For many women and gender-diverse leaders working in climate and environment, this question doesn’t spark clarity — it sparks a quiet hesitation.
Not because the fire in your belly has dimmed. But because the world we are leading in is:
• uncertain
• accelerating
• nonlinear
• deeply interconnected
• shaped by forces larger than ourselves
We’ve been taught to plan for a predictable world.
But we are leading through climate disruption, political volatility, community adaptation, and ecological tipping points — and that requires something very different from traditional goal setting.
A meaningful year isn’t shaped by discipline and better goal setting alone — it’s shaped by expanding our identity, strengthening our inner capacity, building networks, cultivating grit, and designing structures of rest and support.
Goal-setting assumes predictability. Climate leadership unfolds in complexity.
Research and lived experience both show:
• Most New Year’s goals are abandoned within weeks or months
• Goal pursuit is constrained by self-concept and perceived possibility (especially for women)
• Many forces shaping what feels possible are internalised, invisible, and structural
• Impact is shaped more by who you become than what you plan
• Leadership grows through relational networks, not linear targets
• And in climate and environment work especially: the moments that change everything are rarely the ones we set goals for
They are the ones we respond to — at speed, with courage, imagination, and collective support.
Re:wild’s 2025 global study confirms that women in climate and environmental leadership are highly educated, deeply experienced, and powerfully motivated to lead — and that when women lead, outcomes are more:
• innovative
• collaborative
• transparent
• resilient
• durable
The same research identifies a critical pattern echoed across our WELA community for more than a decade:
Women’s leadership effectiveness is constrained less by capability, and more by systems that fail to sponsor, resource, sustain, and amplify them.
And for generations, as Dr Claire Zammit’s research explains, leadership cultures rewarded women for:
• supporting, not leading
• delivering, not defining
• implementing, not authoring
• being resilient, not visible
• holding the system together, not rewriting it
So when goals are set without expanding our identity and capacity, they quietly shrink to fit old expectations — instead of stretching to meet what is emerging.
The question going forward isn’t:
“What will I achieve?”
It’s:
“Who must I become to lead in the world that is emerging — and what will sustain me as I do?”
Design Your 2026 — Lead from the Inside Out
A 90-minute lunchtime leadership immersion to help you:
• locate your most grounded, resourced leader-self
• design your year around resilience, rest, and connection
• build capacity for impact without burnout
• map the conditions that help you thrive while leading climate and environmental change
Because 2026 belongs to those who are courageous and connected.
Design by intention, not default.
