WPS: Megan, share with us why you chose power industry and who influenced you to help make that decision.
Megan Winchell: Being from Oklahoma, energy is practically in your DNA. My paternal grandfather was a petroleum engineer, and my maternal grandfather taught mechanical power and technology at Oklahoma State. Growing up working in my grandpa’s garage “fixing” things with his students (who were all men except my aunt) was so much fun… I loved the problem solving and team environment. After graduating with an engineering degree, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, but knew I would be very bored and unfulfilled working individually on a small process or R&D project for years. I interviewed with Schlumberger where I was able to go to a wellsite with a crew. I was hooked with the promise of leading a crew and managing millions of dollars of equipment, dealing with clients and making decisions almost immediately after being hired!
WPS: Starting in the energy industry as a Field Engineer with Schlumberger must have provided a unique perspective. How did that early experience shape your career and leadership style in the energy sector?
Megan Winchell: My very first day of what I was sure would be an exciting and challenging job (see
above), I was told by the lead supervisor “I don’t like engineers, stay our of the way
and don’t get hurt.” This was so disheartening! That experience really shaped my
overall philosophy of how I work with people. I work very hard to be inclusive and
encouraging.
Being the only woman and only engineer in my first assignment, I really didn’t
know what my role was, so I just rolled my sleeves up, figuratively of course, and
did what the rest of the crew did. This really helped build their acceptance of me
and willingness to help me. Even though I had a degree, they knew a lot more than
I did about how to plan and execute a frac job. I still keep this with me, everyone
has something they can teach you, if you are willing to learn, and getting in the
trenches with your team creates loyalty and understanding on both sides.
WPS: You’ve held numerous leadership roles, including Geounit Operations Manager and Vice President of HSE. In your HSE leadership roles, you’ve likely faced high-stakes decisions where safety and opera-tional efficiency conflicted. Can you share a time when you had to advocate for a ‘slower, safer’ approach despite pressure to deliver faster results? How did you navigate that tension?
Megan Winchell: Honestly, this happens almost every day. Two key thoughts come to mind I would like readers to think about here… First: speed doesn’t necessarily mean efficiency. Taking time to understand task and what is required results in fewer mistakes and need to redo or remediate, even if we have not had any HSE issues. This is harder to do in an immature orga-nization or industry, but it is important as a leader to make sure you are giving your team the tools and support to do things right, the first time, every time. Second: we all have a duty of care for each other. We all have people who depend on us at work, but more importantly outside of work. If you are able to make the personal connection with people and really demonstrate that you care, then when you have to ask (or require) people to slow down or stop for the sake of safety, they will be appreciative, not difficult, even customers!
WPS: With your background in both technical and leadership positions, how do you manage to balance these two aspects while keeping a team motivated and aligned?
Megan Winchell: As a leader, you have to build a team that balances you. I have held technical roles, but I am not a detail-oriented person, as my team will attest to. I also drive hard and have high expectations. Because of this, I need people on my team who are focused on the planning and details. I need team members who balance my impulsivity to “just execute” with holistic view of a plan, the good, the bad and the ugly. Setting goals as a team collaboratively is very important for alignment. There will always be overarching corporate goals that are critical to a company’s success but being able to translate those goals into what your team can impact and then allowing them to develop their personal goals to support that is how a leader impacts change and delivers results.
WPS: You’ve led teams in vastly different regions—from Australia to South-east Asia. How did you adapt your communication style? Any humorous or eye-opening moments?
Megan Winchell: Communication does change with geography, especially what is comfortable. It will take some time to figure out these nuances. It never hurts to ask a trusted person familiar with the new culture you are working in, if you are not sure how something with be accepted or might have unintentional consequences.
My best piece of advice, in any situation, is to be authentic and genuine. If you are truly you, trying to do the best you can, then people will be supportive and understanding. You should also educate yourself on what is customary. Handshaking, cheek kissing, folded hands, bowed head are all acceptable ways to greet people in a business meeting but knowing what to do where can save for an awkward moment.
I have made tons of cultural mistakes, from mispronouncing words like “Quay” in Australia to reaching out to shake hands with a man in UAE. You have to learn to laugh at yourself, and, most importantly, learn.
