Spring 2021 Distinguished Speaker Series with Bethany Owen

Well, thank you, Dean Amy. I just want first of all to thank you all so much for the opportunity and the honor to be asked to speak here today. UMD is such an amazing institution and partner in our region, and it's my spouse's alma mater, so it's just really special and such a pleasure and honor to be speaking with you all and all the students, staff, and faculty. So thank you again. What a difference a year can make. In some ways, the past year has really flown by, and in other ways, it's felt like 10 or maybe even 20 years. And I'm guessing that there are a lot of people on this Webex today that can relate to that feeling. At the beginning of last year, I really thought, being new in this role, that I'd be traveling around to meet with my co-workers in different states and get to know them and help them get to know me, and really to talk about our strategy. But instead, right off the bat, we were facing a global pandemic and a deep economic recession. So as you mentioned, just a few weeks into this role, we at ALLETE made the decision to send about 50% of our employees throughout the company and all of our business units to work remotely so that we could try to keep them safe, but also so that we could keep safe our co-workers who have had to be on site to do their jobs, those who work in the power and water plants and wind sites, line workers, system operators, and so many others. It's interesting because ALLETE has traditionally, like many organizations, been a very face-to-face culture, so this decision really early on in the pandemic, and quite frankly for a very new CEO, was probably a little bit controversial with some people. But I knew it was absolutely the right thing to do. I was part of a group of CEOs in the energy industry, and before there were really any positive cases in our regions, I heard from these CEOs on the East and West Coast whose co-workers were in intensive care and even dying. And I was bound and determined to learn whatever I could from them and do whatever we could to keep our people safe. So we really started with developing principles to help guide us through the pandemic, and the top priority continues to be the health and safety of our people, our customers, our families, our communities, and all of that while we're trying to continue providing the services that people and businesses, including hospitals and others, are relying on now more than ever. So I would just say that my first year in the CEO role has been extremely challenging, but it's actually been surprisingly good. I say that with a little bit of hesitation because I know how incredibly hard this past year has been on so many. First, those who've tragically lost loved ones, first responders, healthcare workers, business owners who've lost their businesses, people who've lost their jobs, and just on and on. And my heart goes out to every one of all of the individuals in those situations. But when I think about ALLETE and my first year in this role, it's been pretty daunting to have headlines just a few months in that are like 'Pandemic knocks down ALLETE's strong run' or 'ALLETE's first female CEO takes the reins at a crossroad.' So I've had to work really hard to silence all of that noise and, to be really candid, some of the self-doubt that comes with it, especially as a really new CEO, and really focus on what is really important in this time. I often think we can all just about drown in the sadness and tragedy and divisiveness of our world right now, but I really try hard not to do that all the time. I share with my co-workers my favorite quote, and I probably am so annoying about it at this point. It's on this little clear plaque that's right behind me, and it's actually on the bracelet that I wear on my wrist every day. It's 'Be the change you wish to see in the world.' And I've always loved this quote by Mahatma Gandhi because it's really comforting. When things in the world around me are really difficult or sad or tragic, what I do and say can really make a difference. I can begin to change things for the better. So it's comforting to take back some power in what can be a pretty daunting situation. But I also see that quote as a command, it's a call to action. We can't just sit back and wish things were different or look at the world and judge things that are happening. We have to be the change, and it really starts with each one of us in big and small ways every single day. So, Dean Amy, when I answer your question by saying that the past year has been surprisingly good, I'm actually thinking about our amazing team at ALLETE and how lucky I am as a new CEO to have them around me. Their resilience, commitment, compassion, and really caring. And I think about how people throughout the organization have really stepped up, even in the face of their own personal sadness and uncertainty, and made a difference by caring for each other and for our customers and communities in ways that have been very powerful. It's a cliche probably at this point, but it's really true. You see the best in people in the very toughest of times, and there's been a lot of good.

Goodness, no. I really never imagined being in this role. To be quite candid, I really never knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. I think I was one of those kind of living-in-the-moment kids. I really loved being outside pretty much anytime and all the time, and I always loved to read from a really young age. I'd read pretty much anything that I could get my hands on, and that was just kind of an escape for me as a child, exploring different worlds and different experiences that people had. And I guess if I were pushed to say what I thought about when I was a kid growing up, it probably would have been a librarian. I loved my public librarian, I loved her, and I actually volunteered when I was in elementary school with our school librarian, or perhaps owning a bookstore. All of that sounds absolutely amazing to me even now, and maybe that's a note to my future self in retirement. But I really think a lot of curiosity, I've always been really curious, I've always wanted to learn new things and try new things, and that's really served me well and, quite frankly, helped shape my career path. So I guess I'm a bit of an example of how it might be okay not to have everything all perfectly mapped out from the very beginning.

