace activism first in a way that is relatable. I am 1000% behind Greta, and I am also a stand for uncovering deeply entrenched biases towards activism, especially among impact inspired sustainability professionals and investors. Bias exists against activism for good reason. It can be dangerous physically. Front line activists are killed with impunity around the world in record numbers. They were also in this country only a few decades ago. I've witnessed children have their eyeballs swabbed with pepper-spray soaked Q-tips. I saw my friend killed by a logger and it was written off as an accident - all in California. According to Global Witness in 2018, 164 documented killings took place of non-violent activists working to protect their rights, land and a clean environment around the world. In the United States 7 states have passed laws that hike up penalties for activists protesting oil and gas pipelines -known as ‘critical infrastructure,’ and at least 6 more states are considering new laws. Thanks to institutional activism, the ACLU and Center for Constitutional Rights are on it. But the danger around activism that must be, and is being, done away with is- reputation. Activism is noble. It's needed and it's time has come. One doesn’t have to be a front-line activist to have an impact. Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia, is a wonderful example of an ‘Impact Activist.’ In his own words, “I’m not an activist. I don’t really have the guts to be on the front lines. But I have supported activists ever since a young man gave a slide show in 1972 at a city council meeting in Ventura.” As a ‘tree-sitter’ in 1997 I remember boxes of Patagonia gear coming to supply our work. Climbing, rain and all kinds of back-country gear supplied us in abundance to facilitate our work to protect those ancient groves. Patagonia was pivotal in the movement to protect Headwaters Forest, more than 7,400 acres of old growth redwood habitat. Chouinard most definitely is an activist, an ‘impact activist.’ In the coming years, we’re going to see activism flood the mainstream. Regular folk will put their bodies on the line in front of bulldozers, in front of militia at the border separating babies from their parents, blocking pipelines, whistleblowing big data surveillance ops, or supporting those doing it. More people will have the courage to take a direct stand for what they believe in. And if not on the front line, then through impact activism. Professionals and small business owners have a huge opportunity to direct their work towards impact- a powerful form of activism.‘Impact Activist’ is the (not so) new impact investor or impact entrepreneur. If you’re not cut out for the front line, like Yvon Chouinard, you can still have a direct impact through many creative paths that support activism. Rainforest Action Network, Guerrilla Foundation, and so many organizations support the work of front-line community activists taking a stand for climate justice and humanity. There are now tools to measure impact and the growth of movements. There are myriad ways to get involved personally and professionally, physically or financially. Let’s spread the movement proudly and say, “I’m an Impact Activist.” Impact Activists are also professionals that gear their work toward activism (in its many forms). It's the 'system' in the 'change' that makes it all work. From attorneys, to business advisors, to accountants, to marketing and communications experts, to investors, to scientists and biologists, to entrepreneurs and start ups- to the myriad elements in between. Impact Activism calls for a broad spectrum of change. If finding your voice while aligning your values, purpose and work in the world to have a meaningful and measurable impact is on top of your agenda, please reach out and learn about our Conscious Leadership Mastermind beginning January 2020, and our private coaching and consulting opportunities! Legacy is the stand we take for what we love and believe in. Intentionally,   Stephanie Trager, esq.
Catalyst Coach to Change Agents Conscious Business & Legal Strategist Impact & Sustainability Activator s@stephanietrager.com www.stephanietrager.com Let's connect on social too Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn  During a two week time out grounding in nature's pavilion, soaking in her healing waters and hiking through her oxygen temples, I heard her say, "write to your tribe...inspire them to connect to me (nature) more often! Share the truth." Messages like this need some decoding and from my process came two invitations. *Here I am after a 12 mile hike on a 3 day backpacking trip - in the Jefferson Wilderness Area in Oregon. Unplugging made me realize how disconnected technology and the wireless invisible webs have been keeping me. It's becoming harder and harder to experience real quiet and energetic peace, yet here, there were no humans, was no cell, wireless, or any other uninvited energies. On this mountain I was inspired to let you know about these two invitations... One is to share with you the work I'm doing with Dream Change and the Kogi Indigenous People in Colombia, and the other is the launch of the Conscious Leadership Mastermind, for Leaders Fiercely Committed to Improving the World. More on this below... But first... Can I count on you for two things?
