Kayleigh HasBrouck

I attribute my success to two main elements. First, I've always had this internal drive - I grew up in a really small town in southwestern Virginia where people don't typically go to college or go out of state to college, but I never questioned whether I was going to go to college. I just always had this internal knowing that I was going to go do something, and that drive has created opportunities for me. The second thing is that I really like ambiguity and unclear spaces where the answer isn't clear. I think where I've been really successful and advanced in my career is where an ask is unclear, or the outcome isn't clear, or someone says 'can you do this?' and I've never done it before - that might be scary for some people, but I'm a yes person. I always say yes, and then I take the opportunity to learn. If I've never done it before, it doesn't mean I don't do it. I say yes and I figure out how to do it, or I bring in the people and support team around me so that we can do it. When there isn't a right answer and it's ambiguous, rather than saying this is too complicated or complex, I start wading through that to figure out how we can help the client get through this. Being willing to say yes even if it feels scary, unknown, or unclear - I think that's the other element of how I've seized those opportunities and used them to build trust, and that's accelerated my career and helped me be successful.

The best advice I've received - and it's also advice I tend to give to others - is that in my industry and with my personality, there's often a lot of imposter syndrome, especially when you're doing really well, getting promoted quickly, and working in a male-dominated industry. But when I realized that everyone else around me also has imposter syndrome, and that if I can just trust myself and be willing to admit my blind spots, but trust myself and try to do good work that is meaningful, the rest will work itself out. I try not to get really wrapped up in am I billing enough or selling enough or contributing enough. I just try to come in and say, if I'm doing good work that I care about and I trust myself, good things will follow. And I've found that to be true - I'm always in high demand, people always want to work with me, good things happen, but it's not because I'm actively thinking about how I can get more work. It's because I put my heart into the work that I do, and good things follow. If you do good work and you trust yourself, good things follow. And knowing that everyone else is just trying to do the same really helps with the imposter syndrome and the 'am I doing enough' insecurities. This advice was reinforced recently when I was creating content that other people would present, and I thought I needed to earn their trust over time before they'd let me present it myself. But my supervisor told me no, I don't need to earn my right to be there or to present or to do my job - I'm at this level, I'm in, I've already earned it.

Trust yourself. And know that you don't have to earn your place. You don't have to earn your right at the table. If you're in the room, if you're at the table, if you're promoted to the position, you deserve to be there. You've already earned it. I think a lot of times there's a tendency to think that you need to earn rapport, or earn the right to speak up, or lead things, or take charge. But just by being here, you have that right, so feel empowered to take advantage of that and trust yourself to do so. Because men do - men feel fully empowered to do those things. So the more that you do as well, the more you'll be able to go toe-to-toe and carve out a space for yourself. This advice was actually given to me recently. I had a few projects where I would create content and then other people would present it, and I thought, I could present this - why am I creating it for you when if I do the work, I should be the one presenting it and getting the credit for it? My comment was that it's okay, I'll build their trust over time, they may not know that I'm well-spoken or that I can present it, but I can demonstrate that to them and then they will let me do it. But my supervisor said no, you don't need to earn your right to be here or to present or to do your job. You're at this level, you're in, you have already earned it. For women entering the industry, I would say the same thing.

Some of the biggest challenges we're seeing are with data centers and AI - there's unprecedented load growth. We're also seeing a lot of other industry trends like wildfires, electrification, and distributed energy resources. The grid isn't just dealing with one thing happening, it's that there's a lot of things happening at the same time. We're seeing more demand, the grid's becoming decentralized, more dynamic, more energy limited. It's like a convergence of trends that are making how we manage the grid way more complex than it has been historically. And we don't have all the right tools and we don't have the operating model to do it. As a consultant, coming in and helping utilities navigate this complexity that has not existed before is really interesting. It draws back to the alliance that I helped to found. There's not really a playbook in place to manage that level of complexity - it's uncharted waters. People are trying to figure out how to manage it, and it feels like a historic moment in the development of humanity.

I have always said that relationships and building trust is my top priority. With that, there are a lot of values around listening, accountability, and empathy, but I work really hard to instill trust and also bring an element of humanity to the work that I do. I think empathy is really high up there. Building trust isn't just about whether I deliver the work - there's a lot of elements that go into it. I have credibility in what I say, I deliver work products on time, I'm listening when you speak, paying attention, and I'm present in the conversations. It takes a lot to build trust over time and maintain that, so that's always been my number one focus.