It's always kind of interesting when people ask me to talk about my career path because I realize when I map it out, it probably sounds so winding and unplanned and really unintentional. And maybe that sounds like a bad thing, but it's probably actually right. I really just love change and I've loved trying and learning new things. I will confess, when I was in college, I didn't know what I wanted to do career-wise. I had worked really since I was in eighth grade, I always had jobs, and I worked my way through undergrad as well as law school as well. But I didn't know what I wanted to be when I grew up. So I took a lot of different classes in different tracks because they were really interesting to me. I changed my major three times in four years.

Well, it proved to be a tiny bit problematic for me because I ended up needing to take a lot more classes so that I could kind of cobble everything together, and then I had to pull it together with a senior thesis so I could graduate with what ended up being a really self-created interdisciplinary major. And it included all of the things that I really enjoyed: two different languages, world politics, history, economics, and that kind of thing. It was hard, but it was really interesting, and I actually wouldn't change a thing. Graduation, I really didn't know what I wanted to do career-wise either, so I kind of have a pretty winding path after that.

I actually, and I'm hesitant to even say this because I have not kept up with this at all, but I took, I was very fortunate to go to a school where foreign language was something that was expected even in elementary school. And so I actually took French, I studied French all the way through college, all the way through my upbringing and college. So one of the things that I was toying with was, do I want to be a French professor at some point? I was not very good at speaking French. I had a professor in college tell me that I couldn't speak French with a southern accent. But my thesis was actually, the primary source materials were in French. So I really enjoyed that. But what my major really tells you about me is that I liked a lot of things. I really liked learning a lot of different things, and it was hard for me to decide one track. And so this option at Vanderbilt to be able to put together this interdisciplinary major was really wonderful for me.

Well, it's interesting because I would tell you that it was only in probably more recent years that I ever saw myself quite as a leader. And I think that fact alone has probably shaped very much how I am in this leadership role that I'm in and the ones that I've had before. I'm definitely much more of a collaborative leader. I really believe in the power of a diverse team, and I know that a lot of people say that, and I really believe it. A team of people that have different experiences, different backgrounds, different perspectives, and that really think differently from each other and differently from me. I really expect the people on my team to be empowered and really expected to bring their energy and their insights and their perspectives because I really believe that's how we reach the best decisions. We think through near-term and longer-term challenges and opportunities, and it's really eye-opening and fascinating to see situations from others' perspectives. And I'm genuinely curious about how other people think, and for me, that process is really fun and really interesting, even when you're wrestling with hard, challenging topics. So I really try to surround myself with people who are very different from me, who think differently, and will always challenge me by broadening my perspective. I will say, I think the common ground has to be we have to be aligned on our values. Integrity is something that is absolutely non-negotiable for me, and it's something when I've come into a new leadership role, I make sure that the people that I work with understand that about me because trust is an amazingly powerful foundation for a team. It's an amazingly powerful foundation for any relationship, but if it isn't there, it can absolutely destroy a team and can destroy a relationship. So it's also really important to me that people on my team are in this for something more than themselves.

Oh, yes. I have definitely benefited from wonderful mentors throughout my career. I actually don't know that I always called them my mentors or whether some of them even knew that they were mentoring me, but I've always watched what people and leaders I admired did and really listened to what they said and even how they asked questions in meetings to really bring out other people's insights. So I had many people and leaders who taught me a lot about business, a lot about leadership, and as you mentioned, about myself and quite frankly what I might be capable of. I always say that there are some people who really are born believing that they are capable of the sun, moon, and stars and the world is their oyster, and then there are others that are maybe a little less sure of what paths might be open to them and where they might be able to add value in society. And for me, it's been really important to have people that have pointed out things that I really never saw or believed in myself and then quite frankly actually care enough to share that with me and really encourage me. And it's just been an incredible gift. And so I absolutely try to pay that forward. It's one of the greatest joys and honors of being in a leadership role. As I mentioned, I really never envisioned being a leader of people or leading an organization, but this is what I find the joy and pleasure in, to help people see their own potential and even see blind spots. So it was wonderful to me to have people point out, you know, you might be missing this or you might need to work on this. And I often think the word mentor carries with it this feeling of formality and maybe a structure that I don't think a mentoring relationship has to have in order to be really effective and very helpful.

