WTL Issue 007 | September 10, 2025 |
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The Circle You Need
Lessons from the Long Haul
A faint shadow crosses the bright sky beyond my office window—usually the first sign of my advisor’s familiar silhouette will soon appear in the doorway of our shared four-person graduate student office. The almost daily ritual would begin with their gentle knock on the heavy wood sliding door, followed by them leaning against an empty desk, dry erase markers already in hand. Within minutes, equations and sketches would bloom across the floor-to-ceiling glass windows. On the other side, filtered afternoon light carves geometric patterns across the travertine and brickwork of the lower courtyard, framed by the distinctive warm concrete walls of the Salk Institute.
This was my second graduate school advisor, and where I learned that the myth of “one mentor” could be dangerous.
Three years into graduate school after navigating stress, miscalculations, and what I can only describe as academic despair, I found myself suddenly advisor-less. My original mentor had made a surprise pivot, leaving academia to become a small business owner. We hadn’t seen eye-to-eye on my research direction. I was struggling, and our weekly meetings had become exercises in polite frustration rather than meaningful guidance.
The news of their departure hit me with stunned silence. Relief and anxiety braided together in my chest. As a grad student, your advisor isn’t just a mentor. They’re the key to completing and defending your dissertation. Three years in, this could mean starting over: new advisor, new lab culture, and new relationships to build from scratch.
Here’s what I couldn’t have predicted. I was without an advisor for exactly forty-five minutes.
Over those three years, I’d cultivated working relationships from neighboring labs. Afternoon tea time conversations, collaborative projects, hallway check-ins led to relationships that had grown organically around shared curiosity. One professor appeared at my office door. “Come join us,” they said simply. “Think about it, take all the time you need.” I could keep my existing project. The transition would require moving my desk and books exactly two floors downstairs.
This kind of smooth transition was virtually unheard of in graduate school. The stars had aligned, yes. But, more importantly, I’d accidentally built what I now recognize as an advisory ecosystem. Multiple people who care about my work and career, each bringing different perspectives and forms of support.
My graduate student experience taught me that mentorship isn’t just nice-to-have. It is essential. But expecting one person to guide your entire journey? That’s where we get stuck.
Field-Tested: Your Climate Career Advisory Board
Since graduate school, I’ve intentionally built and rebuilt my advisory board as my focus and careers have evolved. The membership changes, but the structure remains: a diverse circle of people who show up for my work in different ways.
Here’s how to build your board in four steps:
1. Identify the Roles
Think about your current support system—friends, peers, collaborators, former colleagues. Who naturally acts as your:
- Strategist – Challenges your ideas with wisdom and experience
- Cheerleader – Encourages and affirms your vision
- Connector – Helps you navigate decisions and opens doors
- Truth-teller – Offers grounded, honest feedback
2. Map the Landscape
Create a simple grid in whatever format works for you (google doc, journal page, whiteboard). Label the roles and add names of people who already show up in those ways.
Not sure who fits where? Think about who you naturally call when you need strategic direction, a pep talk, industry insight, or a gut check.
3. Acknowledge the Connection
Reach out intentionally and keep it simple. You’re not asking them to be your official mentor. You’re recognizing their impact and reinforcing the relationship:
You’ve really helped me think more clearly about my climate work lately. I’m realizing you’ve become one of the few people I go to when I need strategic clarity—thank you.
4. Check Your Own Seat
Consider whose advisory board you might be sitting on. Are you the cheerleader for a colleague? The truth-teller for a friend navigating a career pivot?
We show up more powerfully when we understand the role we’re playing. Supporting others in achieving their climate goals often fills our own cup in return.
Signals & Shifts
Andrea Perino’s newsletter ✨ The Interface takes a refreshingly practical approach to Ph.D. completion, blending business strategy with academic realities. Andrea leads 90-day group challenges for grad students aiming to finish their dissertations. Sign up for her newsletter to receive actionable tips each week and notification of the next cohort challenge. Whether finishing a thesis or leading climate work, sustainable progress happens in relationship, not isolation.
Golda Meir understood this intuitively. As Prime Minister of Israel, she convened her “kitchen cabinet”. These trusted advisors met weekly at her kitchen table over coffee and baked goods. Her strategy room wasn’t a sterile boardroom but a space where meaningful relationships could flourish alongside strategic thinking.
Today’s mentorship looks more like a roundtable than a podium. Your climate leadership strategy should include a diversified network of advisors who understand both your work and your wellbeing.
Question for reflection: How might you create a strategic and diversified advisory board for this phase of your climate career journey?
Copy my 1-page cheatsheet to organize who might be at your advisory board table.
Take good care of yourself and the work that's yours to do. Both matter more than you know.
Nikoosh
P.S. This issue was developed with guidance from Bobbi Mullins, who teaches founder-led brands how to transform long form writing to short form and vice versa. I originally shared a brief post on LinkedIn about creating a career advisory board that we expanded into this newsletter issue. Bobbi is excellent at what she does. Check out her newsletter The Accidental Blogger.
Work That Lasts arrives every other Wednesday. Forward to a colleague who might need these tools, or reply and let me know what's working in your own practice.
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