Being promoted from Chief Explainer

Sometimes it feels like most of my career has been about talking to people about things they do not understand or believe in. I don't know what job role that would be - Chief Explainer? I know I'm not alone with this job role. Most sustainability professionals I know also have this on their CV and we experience it as a vocation because it isn't economically rewarded, but it's something that just has to be done.

Since January 1st 2020 I have been inundated with requests to share my Chief Explainer skills. I've even created my own process to identify where I can have the most impact.

While I love using my explainer skills and painting the picture of a positively impactful future, I will admit to being challenged by the skills of patience a Chief Explainer is regularly expected to demonstrate. Recently I attended a Keynote by a UNFCCC programme officer who explained time was limited for the event industry to show action on carbon emissions, i.e. measuring and setting targets for reduction. A CEO level industry leader told me later "that presentation was a little scaremongering saying we have less than 10 years left to act."

I didn't know what to say - partly because I was realising that my Chief Explainer skills sometimes just don't work and partly because I was so aware in that moment that the time for explaining is over and all that counts now is action.

So, Chief Explainer is coming off my CV to be replaced with action and like any job role change I'm sure it will take me a while to get used to the new responsibilities and to stop my automatic explaining - let's see how this promotion goes.