Women+Power is beyond grateful for the in-kind support provided by Gold Circle PR from May to July! Our social media feed was full of amazing content and imagery courtesy of Olivia Jacobs, Founder of Gold Circle PR, and her talented team. Olivia is a passionate advocate for women and children and proudly supports Women+Power, understanding first-hand the importance of diversity in the workplace and the systemic struggles women face to get a seat at the boardroom table.

Gold Circle PR is a public relations firm supporting mission-driven organizations across North America through a roster of specialized services that range from media to brand building. Gold Circle PR intentionally built their firm around a core belief and value system that supports the business objectives of creators, innovators and visionaries, allowing us to create positive, impactful change together.

Author: Georgina Newell, Women+Power Board Member & Manager, Operations Compliance at TransAlta

At certain times in my 25-year career, I have often found it important to sit back and reflect.

• Who am I?
• Am I where I want to be in life?
• Have I made a positive impact?
• Am I doing what I love?
• Do I work with people I admire?
• Who is my inspiration?

Sometimes the answers to these questions are obvious and other times the answers remain unclear.

Recently, I found myself at a similar crossroads. I felt like I had lost sight of my personal core values and I needed to reset. This led me to the realization that I needed to re-ground myself in the things I find most important and that I couldn’t do it alone. To do this, I needed help from someone I trusted and more importantly, someone who wouldn’t pass judgement.

Fast forward, I decided I would engage my coach to help me on my journey. She took me through an exercise called the Standards of Integrity (Reference: #Maria Nemeth – #ACE Academy for Coaching Excellence). I identified 7 qualities that resonated with me and these have since become my standards of integrity or core values.

Upon realizing that I am all of the amazing qualities that I identified, I felt slightly choked up and experienced the ‘having your heart in your throat’ feeling. It ended up being one of the most impactful moments I experienced in a long time.

These are a few of my standards of integrity:
I am smart, funny, genuine…

Included below is the #Standards of Integrity exercise. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Standards of Integrity Exercise (10-15 minutes)

1. Get a blank piece of paper.
2. Draw a line down the middle.
3. On the left side write down the names of 5-10 people you admire. This can be anyone real or fictional.
4. On the right side write down the qualities you admire in each of them.
5. Go through the list of qualities and circle the ones that warm your heart.
6. The ones that warm your heart are your standards of integrity or core values.
7. Write down your refined list and place it somewhere you can view it often.

Your card will look like this:

These are my standards of integrity:
I am quality 1, quality 2 …
I know they are mine because I see them in others.

Women+Power is pleased to announce a new financial sponsor, TransAlta! “We are proud to include TransAlta as a sponsor. TransAlta has established as its objective that women should comprise at least 50% of the directors on the Board and 40% of their workforce by 2030. TransAlta’s recently announced objective is closely aligned with the objective of Women+Power to increase gender diversity in the power industry in Alberta,” said Women+Power Founder and CEO, Sharleen Gatcha.

TransAlta owns, operates, and develops a diverse fleet of electrical power generation assets in Canada, the United States, and Australia with a focus on long-term shareholder value. TransAlta provides municipalities, medium and large industries, businesses, and utility customers with clean, affordable, energy-efficient and reliable power. Today, TransAlta is one of Canada’s largest producers of wind power and Alberta’s largest producer of hydroelectric power. For over 100 years, TransAlta has been a responsible operator and a proud community member where its employees work and live. TransAlta aligns its corporate goals with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and has been recognized by CDP (formerly Climate Disclosure Project) as an industry leader on Climate Change Management, having recently achieved an A- score.

When asked about TransAlta’s decision to sponsor Women+Power, CEO John Kousinioris stated, “The advancement of women and diversity is a top priority at TransAlta. The persistent inequities around the world underscore the urgent need to remove barriers and promote an inclusive working environment for all employees where everyone belongs and can bring their authentic selves to work. We are dedicated to raising awareness about equity, diversity, and inclusion at work. When we do so, we create space for our employees to unlock their potential, to be highly engaged, and to reflect the diversity of the communities in which we operate, ultimately leading to an enhanced employee experience and the success of our company.”

June 24, 2021

In lieu of our July and August monthly entries for the EmPOWERment Hub that are submitted by Women+Power board members, we have compiled a list of recommended industry books plus two leadership books for you to consider reading over the summer. We will continue our monthly entries in September. In the meantime, we hope you find this list useful. We would love to hear from you if you do read one of these books and can share any insights gained!

