[ad_1]
Author: Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Annette Clayton is well aware of the small number of women in the energy industry. She is using her power to change as one of the leading women in the field.
“I strongly believe in tutoring,” says Clayton, director general and president of North American Operations at Schneider Electric (PA :), headquartered in Rueil-Malmaison, France.
Clayton oversees its operations in Andover, Massachusetts, with 30,000 employees. He noted that mentoring has been instrumental in the success of “non-obvious candidates” in their field.
“You find yourself mentoring people who need your skills,” Clayton said. “And the process of open roles and promotions has really been democratized.”
Clayton spoke to Reuters about the power of tutoring. The edited passages are below.
Q. Tell us about your first job. How did it fit you?
A. I grew up on a small farm. My whole family worked on that farm with livestock, gardening, and crops.
But my first job was outside our farm. I worked on a neighbor’s farm, and I picked strawberries and then picked them up.
I learned the value of hard work by picking strawberries for 25 cents a quarter. I learned to be early to be on time.
Q. You are a leader in an industry that does not have many women. You are an engineer and you have been one of the few female directors in the energy industry. Can you talk about that experience?
A. I am in the third chapter of my career. I started in the automotive industry, then in technology with Dell (where he was deputy head of Dell Americas Operations), then in energy management.
All the technical companies are full of engineers and not all of them have so many women. But there are some amazing female leaders: Patty (Patricia) Poppe PG&E (NYSE :), Mary Barra at GM.
We’re still exceptions, but when I think about Patty Poppe and Mary and me, we were all partners at General Motors (NYSE 🙂 at a time when there were active programs to identify and support women within the company. It was a great benefit to us at the beginning of our career: we had mentoring, we had opportunities, and we had a leadership team that was really developing us.
At Schneider we are doing the same thing: creating an inclusive work environment where everyone has the opportunity to succeed.
Q. How did the pandemic change things for working women?
A. The pandemic has caused many women to leave the workforce and pursue opportunities to educate their children or care for their families.
The more new ways of working that make our women and our men more flexible in their work, the more they will stay engaged in the workplace.
Flexibility and agility will make us more productive. We created part-time jobs and other types of jobs, such as work-sharing or part-time sabbaticals, when we thought we would lose women.
Q. What defines your leadership style?
A. I believe in the power of high-performing teams, and I spend a lot of time aligning them – really aligning the team to operational and transformative goals.
I enjoy sharing leadership with my team. I work like a neural network. It is very aligned and coupled. The reason I like to describe it this way is that it gives focus but also autonomy and empowerment at the same time.
I also think my leadership style is tough with problems and easy for people. It’s a unique way to drive through difficult times while fostering operational excellence.
Often the result is not only good performance, but also great talent.
Q. What is the best job advice you have received?
A. She came from an African-American woman early in my career – she said, “Annette, when you get feedback, you have to assume you need it. Don’t think you’re getting it because you’re a woman or you’re young.
That served me well.
[ad_2]
Source link