Yeah, it's so interesting. So I was one of those students, so don't be like me, but I was one of those students that, again, I loved school, but I was a pretty shy kid. And so I was definitely not the one to be raising my hand in class, I was not the one to come up to the professors after class and all of that. And I actually really regret that. I try not to regret things in my life, but I actually wish that I had been more involved with professors and even more engaged in class. I was very engaged in my own way, but I wasn't interacting a lot with the professors and taking advantage of that wonderful opportunity. But it is really interesting because I did have a couple of experiences where I handed in a paper or finished a test and the professor would say at the end, 'Ms. Irwin' (my name was Bethany Irwin at the time), 'would you please come up if you're in the room wherever you are because I have no idea who you are, please come up after class.' And so of course I would be like, 'Oh great, I don't know what has happened at this point.' And it would inevitably be a word of encouragement. And I think of the faculty at UMD and what an incredible role you play in your students' lives. And I would just encourage students to take advantage of those opportunities to engage with the faculty and the staff in ways because it's so meaningful. It meant so much to me even though I wish I'd taken greater advantage of that. But those experiences, they stick in my mind and really helped me realize that maybe there are some things that I am capable of doing and would be good at that I didn't really know at the time.

Oh yeah, I mean, I've had so many, and there are so many here at ALLETE that have been so important to me. I think if I were to give advice about it, I would encourage students not to think about having one mentor with a capital M because that can feel kind of daunting. I would encourage students to seek perspectives and encouragement from several different people, and especially people that are really different from yourself. It's really natural for all of us to kind of gravitate to people who are just like us, there's comfort and safety in that. But for me, the really most powerful insights often came from people I admire who are very different from me. So I would just encourage you to seek out diverse mentors and remember, it can be a brief interaction. Don't think of it as this mentorship that you've got to meet every week and have an agenda and all of that. There are lots of different ways to learn from people you admire.

You know, I guess I have worked primarily in male-dominated industries, but I don't know that I ever really thought about it that way. I do know how important it is for people to see themselves or aspects of themselves in leaders. And for me, it wasn't necessarily the gender that I saw in others, and probably that's because I was in male-dominated industries, but it was some aspect of who they were, how they led, maybe even their vulnerability or showing that they were human and that they really cared about the people they were leading. And that's what really resonated with me as I started to build in my mind what is a leader. Because sometimes the perception of a leader is this kind of sitting in the C-suite thinking big thoughts or edicts from above, and I knew that was never going to be me. And I will tell you, you mentioned the 'firsts.' At first, I had really resisted that label of first woman this or first woman that because that is one aspect of who I am, but my gender identity isn't all that I am. But I had, back to diverse teams and challenging perspectives, I had wonderful people who really challenged my thinking on that and helped me understand that for them, coming up in an organization, it was really important and powerful to see a woman in this leadership role. And so I thanked them for their courage to speak up and to help me see that a little bit differently.

I've actually thought about this a lot. I think it's just such a great question, and I've certainly learned from others in terms of advice that I've been given. And what I would just say is, live with integrity always, be true to your values because, again, back to trust, trust and respect are just such a foundation for all of our interactions with people and whatever we're doing. So live with integrity always. I'd say work hard. There's no trick around that. I really do believe in working hard. I also believe in valuing families and life outside of work, but when you're working, it's definitely hard work. Keep learning. I mentioned loving to read, read widely and think critically. And then when you're in a work environment or a team at school or whatever, raise your hand to take on new challenges. See what might not be getting done or what could be done better and really volunteer to take it on. And this one is probably one of the most important aspects: really, no matter what you're doing, whatever it is you're doing, really care about what that is and especially about other people. Lift others up. Be the kind of person that other people really want to work with, and if you aspire to leadership roles, the kind of person that others want to follow. And I really think with all of that, the rest just really comes naturally, and it can be a really fulfilling time no matter what you're doing, even if you have a really long and winding path like I've had. It can really be very fulfilling and bring you a lot of joy.