1. Energy for Future Presidents: The Science Behind the Headlines by Richard Muller (2012)
   
   The near-meltdown of Fukushima, the upheavals in the Middle East, the BP oil rig explosion, and the looming reality of global warming have reminded the president and all U.S. citizens that nothing has more impact on our lives than the supply of and demand for energy. Its procurement dominates our economy and foreign policy more than any other factor. But the “energy question” is more confusing, contentious, and complicated than ever before. We need to know if nuclear power will ever really be safe. We need to know if solar and wind power will ever really be viable. And we desperately need to know if the natural gas deposits in Pennsylvania are a windfall of historic proportions or a false hope that will create more problems than solutions. Richard A. Muller provides all the answers in this must-read guide to our energy priorities now and in the coming years.
   
2. The Energy Switch: How Companies and Customers are Transforming the Electrical Grid and the Future of Power by Peter Kelly-Detwiler (2021)
   
   The way humans produce, distribute and consume power will be cleaner, cheaper, and infinitely more complex within the next decade. In The Energy Switch, leading energy industry expert Peter Kelly-Detwiler looks at all aspects of the transformation: how we got here, where we are going, and the implications for all of us in our daily lives.
   
3. Revolutionary Power by Shalanda Baker (2021)
   
   Revolutionary Power is a playbook for the energy transformation complete with a step-by-step analysis of the key energy policy areas that are ripe for intervention. Baker tells the stories of those who have been left behind in our current system and those who are working to be architects of a more just system. She draws from her experience as an energy-justice advocate, a lawyer, and a queer woman of color to inspire activists working to build our new energy system. In Revolutionary Power, Shalanda Baker arms those made most vulnerable by our current energy system with the tools they need to remake the system in the service of their humanity. She argues that people of color, poor people, and indigenous people must engage in the creation of the new energy system in order to upend the unequal power dynamics of the current system.
   
4. The Power Brokers: The Struggle to Shape and Control the Power Industry by Jeremiah Lambert (2015)
   
   For more than a century, the interplay between private, investor-owned electric utilities and government regulators has shaped the electric power industry in the United States. Provision of an essential service to largely dependent consumers invited government oversight and ever more sophisticated market intervention. The industry has sought to manage, co-opt, and profit from government regulation. In The Power Brokers, Jeremiah Lambert maps this complex interaction from the late nineteenth century to the present day.
   
5. The Grid: The Fraying Wires Between Americans and Our Energy Future by Gretchen Bakke (2016)
   
   America’s electrical grid, an engineering triumph of the twentieth century, is turning out to be a poor fit for the present. It’s not just that the grid has grown old and is now in dire need of basic repair. Today, as we invest great hope in new energy sources–solar, wind, and other alternatives–the grid is what stands most firmly in the way of a brighter energy future. If we hope to realize this future, we need to reimagine the grid according to twenty-first-century values. It’s a project which forces visionaries to work with bureaucrats, legislators with storm-flattened communities, moneymen with hippies, and the left with the right. And though it might not yet be obvious, this revolution is already well under way.
   
6. Energy Transitions: Global and National Perspectives by Vaclav Smil (2016)
   
   Based on the best international and national statistical sources, the second edition of Energy Transitions: Global and National Perspectives supplies an in-depth evaluation of how economies and nations around the world are striving to move away from traditional energy sources, the unfolding decarbonization process, and problems with intermittent energies and national transition plans. It supplies readers with a clear introduction to the basic properties of energy systems and key concepts of their appraisal, puts energy transition patterns in long-term historical perspective, and looks at the energy transition in eight of the world’s leading economies. The last chapters focus on the advances in the decarbonization of the global energy supply and consider how the energy transition will continue in the coming decades.
   
7. The New Map: Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations by Daniel Yergin (2020)
   
   The world is being shaken by the collision of energy, climate change, and the clashing power of nations in a time of global crisis. Out of this tumult is emerging a new map of energy and geopolitics. The “shale revolution” in oil and gas has transformed the American economy, ending the “era of shortage” but introducing a turbulent new era. Almost overnight, the United States has become the world’s number one energy powerhouse. Yet concern about energy’s role in climate change is challenging the global economy and way of life, accelerating a second energy revolution in the search for a low-carbon future. All of this has been made starker and more urgent by the coronavirus pandemic and the economic dark age that it has wrought. A master storyteller and global energy expert, Daniel Yergin takes the reader on an utterly riveting and timely journey across the world’s new map. He illuminates the great energy and geopolitical questions in an era of rising political turbulence and points to the profound challenges that lie ahead.
   
