How Can We Increase Female Leadership In The Energy Industry?

In this episode of NES Chat, we’re talking about female leadership in the energy industry.

According to Fortune, 23 women are now running global 500 businesses, an increase from just 14 in 2020. Despite a record number of women now running Global 500 businesses, women still make up a tiny minority overall.

And even though many experts agree that ‘supporting a greater percentage of women to step up into leadership will have tremendous cultural and economic benefits’, leadership at today’s top companies is still overwhelmingly male.

So, what can we do to ‘narrow the gap’ and provide more opportunities for diversity in leadership?

To discuss this in more detail, we spoke with Shalena Shaheed, who was recently promoted to become NES Fircroft's first female Managing Director.

Shalena’s journey began in 2006 when she joined NES in Australia. Since then, Shalena has been on a remarkable journey - relocating to 4 different countries with NES and receiving many promotions along the way.

We asked Shalena:

• What brought you into recruitment and subsequently the energy industry?

• When you began your career back in 2006, what did you imagine for your future?

• How did you find relocating to 4 different countries with NES?

• What motivated you to strive for a leadership position?

• What’s been your biggest challenge or obstacle?

• What do you think is the most significant barrier to female leadership?

• Have you ever felt ‘uncertain’ in your career and how did you navigate your way through it? (A deep dive into the term 'Imposter Syndrome').

• Is the term ‘Imposter Syndrome’ in itself a barrier for women in leadership?

• How can we better support women? How can we create a culture that helps employees’ channel healthy self-doubt into positive motivation?

• Who inspired you to be a leader and how important is it to have a mentor to grow as a leader?

• How do you balance your career, personal life, and passions? Is there such a thing as balance?

• What advice would you give to your 20-year-old self just starting in her career?

• How do you think can we encourage women to work in the energy industry