How Can Climate Leaders Build Resilience When Success Is Stalled?
Collectively, things are tough in many ways for the climate sector. There are political dumpster fires, funding environments are shifting, and resources are thin on the ground in many places. I’ve spoken with climate founders, senior sustainability professionals, and impact leaders recently who are all feeling this.
You might be facing setbacks that genuinely threaten what you're building.
Revenue might not be where you need it to be, and your runway is running out.
The policy win you were counting on didn't happen, and this sets you back months.
Your team is stretched thin, and the impact you're trying to create feels further away than ever.
But it’s not just the big systemic levers. It’s everyday setbacks, too.
Your boss still isn’t getting back to you about a big decision, and you can’t move forward until she does.
A prospect has just withdrawn from a big piece of work you were relying on, and now your cash flow is crunched.
Your colleague and you are butting heads about how to prioritise your strategy, and the office feels full of tension.
Success matters.
You’re doing this work to have a real impact.
Of course you need revenue. Of course you need influence. Of course you want to be strategic.
But how can we respond as climate leaders when success is slow, stalled, or held up by forces outside our control?
I think part of the answer might be in reclaiming our agency.
How? By focusing on developing specific character traits, alongside going after external wins.
Most of us know more about how to progress our careers than how to nurture our characters. And yes, of course success on the ground matters for climate action. And the tenacity to keep going when things get tough is borne of character.
So right now, when so much feels out of control, coming back to character can help us remember who we're trying to be, and why it matters, regardless of the context.
No matter what happens with your company this quarter, you can choose to develop resilience and steadiness.
No matter how your boss responds in your annual review, you can choose to cultivate resourcefulness in how you move forward.
No matter whether you land the funding you're pursuing next month, you can choose to grow patience in the process.
All these are character traits (author David Brooks calls them ‘eulogy virtues’). They’re the things about you that create a ripple effect in your life. The things people talk about when you’re gone. They’re what build resilience over the course of your life.
Above all else, leadership is about these virtues. Think about the leaders who’ve been most impactful in your life. They made an impact on you because of their character – because of how they made you feel, or how they role modelled behaviours you admire – not just the results they achieved.
And because paradigm shifts and societal changes are so complex, the ‘character’ aspect of how we lead – the impact we have on others, the things we’re remembered for, the way we make people feel, the way we respond to challenges – is even more consequential in climate leadership.
Here are some practical examples of how you might think about ‘character’ in practice.
Business is slow and you're feeling anxious
Maybe this is a chance to practise finding your inner ground, no matter what the numbers say
That might look like: intentionally using your time to learn, not to ruminate. Watching your self-talk so it sounds like a good friend talking, not your harshest critic. Or being intentional about other parts of your life (like booking a social event) so you actively invest in life outside work.
You're feeling isolated in a new senior role
Perhaps this is a chance to practice connection and courage, rather than trying to ‘power through’.
This might look like: reaching out to people who've offered to mentor you, or to give you five minutes of their time in the past. Intentionally scheduling in a few coffees to grow the ecosystem of support you know you need in order to succeed.
You're struggling with a boss who's unrealistic and demanding
Sometimes, bosses don’t change. So could this be a chance to learn how to pick your battles, and be strategic about where you invest your emotional energy?
This might look like: someone who learns how to create stronger boundaries around their emotional energy, by proactively building allies in other parts of their work.
This isn’t about simplistically reframing challenges.
And it’s not about making failure feel good. If your runway is ending in six weeks, that's genuinely serious and scary. But even in the middle of that, you still get to choose how you show up – whether you isolate or reach out, whether you completely abandon sleep or protect some of it.
Not because it's a ‘growth opportunity’ but because those choices affect whether you have anything left in the tank for whatever comes next. And because how you respond now will be a story you get to look back on as you mentor others.
In this sense, all circumstances really are our allies.
No matter what Trump, the market, or the algorithm might throw at us this week, we can still choose how to respond, and which qualities we’re developing in the process.
These questions are simple but not always easy to answer alone, especially when you're in the middle of the hard stuff. If you want a thinking partner to help you unpack what you're facing, then book a 20 min Mini Clarity Call with me. I’m here to help.
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