8. Creating Climate Wealth: Unlocking the Impact Economy by Jigar Shah (2013)
   
   Jigar Shah, internationally recognized for revolutionizing the now multi-billion-dollar solar energy industry, outlines how entrepreneurs and investors can unlock the massive potential that climate change represents. Shah argues that, while new technical innovation is valuable, deployment of existing technologies are the key to reaching our near-term climate targets. Rather than waiting for yet to be developed technology, business model innovation is the key to attract mainstream capital and unlock transformational change.
   
9. Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water by Marc Reisner (1993)
   
   The story of the American West is the story of a relentless quest for a precious resource: water. It is a tale of rivers diverted and dammed, of political corruption and intrigue, of billion-dollar battles over water rights, of ecological and economic disaster. In his landmark book, Cadillac Desert, Marc Reisner writes of the earliest settlers, lured by the promise of paradise, and of the ruthless tactics employed by Los Angeles politicians and business interests to ensure the city’s growth. He documents the bitter rivalry between two government giants, the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, in the competition to transform the West. Based on more than a decade of research, Cadillac Desert is a stunning expose and a dramatic, intriguing history of the creation of an Eden–an Eden that may only be a mirage.
   
10. Lucky and Good by John Sherriff (2013)
    
    Trading, poker, investing, gambling, starting a business, baseball, betting on lawsuits, innovation, and one insider’s story about the rise and fall of Enron. In “Lucky and Good,” John Sherriff, former Enron Europe CEO, shares his insights about what went right and wrong at Enron, his current business of betting on lawsuits as well as tales from the poker table and the sporting world to provide very useful and entertaining advice for anyone in business. John Sherriff is the former CEO of Enron Europe, based in London, which was one of the largest commodity-trading organizations in the world.
    
11. The Future Leader: 9 Skills and Mindsets to Succeed in the Next Decade by Jacob Morgan
    
    Based on interviews with over 140 of the world’s top CEOs and a survey of nearly 14,000 people, this book explores the mindsets and skills that will be essential to leading effectively over the next decade and beyond. Jacob purports that while some core aspects of leadership will remain the same, leaders of the future will need a new collection of skills and evolved mindsets to succeed. His commentary includes insights into significant trends impacting the future of leadership; top skills and mindsets future leaders will need and how to acquire them; new perceptions as to what leadership means; and challenges related to future-ready leadership.
    
12. Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World for Men by Caroline Criado Perez
    
    Data is relied upon daily to make critical economic decisions, inform government services and programs, develop products and so on. Historically, data collection and analytics have failed to consider the impact of gender bias within data sets. Male experiences and perspectives have often served as the “default” for data collected and considered, while female experiences and perspectives have been treated as “atypical”, often unknowingly. In this book, Caroline Criado Perez investigates how data bias has perpetuated gender inequality in government institutions, businesses, healthcare sector and more. This book will truly change the way you look at the world!

June 10, 2021

Last month, Women+Power reviewed a podcast with a supporting book to give busy women the opportunity to maximize moments to learn skills, even if reading a book before the summer is optimistic. This month we are continuing that trend. In her 2018 Tedx talk Women, Power and Revolutionary Speech, Eliza VanCort shares communication behaviours that empower women and offer ways for men to be allies. Eliza speaks on how every woman can claim her power by using four communication tools:

• Silence;
• Cadence (speak slowly);
• Pitch; and
• Emotional stamping.

Originally, she was going to use her presentation to talk about the constraints put on women when it comes to speech. It morphed into something more constructive by presenting tools women can use to be powerful communicators and claim their space. For too long, women have been told to confine themselves – physically, socially, and emotionally.

In Eliza’s TEDx talk, she shares her personal story interwoven with recommended actions for women and men to change their behaviours. She masterfully interweaves gruesome experiences with personal growth. As a child, Eliza was kidnapped by her mother, who was struggling with her own mental health issues, three times across state lines. Eliza uses her experiences as a transformational pivot in her life.

Spend 16 minutes of your life to learn how to move forward and communicate with power. If you have a weekend to devote to this topic, read Eliza’s book!

Women+Power is pleased to announce FortisAlberta as our newest sponsor! FortisAlberta delivers safe and reliable electricity service to more than 60 percent of Alberta’s total electricity distribution network — that’s electricity to more than half a million residential, farm and business customers from across central and southern Alberta. FortisAlberta operates in 240 communities with more than 124,000 kilometres of power lines. As an electricity provider, FortisAlberta builds, maintains and repairs the lines that keep the power on. Their team of more than 1,100 Albertans, including 350 lineworkers, are at your service today and every day, across more than 50 municipal districts and counties.