WPS: NovaSource Power Services focuses on optimizing solar asset perfor-mance. As someone who’s worked in both traditional and renewable energy, what’s one underrated innovation or practice in solar O&M that you believe could revolutionize the industry?
Megan Winchell: Standardization of industry practices and training should be a focus of renew-able energy. The sooner we can speak the same language, measure against the same clearly defined goals and work within the same standards, this will enable the industry to focus on true improvements to safety, production and financial results. We spend too much time and effort today trying to get to same understanding of what we are discussing or trying to measure, which is ultimately inefficient and wasted effort. This will come with time, as the industry matures, and we need industry groups and leaders across the renewable supply chain to affect this normalization.
WPS: Mentorship is essential for career growth. Can you share how mentorship has shaped your journey? On the flip side, as a mentor yourself, how do you diagnose whether someone needs ‘medicine’ (e.g., encouragement) versus ‘surgery’ (e.g., a hard truth) to grow?”
Megan Winchell: Mentorship is absolutely essential. It’s not just about advice, it’s about ad-vocacy. It is important to find people who will advocate for you, even when you are not in room, and help enable opportunities for growth through facilitating those opportunities, giving guidance or simply encouragement. I have been part of many formal mentorship programs, but I find the mentors that have been most valuable to me are the ones that developed organically. For me it is often as simple as recognizing a trait or skill I admire in a person and figuring out ways to spend time with them. It can be through a work project, asking for advice on how to solve a problem or simply sitting with them at the lunch table. And you are likely to find some of the greatest mentors outside work, maybe through your family, your community groups or volunteer organizations.
I also think mentorship is very rarely one way, you often play both the role of mentor and mentee at some point in the relationship. I am not sure there is a general rule of thumb when deciding whether encouragement or hard truth is required. This is why it takes time to build a good mentorship relationship, as you need to understand how the individual is best motivated to take action to get where they are wanting to go. Honesty is critical, so if hard truth is important to getting person on right track, then you have to do it… although it is still hard for me to do even to this day, as I don’t like to make people upset.
WPS: What advice would you give to women trying to break into or progress within technically demanding fields like energy and engineering?
Megan Winchell: It is 100% okay and normal to have self-doubt and feel unprepared, but you have value to add whether through your training, your experience, your back-ground or your approach. Advocate for yourself. Understand yourself, your strengths, areas for deve-lopment, how you handle stress, what motivates you, what environment you are most effective. This will take some time, but once you do have this understanding, you can identify what opportunities best align with how best you work and which ones will be challenging. It is important to take on all types of opportunities, but it makes it easier going in knowing what it will personally take to be successful.
WPS: You’ve navigated male-dominated spaces throughout your career—from oilfields to solar leadership. Based on your experience, what tangible advantages have you observed when gender diversity is prioritized, particularly in driving innovation or problem-solving in energy?
Megan Winchell: There’s just no denying it anymore: diversity delivers results. There are too many studies to ignore the quantitative value of diversity in business, i.e. accretive to bottom line. Diversity means simply difference, difference in gender, difference in race, difference in religion, difference in education, difference in nationality or simply different experiences. The more diversity you can get in a team, the better solutions you will have to problems. Different perspectives, ideas and ways of thinking allow a team to innovate and leverage the multiple strengths that diversity provides. Especially in fields like energy, where out of the box, creative technological solutions can be a business differentiator, diversity is an enabler.
WPS: What do you think makes an effective mentor-mentee relationship, and how can women in leadership roles better support the next generation of female leaders in energy?
Megan Winchell: I mentioned a couple of things above, time to build understanding and rapport is important. Honesty and open communication are also very important, along with empathy. Being able to put yourself in someone else’s shoes gives us an insight to what some of the challenges may be for the person.
We need to see women in leadership roles, if you see it, you can be it. This means we have to focus on development programs and opportunities that address challenges that are often faced by women (not solely faced by women therefor generally translate into a more motivated and engaged workforce), caring for older parents, having children, taking time to raise families, school/community obligations.
Listen to our employees, they often already know what support they need or will propose effective solutions if they have trust in the organization that their needs and ideas will be respected. It is also important that we put a hand out to help and support each other, the mindsets of “sink or swim” or “struggling makes you stronger” are outdated and counter productive to creating a healthy company culture.
