Anyone willing to lead in climate has to be both a dreamer and a pragmatist, and that’s no small feat - Yujia Du, Leadership Coach

Yujia Du helps climate leaders drive meaningful impact authentically through coaching. A founder herself - having started “The Climate Circle,” dedicated to building relationships among women in the sector - and with a decade-long career in the energy-transition ecosystem, she understands the challenges climate executives face. Even though her official roles were in commerce and policy, she has always been drawn to people and culture. Volunteering for five years at a mental health charity further helped her define what meaningful work looks like.

“I believe the climate challenge is, at its core, a people challenge. Technical and organisational barriers exist, but ultimately it comes down to people reimagining and making the necessary changes to our systems. That's why I see leadership coaching as the highest-leverage contribution I can personally make.”

‍

The people Yujia works with are navigating a challenging political and market environment while striving to stay true to the values that brought them to this work, she explains.

“Anyone willing to lead in climate has to be both a dreamer and a pragmatist, and that’s no small feat.

A lot of this is about confronting contradictions and holding two truths at once: Competing and collaborating. Growing fast and sustainably. Having a big career and living a full life. Our work together isn’t about going one way or the other, but about cultivating their ability to make nuanced decisions.”

‍

Her central belief is that we are all born leaders, but we lose some of the qualities we need along the way.

“My job is to help people reconnect with their strengths, define the authentic leadership style that's true to them, and bring that to their work.

A big part of that is values work: helping people get clear on what they stand for, so they can start making decisions guided by that rather than by noise or expectation.

My background in Physics means there's always an analytical and strategic thread to how I work. But the most powerful tools I have are deep listening–hearing what someone is trying to communicate under the surface; holding space to help them make sense of messiness; and being a mirror, a cheerleader, and a witness to their growth.”

‍

She advocates for three main values in her work: Agency, Learner-mindset, and courage.

“Climate work is about delivering some pretty ambitious changes as a society, and change requires us to have agency to make them happen. For a sector that is relatively new, fastly growing and getting more interconnected with other fields every day, both experts and generalists will feel like they don’t know enough.

Impostor syndrome is almost inevitable for people working in climate. It’s important we remain life long learners, from schools but more importantly from each other. 

Finally, I think we need to cultivate courage to learn, to try, to take risks, to say ‘I don’t know’, to make mistakes. It’s easy to associate startups with the challenger role, but we also need leaders in established organisations to challenge the system that rewarded them, and the people who lifted them up.”

‍

Another concept she promotes is “leadership from the middle,” referring to those who work within the climate ecosystem but might feel they lack power because they aren't in C-level positions.

“It's easy to and defer the responsibility of change to heads of state or corporate CEOs, but the growing number of professionals working within the wider climate sector can have real impact. 

We can influence the direction of travel, the pace of change, and the kind of working environments we create for ourselves. That might look like questioning the inclusion of a fossil fuel project in our portfolio, pushing back on watered-down climate targets, or role-modelling different behaviours in hostile company cultures.“

‍

People who work in areas like climate carry a lot of weight, Yujia notes, because even if the work is fulfilling, it’s easy to feel like it’s never enough.

“A big part of my work is to help people become aware of how these factors influence their work, as well as their relationships with work, and make value-aligned choices for their causes, and themselves.”

‍

Is there a right time to start working with a coach? Yujia says that there is a coach for every stage of the process.

“I come in when they feel there's a misalignment: between the business they have vs. the business they want to build; how they are showing up vs. the kind of leader they want to be.”

‍

To conclude, we touched on the level of awareness around leadership coaching in the climate world. Unfortunately, it’s still not very common. But on the bright side, many organizations now offer coaching to management or are willing to sponsor it when employees propose the idea.

“Often people also confuse it with advisor/mentor, which is more about advising from expertise and experience. A coach doesn’t give you answers, they help you build the capacity to find it yourself. I hope coaching becomes much more prevalent, as I really believe our businesses can only grow as much as we grow.”

‍

Thank you, Yujia Du!