I have seen greater diversity, but I would just say we have a lot more work to do on all forms of diversity. I think we're in such an important time in our history. This past year has really shined such a bright light on really important cracks in our society, and I firmly believe businesses have an important role to play. I say all the time, and I absolutely believe it, that we at ALLETE have a lot of privilege, and with that privilege comes a lot of responsibility to make our communities better places to live and to work for everyone. So there's been a lot of talk about what businesses' responsibilities are in this regard. Yes, we're responsible to our owners, the people and institutions that own stock in our company, but we're also responsible to our employees and our customers and our communities. And I just really believe this past year has been a clarion call for businesses to do so much more and to embrace diversity and equity and create opportunities for people and groups that have historically been underrepresented and really those that have been affected by systemic racism. And as I mentioned before, I do believe in the power of diverse teams. So when I think of the more diverse, equitable, and inclusive we are as a team, as a business, and as a community, I just believe the impact is going to be profoundly positive, probably in ways that are hard for us to even imagine right now. But we have such a long way to go. But I'll say it again, probably to groans from my team, we have to be the change we wish to see in the world.

One of the things I'm very proud of ALLETE about is that we're one of the very few publicly traded companies with a board of directors that's a majority women. I quite frankly I'm not aware of another company in the energy industry that can say that.

But I will tell you, this gender diversity is not new for us. We've had women on our board and in senior executive positions for decades. But we're definitely working hard both as a company and as a board to ensure and embrace diversity in all forms. So we've got more work to do. I would say that really focusing on the areas that we can change, that we can affect change. And when I think about this past year, it's just been a really pivotal year in terms of a wake-up call for a lot. During my first year as President of ALLETE back in 2019, which feels like 20 years ago quite frankly, we began what we called 'Respect in the Workplace' education throughout the company. And we have wonderful leaders in our organization that have really helped make that a reality for us. And it really focused on understanding implicit bias and microaggressions and really helping equip leaders with tools to have the tough conversations and address issues in their teams. And we actually rolled out the next phase of 'Respect in the Workplace' last month. Again, it goes to all employees, but this one is really focusing more on impact versus intent. That we can have the best intent in the world, but what we say and do can sometimes have a very negative impact on others, and being hyper aware of all of that so that we can be better as an organization. So we've really begun the work in a very intentional way. But the killing of George Floyd last summer, following the deaths of so many other people of color, really highlighted that we needed to do so much more. And, back to new CEO, new role, I really wasn't sure about doing this, but I did it. Immediately after the killing of Mr. Floyd, I sent an email to all of our employees throughout the company and I really just shared some of my own feelings about all of that: sadness, horror, frustration, and quite frankly even rage. And letting them know that I don't have all the answers, but I knew we had to do more to make the world a better place. And I said, 'Words aren't enough, so I need your help and ideas for what we at ALLETE could do.' And I really committed that we would seek out and listen to others in our communities. And I will tell you, one of the most wonderful things from that really dark time was this outpouring from my co-workers following that email. So many wonderful ideas of what ALLETE could do, people volunteering to be part of all that, and quite frankly just gratitude for making it okay not to have the answers but really encouragement to seek out others and listen and really have the challenging conversations. So we have so much more to do, but we're taking concrete steps to affect change as we think about our workforce, our supply chain, corporate giving. And it's just absolutely the right thing to do.

Thanks. One of my favorite topics of all. I am incredibly proud to work at ALLETE and to lead with this amazing team. For those of you who don't know, ALLETE is an energy company, and the services that we provide are really critical to life in our communities. We talk a lot here about our role in transforming the nation's energy landscape. Our strategy is called 'Sustainability in Action,' and it's focused on sustainability in really all of its dimensions. And I'll tell you, everyone is talking about sustainability, but like most things that we were just talking about, words are not enough. And so we at ALLETE are taking concrete actions to create a more sustainable present and future. And many people really think of sustainability just in terms of the environment and carbon, and those are critically important. Our companies are leading the way on that front. When you think of Minnesota Power, it's first in the state to provide 50% renewable energy to customers, and it's recently announced a vision to provide carbon-free energy to customers by 2050. ALLETE Clean Energy is our newest company, it's doing an amazing job, and its projects are really helping everyone from Fortune 500 companies to other utilities reach their sustainability goals throughout the country. Then Superior Water, Light and Power, first ever community solar development in Superior. And then BNI Energy's work with its customer Minnkota to advance carbon capture and sequestration. So all of our business units are playing a role in the environmental aspect of sustainability, and that's really important. There are other dimensions of sustainability that we're taking action on as well. Society: being a good community citizen and strong partner, working to bridge things like the opportunity gap in our regions, and really making our communities better places to live for everyone. And really working to ensure that the clean energy transformation is done with commitment and caring for our communities, our customers, and our employees. So 'Sustainability in Action' also means serving our customers with excellence always and ensuring best practice governance while providing value to our investors. So again, every one of our businesses has a role to play in 'Sustainability in Action.' And when I think of the time we're in, it's just an incredibly transformative time in our industry and a really exciting time to be at ALLETE.

