Impact Interview: Chris Gaither
What are you working on these days?
I’m having a blast running Regenerous, an executive coaching and culture consulting firm for sustainability leaders and teams. I co-founded Regenerous with my partner Abby Sturges, who’s an amazing coach and facilitator with a background in social entrepreneurship. Nothing is as purposeful for us as supporting the leaders who are working to restore our planet’s health.
Recently, we’ve been helping them see that the routine pains of their work – like anxiety, burnout, and overwhelm – are downstream symptoms of a systemic problem: There’s a fundamental mismatch between what they’re trying to create and where they’re trying to create from.
By that, I mean that they’re often trying to create regenerative business outcomes by using extractive leadership methods. They’re trying to create abundance from scarcity mindsets and resilience from a state of personal and organizational depletion. No wonder it’s so hard!
We believe the best way to shift into a regenerative mindset is to cultivate the wisdom of nature within and around each of us. Like biomimicry informs design, nature can teach us so many lessons about leadership, too.
I recently gave a keynote speech on these ideas at the Corporate Eco Forum’s annual executive retreat for about 140 chief sustainability officers and other senior leaders. Then Abby led group coaching sessions to help attendees explore it more intimately. The response was phenomenal! We loved helping them realize the magic of applying their deep wisdom about natural systems to their own leadership.
On the personal front, I’m devoted to being a great dad to my teenage son Riley and our rescue pit bull Keba (such a love bug!). I serve on the board of directors at the Alameda County Community Food Bank, which provides about 4 million meals a month to those experiencing food insecurity, and I offer pro bono coaching support through the Humanitarian Coaching Network.
What was the “aha” moment that sparked your interest in social impact?
For me, it was more of a gradual unfolding than a single aha. In 2013, Apple asked me to lead communications for its environmental and social impact programs. I’d led big communications campaigns at Google, but this material was new for me. I was scared, but I said yes anyway. I jumped in, having lots of conversations and visiting as many of Apple’s projects as I could.
Within 18 months, I had moved to the Environment, Policy and Social Impact team as director of strategy and stakeholder engagement. It was an incredible honor to work for Lisa Jackson, the Apple VP who had previously been administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The deeper I dove into the work, the more I fell in love with it. And the more I awoke to the dire climate, social justice and biodiversity crises.
I left Apple in late 2017 after a terrible period of burnout – sacrificing my human sustainability for planetary sustainability. I became a coach in 2019 and realized a year later that focusing on senior sustainability leaders is my work to do. It brings out my best in service of the world.
To stay energized, I’ve been practicing something hard and essential: allowing the world to break my heart over and over. Joanna Macy says our pain for the world and our love for the world are flip sides of the same coin. When I let in more of the pain, I also let in more of the love. Both keep me going.
I also take great inspiration from thinkers like Paul Hawken, adrienne maree brown, Joanna Macy, Laura Storm, Giles Hutchins, Paul Polman, Renée Lertzman, and Ayana Elizabeth Johnson (have you seen her Middlebury College commencement speech? Fire!).
How did you break into the social impact space?
I said yes to Apple’s job offer. I had no idea it would open up an entirely new profession and life path for me.
During my 25-year career, I’ve been a journalist, a communications director, an environmental director, and now an executive coach to sustainability leaders. Two things have served me incredibly well.
First, I’ve followed my energy. Each time I left a job, it was because my instincts told me I had stopped learning and was ready for something new. And each time I said yes to a job, it was because my body told me it was right. Of course I considered all the practical implications, but in the end, I always honored that nervous tickle in my stomach that means I’m about to step into something big and important. I definitely had that feeling when starting Regenerous with Abby!
Second, I’ve gotten clear on the personal through-lines that tied all of my work together. When I’m at my best, I’m holding deep conversations, asking lots of questions, synthesizing what I’m hearing, and reflecting it back in evocative language that helps people feel more deeply and expanding their sense of what’s possible. That’s been true in every role I’ve had, no matter the job title.
Working in social impact is often about driving change. What is the skill or trait that has been most important for your work as a change agent? How did you learn or hone it?
I can’t think of anything that has served me better than learning how to listen with deep compassion, full attention and an open heart. It’s really true that people remember how you make them feel much more than what you say. When they feel heard, understood and recognized for their unique brilliance, they remember that. From there, anything is possible.
What most excites you about the social impact space right now?
I’m thrilled by the growing awareness that our inner work needs to match our outer work.
We all feel it deep in our bones, that the chaos and challenges of the world are guiding us to lead in new ways.
In his essay, “A Slower Urgency,” Nigerian philosopher Bayo Akomolafe asks a brilliant question, “What if the way we respond to the crisis is part of the crisis?”
It’s true, isn’t it? We’ve been bringing so much crisis to the climate crisis, the biodiversity crisis, the social justice and equity crisis, and the public health crisis.
It makes sense. It’s what we’ve been taught. And it’s working against us.
The Great Turning is underway, from an industrial growth society to a society that is life-giving. From extractive to regenerative.
But the Great Turning needs to happen within us, too. When we’re exhausted, cynical and burned out – as individuals and as organizations – we can’t muster the creativity, collaboration and resilience needed to solve the world’s great challenges.
We’re capable of so much more when we’re being generous, resilient, attuned to our experience and the interconnectedness of things, and aligned with our purpose.
None of us are perfect. So when we notice that we’re leading from a place that feels more extractive than regenerative, we can treat it like any mindfulness practice.
We can notice it, welcome it, take a breath, set an intention, and then take action to shift into a state that does justice to the regenerative outcomes we’re trying to create.
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