Janine Sullivan, President and CEO of FortisAlberta stated, “We are proud at FortisAlberta to celebrate the contributions of each individual in order to create a strong culture of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. We seek to promote trust and awareness, strengthen voices that might not otherwise be heard and create opportunities to share individual perspectives. We recognize the importance of breaking down barriers for women and creating opportunities to lead within the electricity industry.”

You can meet Janine Sullivan at our Industry Panel Event “Industry Insights, Skills and DEI” scheduled for June 16, 2021, from 12 – 1:30 pm. If you haven’t already registered, you can register here.

Women+Power is pleased to announce our partnership with the CEATI Women in Power Group. The Centre for Energy Advancement through Technological Innovation (CEATI) is a user-driven organization committed to providing technology solutions to its electrical utility participants, who are brought together to collaborate and act jointly to advance the industry through the sharing and developing of practical and applicable knowledge.

The Women in Power collaborative venture is a networking, mentorship, and peer-to-peer support group that spans across the entirety of the CEATI organization. It aims to promote engineering and other technical careers to women in the field, and to share common challenges and strategies for overcoming obstacles as women in a field populated predominantly by men. In order to achieve these goals, the CEATI Women in Power Group offers the following three initiatives: Face-to-face networking at industry-open CEATI events, Women in Power Webinar Series, and a Mentorship Triad Program that connects women at different points in their career. Please visit us at: CEATI – Women in Power Group.

“We are excited to collaborate with CEATI Women in Power Group as the organizations are so closely aligned. CEATI offers numerous technical training opportunities that we will share with our members and members are encouraged to join the Women in Power Group to take advantage of opportunities provided by them,” said Sharleen Gatcha, Founder and CEO of Women+Power.

Women+Power is pleased to announce a new financial sponsor, Burns & McDonnell! “This sponsorship brings us one step closer to being able to provide the programs, initiatives and resources women in the electricity industry need to thrive,” said Founder and CEO, Sharleen Gatcha.

For more than 75 years, Burns & McDonnell has provided engineering services throughout Canada and is currently expanding its engineer-procure-construct capabilities across the country. Utilizing an integrated design and construction mindset, their Canadian team has worked on dozens of generation, transmission and distribution, and manufacturing projects for a range of utility and industrial clients. By leveraging knowledge, technology, and commitment of ownership, Burns & McDonnell consistently delivers safe, innovative and quality projects.

At Burns & McDonnell, they embrace the way our differences enrich the way we see the world, our business and each other. They are proud of their culture of inclusion and deeply desire to harness the strength of our diversity. They promote, share and encourage diversity, equity and inclusion within the workplace through various efforts, events and communication platforms. Every employee-owners unique story and perspective is valued regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or family background. Burns & McDonnell identifies, first and foremost, as fellow owners. Among their MacCulture Principles is “One Burns & McDonnell: We respect all, are accountable to all and trust in all.”

Burns & McDonnell is proud to be a sponsor of Women+Power. “As an active member in this community, we believe we can continue to jointly develop opportunities to promote increased diversity and inclusion in the Alberta power sector and beyond,” stated Darcy Wagner, Operations Manager.

Stay tuned for upcoming announcements about our sponsorship with Burns & McDonnell.

May 12, 2021

For this month’s installment of the EmPOWERment Hub, we bring you a short, but informative podcast: 6 essential lessons for women leaders.

This is a conversation with former Prime Minister of Australia, Julia Gillard, and former Finance Minister of Nigeria, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, both of whom have faced sexism and gender bias in their roles as leaders on the world stage.

Packed into less than 10 minutes, you get very real advice from international trailblazers on the sexism in the halls of power and the dearth of female role models, particularly women of colour. They celebrate Kamala Harris, reference advice from Jacinda Ardern and Hillary Clinton, and emphasize that there is joy in leadership and putting values into action, but women need to go in with their eyes open.

In case you are a parent or caregiver and haven’t had 10 spare minutes since early March of 2020 (we hear you – it’s a podcast for a multi-tasking reason!), here are some key takeaways:

1. There is no right way to be a woman leader.
2. There will be sexism and stereotyping – be ready for it.
3. We need to debunk the gender stereotypes.
4. There are structural barriers to women rising in leadership positions – we need to support the systems that need change right now.
5. Don’t shy away from taking up space in the world.
6. Most importantly: “Go for it!”

If this topic and these women are drawing you in, good news: there is also a book.

Gillard and Okonjo-Iweala remind us that we need to work together to change the rules that keep us at the margins and that we need to be there for each other. These sentiments are particularly true in our current challenging and tragic times. The she-cession is very real, and we will need to lift each other up as we climb out of this.

Strong, compassionate female leadership should be welcomed, encouraged, appreciated, and celebrated right now.

