ONE ENERGY FEED

There are 40+ hours in a work week, 52 weeks in a year, and approximately 40-50 years of work typically anticipated prior to retirement. There is a strong likelihood that many of us will work more than 100,000 hours prior to retiring. That is a lot of life to dedicate to a cause, which makes it especially important to clearly see the vision of the cause to which you’ve dedicated your time.

I have had the luxury of working for a transparent company for most of my career. I have always been “in the know.” I have been trained to see the bigger picture of not just my department at One Energy, but also the future of the industry and our business collectively. My fellow OE team members have been trained similarly. One Energy is not just a wind energy company, we are building a brighter future. We help consumers control their energy cost, generate on-site electricity, build a resilient grid with optionality, and if correctly positioned, we have the opportunity to provide the world with answers to long-endured problems.

The vision I have for One Energy is the vision everyone has at One Energy: to disrupt and change an antiquated system that is no longer built for growth. While I am the Head of Construction, my vision for the company is not simply to build wind projects. That is only a part of the journey. The more complete vision is to help companies and communities make good energy decisions for the long run, whether that is through wind technology or other means.

It has dawned on me in recent years that having a shared vision for our company, from top to bottom, is extremely rare. Every single team member can voice the vision in their own words, and are actively dedicating the passion and required resources to achieve it. We are collectively on a mission to accomplish our vision.

In a blink of an eye, I have spent in the range of 30,000 hours working towards this vision. And lately I’ve been asking myself, how did we become a unified company? How will we scale and maintain this sense of purpose? How will we continue to set precedents in the energy industry? These are questions that I ponder regularly now.

If you have a team that is struggling with your company’s vision, I suggest you examine the following areas:

1. Compensation – Are you paying people what they are worth? (How much would it cost to replace them, how much would you pay to keep them at your company, etc.?) Are you compensating your team equitably throughout the organization?
2. Cross training – Are your team members sequestered into departments or do they work cross-departmentally?
3. Communication – How often are there company-wide communications? How is the story of the company – where it has been, and where it is going – told to employees? How candid is feedback? How is candor tolerated?
4. Transparency –How are team members trusted with information – including that which is sensitive or confidential?
5. Feedback – How is feedback collected from every member of the team? How is that feedback reviewed (and responded to)?
6. Morale – Is your team passionate about what they do? Do they have anxiety or concerns about their jobs? Are their roles sustainable?
7. Company mentality – Are you setting realistic goals? Is your team over promising and under delivering? How do you strengthen the weakest link in the chain?
8. Involvement – How involved is your team with the community? With other departments within the company? How are you dismantling silos that form? How is training and growth provided to your team members?
9. Strategy – How is company strategy being shared and communicated to the entire team? How do you communicate and set priorities within departments as part of the larger company goals and vision?

To work 100,000 hours in a lifetime is an enormous commitment. It is not easy to be “in the know” in every role, but for me, understanding the vision I’m striving towards is key to success and happiness at work. Working on a team of collective visionaries has enhanced my experience and helped me feel a part of something unique. While it is not always evident what the future may hold, striving to make our dreams a reality has been an experience above and beyond what I thought employment may ever offer.

The communication of a clear and shared vision across my company made this experience possible – and it’s something that could (and should!) be implemented at any company.

Chelsea Bumb is the Head of Construction at One Energy.

Learn more about Chelsea and the One Energy team.

One Energy went from being Kellie Suever’s customer… to being her employer!

Find out how she made the difficult (or in her words, “petrifying”) decision to leave a comfortable, long-time job at a large utility distributor to become the in-house procurement manager at an evolving industrial power company – and why she considers her Climb to the Top to be “rewarding.”

Watch Kellie describe her professional journey in today’s episode and be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up with the climb!

This series can also be found on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter.

Let’s face it: it’s easy to lose touch as an executive. We move into a leadership position for something we’re an expert in and start delegating the tasks we were previously responsible for. With delegation, we risk losing many of the skills that helped us become experts, as we flex them less and less in our executive role. This is common. And it can become a problem.

As part of a continuing education effort, I recently participated in a 2-week finance course geared towards executives. The course was filled with senior leaders from many different sectors, all with very impressive backgrounds and resumes. Part of the course required us to use Microsoft Excel to aid in case study analyses. Throughout these analyses, I couldn’t help but notice how few of my fellow students were familiar with the program basics. I was one of the few that could drive the spreadsheet and provide solutions using a few simple built-in functions. It made me wonder: how many executives are out there making key financial decisions for their company without being able to calculate the implications themselves?

Most executives are masters at delegating. Their time is quite valuable, and often in limited supply. They have to choose the important things they must do, and what they can entrust to their team. Many leaders start out as experts in their core field, demonstrating talent that has allowed them to advance at their company and take on more. The more a leader takes on, the less time they have to keep up with the latest developments within the subject, and the further they will get from their core expertise. But just because we as executives must delegate tasks, doesn’t mean we should delegate the ability to perform the tasks as well.

This then begs the question: does an executive’s ability (or inability) to do, impact their ability to effectively lead?

There is a widely accepted idea that you can be one of two things: a leader or a doer, but never both. You can either lead a team to execute, or you can be on the front lines doing the work. I honestly don’t believe the two must be mutually exclusive.

I recently heard a term I had never come across: “Leader-Doer.” The term refers to a rare group of people that can lead and are also expected to significantly contribute to executing the team’s mission. In certain settings, a leader must also be able to do: whether it’s running financial models, writing reports, or even analyzing data. This concept is likely more important at smaller, growing companies. Most of the time, smaller companies don’t have the personnel available to allow their executives to focus solely on decisions, strategy, and management. They need their General Counsel writing contracts, not just reviewing them. They need their CFO creating financial models, not just signing off on them.

And when it comes to hiring executives for these positions, it can be even more challenging when growing companies are looking for a “Leader-Doer.” Often, those qualified for the jobs in the traditional sense have been removed from “doing” for quite some time, especially if they come from a large corporation. Finding the people that can lead effectively AND are willing to put in the time to learn how to execute is often vital to the success of growing a business.

When you don’t perform tasks regularly, it’s easy to forget how to perform them. For me, it has become increasingly difficult to stay up to date on the methods I’m asking my team to carry out. But if my role is to make good decisions for my team and our company, and if I want to earn the respect of those on my team, it is necessary for me to fully understand the work they are doing.

To keep myself up to date, I ensure I’ve done every task that I now delegate to my team. When we put a new method in place, I make sure that I take the time to learn the details and know how to execute it. Because of this, I understand what I’m asking my team members to do – I understand the time commitment, the required skill set, and the complexity of the task or project. And it also ensures that, when necessary, I can quickly jump in to help (which happens often at our rapidly growing company).

To lead effectively, we as executives cannot allow ourselves to be pulled too far from the details. We need to be the best “Leader-Doer” for our team, SUM functions and all.

Jessica Grosso is the Head of Project Planning and Technology at One Energy.

Learn more about Jessica and the One Energy team.