Recently I attended the Women in Leadership panel at the American Manufacturing Summit. The panel included senior leaders from Caterpillar, Cummins, The Boeing Company, Kimberly-Clark Corporation, Philips, and Johnson & Johnson.The conversation focused on sharing personal experiences - both accomplishments and challenges - about being a woman and an executive in male-dominated industries.

Video discussion with John Dale, Global Energy Practice Lead and Delores (Dee) Conway, Senior Principal

Video discussion with John Dale, Global Energy Practice Lead and Alycia Diggs-Chavis, Executive and Team Coach

Video discussion with John Dale, Global Energy Practice Lead and Brian Cole, Ph.D., Senior Principal

If you checked out the first two posts in our series on leading decarbonization/net-zero work, then you’ve been ramping up your own influence skills and verifying how to assess change in your organization. Still, you know it will take a constellation of effort across teams to make and keep progress steady.

To maximize the value of moments spent with other leaders and colleagues, dedicate some time to planning out how you’ll approach them as stakeholders and prepare them to talk about, implement, and support change consistently. When you put objectives and challenges in your own words, and help others to do so too, everyone stays on the same page – especially when it’s time to problem-solve quickly.

This is a Video discussion with John Dale, Global Energy Practice Lead and Krystyna Riley, Strategic Accounts Leader

If you’re leading a decarbonization/net-zero initiative, then you’re utilizing influence skills all the time. So, how can you confirm whether your efforts are paying off? When an overall transformation is both unprecedented and long-term, and the teams involved are variable, it’s hard to know where to look for a sign that everyone’s on board.

Video discussion with John Dale, Global Energy Practice Lead and Kacie Linegar, Business Transformation Expert

When leading an organization through the interconnected changes that are crucial to decarbonization/net-zero, it’s common to face resistance, confusion, or distraction from your workforce. Still, you need to sustain a sense of urgency and high performance. 

To keep your teams on track, here’s something you can do immediately and professionally: influence your key stakeholders. Moreover, make a habit of influencing them in subtle, convincing, and genuine ways – ones that are authentically yours.

Imagine this scene: Fade into a senior leadership team meeting, in progress:

"Wait, wait, wait! Didn't we already decide that we were moving forward with the design?" asked Heather.

Stefano jumped in, "I thought we agreed on what we were going to do, but we still need to talk through how we're going to do it."

"I remember having a conversation about it but not making a decision," replied Nanda.

"What are you talking about?" quipped Millie.

Sadly, this type of exchange happens too often within leadership teams*.

Recently ALULA's own Danielle Hochstein (Geissler), Ph.D., participated in a leadership roundtable at the American Biomanufacturing Summit in San Francisco, CA. The discussion focused on how to elevate female leaders, especially in male-dominated industries. 

(Note to readers: We received a lot of valuable feedback on this post! People requested more detail on how to observe remote workers, so we expanded our previous post. Thank you for reading, and we hope the additions are helpful! )

How do I know people are doing the right things in the right way when they are working remotely?

I’m hearing this question a lot as remote and hybrid working have become the “new normal.” Operating virtually creates a genuine barrier, and we all know it. But it’s a barrier that skillful leaders can leap over.

“Leaders don’t force people to follow, they invite them on a journey” – Charles S. Lauer

There’s been a great deal of dialogue on the return to office (or RTO). From business need, to timing, to individual impacts, the discussion has been… robust, to put it lightly.

But what if you as a leader are considering whether it’s time for your team to return. There are a ton of angles to this issue, so before you make a decision and present your people with a potentially shocking ultimatum, take some time to consider the individual factors, and then TIE it all together into a more presentable package.