New Series. Refilling the Tank. Today is Part One. The Long Walk and the Price We Pay. A conversation about climate risk and business, business leadership and stewardship.
Business, climate and leadership each run on their own well-worn scripts. Every leader who decides to go off script faces a rite of passage. It’s often called The Long Walk. It’s not a straight line, and it’s not easy. Most of the stories we hear skip the middle of it. This episode doesn’t. It names the hidden costs of The Long Walk..
Charlene brings back four voices from the show: Ernesto van Peborgh, who left the top of investment banking and ran seven marathons across the Atacama Desert; Nicola Robins, the Yale-trained scientist whose body shut down after an audit at a diamond mine in Australia; Ryan James Kemp, who spent fourteen years learning in close to sixty-five countries; and Kassandra Hamilton, whose life came apart at 27. Four very different walks, and the same messy middle. It’s disorienting, it’s lonely, it’s expensive, and it takes far longer than anyone plans for.
Then she turns the lens on herself: a six-month project, 80-hour weeks, and the truth about why she really checked in on her team.
The point she lands on: The Long Walk never happens to just the leader. Your team pays the price with you, whether you tell them or not.
This episode sets up the next two, where Kassandra Hamilton shares practical tools for refilling the tank while you’re still in the middle.
Three things you’ll take away:
- Why going off script drains far more energy than the leap itself
- How a leader’s worry, exhaustion and silence get passed to the team
- Three questions to ask yourself about what your long walk is costing the people around you
Have you checked out The Stewardship Table?
The 5Cs Podcast connects forward-thinking executives who are building sustainable competitive advantages while driving positive impact. Think of it as an exclusive network of leaders who understand that stewardship isn’t just good ethics – it’s good business. Becausing addressing business stewardship climate risk and leadership together is in the highest good for all.
Connect with Charlene Norman on LinkedIn, find her at her website, subscribe to our Substack for strategic insights, or download the full series on Spotify and Apple.