Duke Energy CEO lifts women leaders
Apr. 21—HIGH POINT — High Point University hosted the inaugural Elizabeth Miller Strickland Women's Leadership Summit on Wednesday featuring Duke Energy Chair, President and CEO Lynn Good as keynote speaker.
Good encouraged 75 to 100 mostly women students and staff members who gathered in the Callicutt Life Skills Theater at Congdon Hall to build curiosity, resilience and courage to empower their teams to solve problems. This was the first summit, established by the $12 million donation Strickland made to HPU in August 2020 in conjunction with the 100th anniversary of Women's Equality Day.
In 2021, the number of women reaching senior positions was at its highest level of about 32%, Good said. Statistics show women leaders not only empower other people but also improve performance, Good said. She predicted the need for more women leaders will grow in the future.
"I think there is magic that comes from a leader with empowered, motivated, capable people because they can do big things," Good said, adding women can be an important part of that.
Good detailed the personal criticism she faced after a drainage pipe installed before her birth failed in 2014, releasing 39,000 tons of coal ash into the Dan River. It took her team four to six years of corrective work, but first they had to define the problem and learn from it, she said.
"As a leader, where you can define for your team what the issue is and you get them energized to solve it with optimism, it's essential," Good said. "My job is to energize a team of people to solve something big."
When Strickland Leadership Council member Laurna C. Godwin asked what advice Good would have given herself when she was the age of the students in the audience, Good answered as a young person she thought too small.
"In the world we live in today with the pace of change impacting business, there are a lot of big things to solve," Good said.
Climate change, which is front-and-center for Duke Energy, is one of those big problems she listed along with carbon reduction, the impact of technology and geopolitical changes. Good advised leaders to treat team members with respect and to expect them not to always look or think alike.
"I believe leaders are resilient people," Good said. "It's essential that you are, not only for yourself and your own personal health and success, but more so for that team because they're counting on you when things are tough that you can create a picture of how to be successful and how to move forward."
Good referred to comments the late U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell made to Duke Energy employees saying, "Leadership is about always moving forward even in the face of failure and fear."
Good interpreted Powell's idea of moving forward as having curiosity, learning and growing to always do more.
"Your success as a leader has to do with how successful your team is. In the face of fear and failure is where your resilience and courage is," Good said. "It resonated with me when I heard him speak because there were so many elements that have been true in my own career, and hopefully true in yours as well."
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