We have much to learn from leaders in the climate movement.
Joan Michelson is a highly accomplished business leader, acclaimed journalist, coach and speaker, based in Washington, DC.
She focuses on engaging with and encouraging women working on all aspects of clean energy, climate and sustainability solutions.
I am a regular listener of her Electric Ladies Podcast featuring highly informative conversations with women climate leaders. She recently attended COP26, and I really enjoyed her episodes from the conference.
I admire the work that Joan is doing to platform women leaders in the climate movement, and she offers such great advice for people having concerns about the climate to engage with their employers and encourage and support ESG – Environmental, Social and Governance – initiatives within their organizations.
Find Joan here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joanmichelson/
#women #energy #podcast #leadership #climatechange
[Video Transcript]
Matt Schlegel:
Thanks for joining me in conversations with leaders who are engaging with their feelings as a leadership tool for both inspiration and motivation. Today, I’m speaking with Joan Michelson, an extraordinary climate leader and host of the Electric Ladies Podcast, where she highlights the efforts and initiatives of other women leaders in the climate movement. And now for our conversation. Joan Michelson is a highly accomplished business leader, acclaimed journalist, coach and speaker based in Washington, D.C. She focuses on engaging with and encouraging women working on all aspects of clean energy, climate and sustainability solutions. I’m a regular listener of her Electric Ladies Podcast featuring highly informative conversations with women climate leaders. She recently attended COP 26 and I really enjoyed her episodes from the conference. Joan, thank you so much for joining me and welcome.
Joan Michelson:
Oh, it’s my pleasure, Matthew. I’m absolutely flattered that you wanted to have me on. I always enjoy our conversations.
Matt Schlegel:
Super thank you. Well, why don’t we start off with how you are feeling about climate change now?
Joan Michelson:
Well, it’s really interest because I see a lot happening. I’m very concerned about what’s happening to the planet, but I also see the private sector really stepping up regardless of what did not happen the last five years and currently with the Biden administration is doing a great deal. Especially having just come from COP 26. And I interface with people every day who are in the business world, doing this work in big ways and small ways. And now that we have the convergence of the SEC developing reporting criteria to measure climate risk and provide standardized transparency, holding people accountable, as well as the private sector kicking in trillions and trillion… the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero committed $130 trillion with a T to net zero. And all of these companies now bringing in ESG experts and sustainability experts in reducing the carbon footprint of their supply chains.
Joan Michelson:
I think it’s really been a big wake up call. And I’m also hopeful because there is more of this coming together and understanding that you really have to have the ES and the S and the G coordinated. You need to have diversity, which is, obviously the environment is the climate part, but you need to have diversity, which is the S part. And you need to have people engaged, which is the S part. And you also need transparency and accountability, which is the G part, the governance, as well as diversity on your board. So I’m actually quite hopeful. The temperature is not going down rapidly enough, but I’m hopeful that there’s a convergence of a lot of important and powerful actions being taken on mass converging at once. I did a story in forums on ESG is the biggest trend of 2021.
Matt Schlegel:
Oh, that’s… Yeah-
Joan Michelson:
Biggest economic trend, I should say, besides COVID.
Matt Schlegel:
Right. Yeah. So I am hearing a lot of hopefulness. I’m hearing that you are encouraged about the actions that are happening, that you see are going to make a difference. And that’s fantastic. So now, how are these feelings that you’re having influencing your behaviors and your direction as a leader?
Joan Michelson:
Well, it’s interesting. I’m getting more people… Well, there’s several. So I do speaking, I do coaching and I do consulting and journalism. So in my journalism work, as you say, I’m highlighting in a lot of the women who are doing this work, but I’m also finding companies coming to me to speak at their event, or for help with some aspect of their ESG work in a way that shows me that they’re taking it more seriously. And I’m seeing more reporting on these issues, more studies being done, these issues. My firm did a study of women… I don’t know if you were one of the people that got it, but we did a study about 18 months ago on women on… well, it was on people, but we targeted women and how they make career decisions. And we found that women make career based on status, power, curiosity, and idealism.
Matt Schlegel:
Interesting.
Joan Michelson:
Which was a very different paradigm for the 30 year old publishing company that did the research with us. And I bring it up because the more women we have in this space, the more actions that are being taken on a serious level with climate. It’s not to say that men aren’t doing it, but women naturally make values based decisions. So it affects everything that I do every day. The way I’ll answer you is to say, I’m getting more incoming from people wanting to address this on a more serious level and maybe building a new unit or developing new strategies around it, or women wanting to change their careers more into this space. So my work is practicing in it every day. But as an observer, I’m seeing people integrate it more and more into their everyday work and into their business strategy. It used to be just an investment strategy. Now it’s a bonafide business strategy and then a recruiting strategy.
Matt Schlegel:
Yeah. I really appreciate that point you’re making about how women leaders seem to take the issue of environment and climate a little more seriously, maybe than their male counterparts and how important it is to bring more women into the climate movement, especially in positions of leadership. So I really appreciate and applaud what you are doing to provide a path for women to come in and all the coaching and guidance that you’re giving them. It’s just so important. So thank you so much for doing that.
