Confidently choose how to use your energy and your talents, increase your impact, and future-proof your role.

Standard leadership training wasn't designed for environmental professionals. You face unique challenges that require specialised approaches - from navigating complex stakeholder dynamics to driving systems change while managing scientific uncertainty.

Ordinary leadership training isn't designed for environmental professionals. We face unique challenges - from navigating complex stakeholder dynamics to driving systems change while managing scientific uncertainty. Environmental leadership demands resilience, the ability to perceive and respond to interconnected factors, and skills to hold organisations accountable while safeguarding the wellbeing of species and ecosystems.

This program fills the gap. Rather than learning generic leadership theory, you'll be guided by an environmental leadership expert and learn to use tools specifically designed for environmental professionals working in complex, high-stakes contexts.

Why this matters?

As you know working in the environment is not what people imagine it to be. It is not all koalas, and rainforests and reefs!

Working in environmental fields presents challenges that outsiders rarely understand. It's not the romanticised version people imagine - it requires navigating political realities, competing interests, and urgent timelines while maintaining scientific integrity.

Those who master their operating model, understand systems change, and know how to unlock measurable impact gain a clear competitive advantage. This workshop builds these capabilities in real time using your actual work context, not hypothetical case studies. You'll leave with immediately applicable tools and frameworks.

Participants will work in small groups using role plays and multiple specialised toolkits designed for environmental leadership contexts.

Please note this workshop will run off Australian Eastern Daylight Time for two weeks on Wednesday's and Friday's for 2.5 hours on the following days:
Wednesday 11 March, Friday 13 March, Wednesday 18 March & Friday 20 March 2026 at 1:00pm - 3:30pm (AEDT)

Session Overviews

Session 1 | Tools they don't teach

• Introduction: leadership of self, leadership of team and system leadership
• Explore what good looks like
• What is your driving purpose?
• Develop clarity around your aspiration - how big is the gap between what you really want and where you are now?
• Shift from unconscious incompetence to intentionality in your operating model

Session 2 | Tailoring your narrative and leading yourself

• Frame your compelling narrative. Move beyond basic role based identification to deeper insight
• Build out the key elements of your operating model.
• Use your energy and your time to help you genuinely have more impact
• Identify how you can use simple leadership experiments to make small changes with big impact
• Tailor simple, reusable tools that assist you to stay on track

Session 3 | Getting others on board

• Evolve your narrative so it has broader application. Build a version you can use repeatedly.
• Learn to give and receive feedback that is strengths based and builds learning.
• Reduce the cognitive load of good teamwork for organisation-wide application
• Build an ownership mindset for your team, with a cadence of accountability that moves you closer to your shared mission

Session 4 | Future-Proofing Your System Leadership

• Anticipate where focussing your effort is likely to have the most impact and what it means for your expertise and influence
• Shift from system player to system orchestrator.
• Learn to think across multiple horizons to identify where best to intervene
• Introduction to system transformation tools for organisations and for CEOs

Dr Kimberley Swords

Kimberley has coached, trained and taught hundreds how to be more persuasive and impactful. She is an Executive Coach and Board Member and has designed and delivered leadership programs with Stanford, McKinsey & Company, the University of Queensland and Oxford Saïd Business School.

The consistent theme of Kimberley’s work is impact at scale to the benefit the environment. She now returns to take members deeper into practical, applied personal leadership for impact.

This workshop will be evidence based and highly interactive, providing you the opportunity to learn and practice new skills in a fun and engaging format.

Not an EIANZ member?

Consider joining as a student, associate or full member today! To receive the member rate to the symposium make sure you apply for membership prior to registering for the event! Join here →

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