#womenleadership #womenempowerment

Author: Vittoria Bellissimo, Women+Power Board Member & IPCAA Executive Director

Article linked here.

As a person who has been a long time imposter…er… person with impostor syndrome, I am always on the hunt for useful tips to normalize and neutralize my feeling that, soon enough, people will discover THE SECRET TRUTH about me, the ultimate faker/Chair of the Women+Power board. 

This particular article has useful and very practical tips for coping with impostor syndrome, but also very helpfully highlighted why women and underrepresented folks in traditional industries are more prone to impostor syndrome. According to the article, studies have shown that “there is one factor that can reliably trigger impostor syndrome, and that is belonging to an under-represented minority group.” The article goes on to discuss women in science, but this would apply to any of us folks in technical fields:

Consider the experience of women in science, working amidst overwhelming numbers of men. Without the built-in comfort of looking and sounding like the typical person in the field, these women may feel as though they do not belong, as if they must work twice as hard to prove that they deserve the job they already have. Essentially, when you feel different from your peers—whether because of race, gender, sexual orientation, or any other trait—you may feel like an impostor who will soon be found out.

So, it’s normal, right? But it is hard to shake!

Besides working to create diverse representation in the power industry, which is the ultimate solution, the article provides a number of tips. One that I have found recently the most professionally useful is his suggestion that, when taking on a new project, not to expect instant success. As the author puts it, “most first drafts aren’t very good; why should yours be?” Now when I am working on something in a new area that I do not have experience in, I say to myself there is absolutely no reason why I would be perfect or good at this at this juncture. I am allowed to learn, and not be proficient until I have learned. Shifting my expectations of overperformance – no matter how new the task is to me – to a learning mindset has been (a teeny tiny bit) helpful in coping with impostor syndrome.

By: Katrina Edgerton-McGhan, Women+Power Board Chair

This event, the second in our Sponsor Spotlight Series, takes place on April 14, 2021, from 12 – 1 PM. Kara Kingston (Director of Brand and External Relations), joins Sarah Stevens (Vice President, Asset Management and Strategic Innovation) and Nicole Patey (Director, Talent Strategies & HR Business Partnering from ENMAX) to present a broad discussion on what it means to prepare for the future in the power industry.

The utility industry, like so many sectors, is facing significant transformation. Changing technologies, shifting customer expectations, and a rapidly increasing focus on climate change are bringing forward new ways of thinking.

As a regulated wires company, competitive power generator, and energy retailer, the ENMAX group of companies holds a unique perspective on these converging trends. Increasingly, we’re seeing the vital role that power companies can, and will, play. This past year, we’ve learned how important it is to be agile and not only follow the changing needs of the communities we serve, but also to plan for them in order to enable the communities of tomorrow.

Battery storage, the increased adoption of renewables, and the rise of electric vehicles are just some of the transformations we’re actively preparing for. We are also asking ourselves how we can do our part to address the environmental and social challenges of our times. As part of this adaptation, we are also looking inward at how we position our teams for success. From health and wellness to ergonomics to flexibility in where we work, we are reflecting on what we’ve learned from these unprecedented times and applying it to the future.

Watch the recap here:

March 15, 2021

The Downing Street Years, Margaret Thatcher

“The most technically and politically difficult privatization – and the one which went furthest in combining transfer of a public utility to the private sector with radical restructuring – was that of the Electricity Supply Industry.”  True that.

If it wasn’t for The Crown, and a fortuitous trip through a second-hand store, this book probably wouldn’t have caught my eye. Once I cracked it, however, I learned about one of the most remarkable leaders of the last century. Of any field. Of any endeavor. 

The word leader is important here because what we mostly see in politics are managers. Margaret Thatcher was no manager. She was not for jumping in front of popular parades or for eschewing tough decisions. As she once famously stated, “The lady is not for turning.”

In 11 years as Britain’s first female Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher tried to shake off the burdens of a growing welfare state, weaned the coal, steel, auto and airline industries off subsidies, engaged in a controversial, but successful battle for the Falkland Islands, was bombed by the IRA, remained skeptical of the growing bureaucracy in the EU, goaded President Reagan and the U.S. to ramp up the nuclear deterrent against the Soviet Union until communism fell and, of course, began the world’s first steps towards deregulating a power market. She did so, often – as the only woman in the room.

While her policies and politics are not for everyone, she was true to her principles, pushed for and achieved great change, and thanks to restructuring the UK’s power market, is perhaps the original Women +Power. 

Author: Evan Bahry, Women+Power Board Member & Executive Director, IPPSA