The reason why I've asked these two things of you is because we need to raise the bar for how we show up. We need to be keepers of the truth, speak it, share it and no matter how left edge or rabble rousing we seem to others, we need to recognize that the world needs more truth tellers willing to hold their ground and stand up. Our personal and spiritual evolution depends on our willingness to continue to come into alignment with our personal values and our deeper life purpose in all areas of our lives- from the products we buy to the way we do our work in the world, and to how we show up in our relationships. If you're that person who knows you're the mystic, the keen seer of the invisible, the one who 'get's it on a different level - and you're frustrated that you've not yet integrated this level of mastery in your work or how you're fully showing up in your life- then perhaps start the inquiry- "What would it look like if .... ?" Here's an example of why this is so important for your personal evolution, healing and growth (and success) and to the world... Two massive things have hit mainstream media while I was on my walk about:
As someone who's been engaged in the sustainability and corporate responsibility space for decades, seeing the world of finance embrace ESG (movement toward sustainable investment initiatives) I'm the one in the room usually pulling the curtain back to expose the cognitive dissonance. Good over here but not over there... Say we value this but do that.... We can't expect companies to change if we're not willing to tighten up our values alignment and check our own cognitive dissonance. Behind each of these two bits of information are decades of truth needing reconciliation for the transformation or healing of any of us, our economy or our planet. I have much more to say and will be frequenting Facebook with live videos weekly. Please add me as a friend if we're not yet! In the meantime, I've also seen many business owners pounce on the headlines saying, 'Great, I'll change my messaging and positioning to leverage this." And that to me is a low bar for entry. Just like a company, our beliefs and values are born from our worldview, our truth and our ability to connect the dots and be aligned. It's a process I guide clients through all the time and often we're not even aware how out of alignment we really are! Are we willing to challenge what we eat? Look at the ingredients and ask what the heck is that? Are we willing to question the 'smart meter' and 5G and the digital cage we're being locked in that's fraught with surveillance and health questions? Are we willing to ask the questions few are asking and hold space for a true consciousness revolution? It's truly the only way we can change the world. What does this mean for you and me as conscious loving, mindful awakening professionals? It means we're being called to a new level of game changing. We're being called to change the game, not leverage the old game. Take a peak at the Conscious Leadership Mastermind!  If you're someone who is fiercely committed to conscious leadership, changing the game and leveraging your influence for more values aligned impact, you may be interested in THE CONSCIOUS LEADERSHIP MASTERMIND - a small group of 4 change agents who are consultants, coaches or leaders of organizations with ripple impact who are on deck for a new level of personal and professional mastery even more in alignment with their values. This is a crash course as well in sustainability, CSR and what you need to know to play in this field and leverage your business and network....  ---- Many of you know i have spent the past several decades immersed in protecting wild places and the respect of Indigenous people to have sovereignty over their very existence. This past December, I joined the Board of Dream Change, a non-profit founded by John Perkins (also co-founder of the Pachamama Alliance). We exist to spread sustainability consciousness fueled by a life economy with respect for earth honoring practices kept by Indigenous wisdom keepers. We found ourselves with the Kogi this past December learning of their prophecy that we really have very little time to flip the situation. We are too distracted and comfortable in the modern world to realize.... It's so beyond the concept of climate crisis. We're missing half the story because we are not even aware of how much of our own personal sovereignty we've given away. The Kogi remind us. We are their 'younger siblings' because our techno civilization is so young, yet their sustainable ways of knowing and being have made it 4000 years. We have much to learn, yet they too are being wiped off the map- as their sacred places are destroyed. The Kogi are an Indigenous group who have kept their traditional ways, and are keepers of ancient knowledge and cosmology we are so deeply needing in our urgent environmental and human crisis of today. Will You Join Me in Support of the KOGI PEOPLE of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in Columbia? ==> https://www.dreamchange.org/kogiland So many of us are privileged not to recognize said crisis, though step into the world of Indigenous people, those who know because they hear, see and feel on a whole different level, because they are experiencing extermination through the disappearance of our natural world - and you will also feel and know we are at a critical turning point. Think Amazon Rainforest burning ... Please help us help the Kogi buy back land that was their original territory. Find out why we believe repatriating Kogi territory at this time is so important for the future thriving of our civilization - CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ==> https://www.dreamchange.org/kogiland And stay tuned here, as we're soon launching a Dream Change Facebook Group...where you can learn about our expeditions and immersions led by our Indigenous partners in some of the wild places left on Earth! I'm so excited to bring you this next evolution of my work, of Intentional Paradigms and our work with Dream Change! Curious about the Conscious Leadership Mastermind? Are you a coach or consultant feeling the nudge for deeper fulfillment with your business success? Is the chaos in the world pulling you down because you're not sure which lever point to impact or how? PLEASE BE IN TOUCH!!!! Enrollment is open for four people - we're beginning January 2020 - yet enrolling now means we get rolling now! Have a look here THANK YOU THANK YOU! Intentionally,  Stephanie Trager, esq.
Catalyst Coach to Globe Changers Conscious Business & Legal Strategist Impact & Sustainability Activator s@stephanietrager.com www.stephanietrager.com Let's connect on social too Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn Board Member; Dream Change www.dreamchange.org Legal Strategist and Founder of the Conscious Contracts Firm; Trager Law PLLC www.tragerlaw.net |
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