Joan Michelson:
Well, I appreciate that. And the other thing that it does is, well, first of all, there’s more data. There’s a lot more data to come in. There’s more that they can use. There’s more reporting coming in every day. So that helps bolster their case, but it also brings men along. It brings other people along. It gives people who have felt this way, a little bit of cover to come forward and say something. And I find more women supporting each other in this work as well, which is interesting.
Matt Schlegel:
This is a great segue into to my final question is what advice would you give to leaders and aspiring leaders who are starting to have feelings about the climate?
Joan Michelson:
Well, it depends on what they do for a living and how they spend their time. Because what I also find is that a lot of people come to me and say, “I need to quit my, because it doesn’t give me a way to help save the planet.” And my answer is, “Hang on. You probably can do something in your job or through your company that will help you give a voice to that desire to make a difference.” If they don’t have a green club or a sustainability club, you can start one.
Joan Michelson:
If they get more involved in recycling, get more involved in volunteer work and other things that the company is doing with other organizations. Or research what the firm is doing, your company is doing, or your organization is doing in general, in their various portfolios of work and say, “Hey, I see there’s a sustainability group over here,” or, “I see there’s a group doing X. I’d like to do some work. I’d like to help them. And how can I have my work connect to that? I’d like to be doing more in this space to be making more of a difference.”
Joan Michelson:
And the worst that happens is they say no and nothing. But if there are ways to, A, transfer your skills into another industry that is in this work… I worked at Chrysler. I just worked in electric vehicles. So it’s that kind of a paradigm. Or Deloitte, Deloitte has… I don’t know, 200 practice groups, but they have a sustainability group, they have an energy group, they have different things. And there’s sustainability for the organization, and then there’s sustainability to help other clients.
Joan Michelson:
So they’re all different ways that you can use your skills. You can be volunteering, or you can find a way to do the job that you do now, or use the skills that you have now in your organization to do this work and to maybe nudge them to do more of it.
Matt Schlegel:
Right.
Joan Michelson:
And their job, the company wants to engage their employees more. So you’re doing them a favor by telling them that this is important to you.
Matt Schlegel:
Yeah. That is such a good point. And it really highlights how we can come in to the climate movement and exhibit climate leadership, wherever our starting point is.
Joan Michelson:
That’s right. Just start from where you are. I mean, you can always volunteer and donate to environmental groups. You can go to different conferences and things like that. And that’s the other thing is if you can, even if it’s virtual only, just go to some of these events, see people that you want [inaudible 00:11:21] get an understanding, increase your learning curve that you might need to get into this space. And learn more about it. There are a zillion works. You can always listen to my podcast if you like. [crosstalk 00:11:37]. Thank you. 340 some odd women that I’ve interviewed as every topic under the sun. But if you like fashion, there’s a sustainable fashion. If you like cars, there’s obviously a ton going on in transportation. If you like the food business, there’s all kinds of stuff going on in the food business. No matter what industry you’re in, if you want your day job to be making more of a difference in this regard, there is a way to do it.
Matt Schlegel:
Right. When you’re working within a company, you might find that the company is highly receptive to your efforts. And maybe the analogy is also the diversity, equity, inclusion movement within companies. They’re looking for people to step up and show leadership in those areas and wanting employees to contribute. And I think the same is true for climate as well. It’s just becoming such a big, important issue for corporations and for everybody. So yes, I think you’re absolutely right that it’s a it’s a good place to start if you want to have a conversation to start with your employer and see how you can move the needle within organizations. That’s such great advice.
Joan Michelson:
Well, they may have some initiative going on that you don’t know about, and they may not know that you don’t know about it. They might not know that employees don’t know about. So you’re saying, “I want to get more involved in this. How can I do that?” They may turn around and say, “Oh, well, you can collaborate with the yada yada group,” and you go, “Oh, I didn’t know-”
Matt Schlegel:
You’re already doing it.
Joan Michelson:
“How did I know that you were doing that?”
Matt Schlegel:
Yeah, exactly. Well, thank you Joan so much for joining me today, for sharing your very hopeful vision of the future and for your excellent advice for how people can engage with the climate movement, from whatever position they’re in. I feel like we’re just scratching the surface on this conversation and it is going to be an ongoing conversation. Certainly. So hope to have you back in the future to get more of your insights.
Joan Michelson:
Thank you, Matt. Thank you for the work that you do every day. Appreciate it.
Matt Schlegel:
All right. Thank you.
Joan Michelson:
You’re welcome.
Matt Schlegel:
Thanks for watching. Joan strikes such a hopeful tone as she runs down all the horrific work being done to address the climate crisis, both at a policy level and within organizations. I admire the work that Joan is doing to bring more women leaders into the climate movement. And she offers such great advice for people having concerns about the climate, to engage with their employers and encourage and support ESG, which is environmental, social, and governance initiatives within their organizations. If you like this, please click on the thumbs up and subscribe to the channel for notifications on future episodes. And if you have any questions, please leave them in the comments section and I’ll respond as soon as I can. Thanks again.
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