Better Utility Leadership Means Better Emergency Preparedness
Effective utility leadership can make or break employees’ commitment to emergency preparedness. Effective leadership can help ensure that everyone is on the same page, working efficiently and effectively toward a common goal. But like many things in the utility industry, practicing great leadership is often easier said than done.
What is Effective Utility Leadership?
The best way to be a great leader is to connect with people – specifically, showing respect and concern for employees and their families. Yes, a good leader is a people person, someone that can relate to employees and establish an emotional connection. If employees like, or at the very least respect, their leader, then they will be much more likely to go the extra mile for that person during emergency events as well as blue sky days.
Similarly, strong leaders understand the need to connect employees’ talents and passions to the organizational mission. This simply means putting employees in positions to do what they love, assuming it benefits the company. In other words, connecting individual passion to organizational objectives.
As this article puts it, the best utility leadership involves a mix of connecting with people and then connecting people to the organization. This helps employees feel appreciated and wanted, which is central to maximizing motivation and morale.
Strong employee morale is especially important during emergency events – a low level of morale might be fine during normal operations, but when employees managing a storm are stressed out, working long hours, and missing their families, strong morale can mean the difference between high-performance and mutiny.
The bottom line is that employees are people, and for most people, a little bit of concern and empathy can go a long way. I believe that effective utility leadership should be incorporated into emergency preparedness, because the effectiveness of leadership can positively or negatively impact restoration metrics and performance. Your emergency plan should specifically mention this as a factor, and provide information or resources designed to optimize utility leadership when needed. Good luck!