Well, I hate to end on challenges, but we try to turn our challenges. I think there are quite a few. I think all businesses are, even coming out of 2020 and the focus on again what our businesses' roles are in our economy and our society, every business is going to be wrestling with that, as well as trying to be part of the recovery following the pandemic, supporting our customers. So I would just say navigating the challenges that our customers are going to be facing and supporting them following the pandemic and the deep economic recession. An exciting thing is serving our customers in new and different ways, meeting and exceeding their expectations. It's interesting to me because energy is such a focus by everyone, it's so important to our lives, that people have lots of ideas about things that we can do differently, that we can do better. And so I look forward to working with our customers, both current and future, to make sure that we're providing services in a way that meets and exceeds their expectations. I'd say recruiting and retaining the workforce for the future. It's one of the reasons why I'm so happy and grateful for UMD's role in our region and so glad to be here talking with students today. And then really ensuring, as all of our business units and companies are playing a role in transforming the energy landscape, how do we make sure that we don't leave people behind, that customers and communities and our employees see opportunity in all of that as well? And so that's really a huge commitment for us as we lead this transformation to a cleaner energy future.

I'll start with the last part of that question. I probably sound like I was aimless, but I really never thought about working for a company like ALLETE. I knew that I wanted to enjoy and respect the people that I work with, and I knew that I wanted to work in a way that had purpose and had meaning. We all want to have that, right? And so it was wonderfully eye-opening to me when I joined the ALLETE team that this is where I feel like we can make a difference. We are making a difference. We're so important to people's lives. And so there's so much that I love about working here, but I really never, it wasn't in my vision. But certainly, energy is critical to all of our lives, and in my opinion, it's becoming more critical. And so that's a really exciting place to be and a really fulfilling purpose as a leader for sure.

Yeah, so I'll maybe start with our most recent. Minnesota Power is our largest business unit, the largest part of ALLETE, and obviously, perhaps you've seen that in January we came forward with our vision to provide 100% carbon-free energy to customers. That's really building on an incredibly strong track record that my predecessors, Al Hodnick, as well, led in terms of positioning our company to be 50% renewable last year. So we were very excited to achieve that milestone, first in the state. And it's getting that right, and that transition right, is so critically important because we know it's important to our customers. They're expecting safe, reliable, and affordable energy always. We have the lowest, Minnesota Power has the lowest residential rates in the state, and that's a wonderful place to be. But we have to be really careful with that and ensure that we're not leaving people behind. So we're not leaving customers, we're not leaving communities behind. And so this transition that we mapped out, that Minnesota Power mapped out in its Integrated Resource Plan, really provides the time to allow technology to advance so that we can ensure that we are meeting that commitment to our customers and our communities and, quite frankly, our employees as well.

It's a great question. It certainly is a hot topic. I would just say that our company has been positioning very, very well for a carbon-reduced future. And so if there were to be a carbon tax in the future, I believe we've positioned ALLETE and its business units in a way that it will not be a significant challenge. So that's how I would answer that. It's been something that's been on our leaders' minds for a very long time and again a part of our positioning so that we're in a position of strength as we move forward no matter what the tax situation is.

Yeah, so we have a very diverse set of companies in our portfolio, all energy-based, but we have lots of opportunities in our organization, both current and we're always planning for the future in terms of workforce planning. So certainly technology is going to continue to play a really important role in all of our lives. This past year, when we think about technology, we're using technology probably even more even in our office jobs than maybe we have in the past, and that's going to continue to be critically important. So we're all going to need to be able to be much more adept. But I think when we start with our values and work ethic and ensuring that we are giving people opportunities that prepare them for the future, I think that's going to be a really important role for us to play. We're in a relatively small area of the country, but as we recruit people, it's about recruiting people that are passionate about what we do, that are lifelong learners, that are committed to continuing to develop different skills as we prepare for the future. So I think that's going to be the most important as we think about that. And that really appeals to me, again back to somebody who didn't know what they wanted to be when they grew up. The notion of being able to continue to learn as I'm part of an organization was really attractive to me, and I really hope that's attractive to people that we recruit in the future.

Yeah, that's a wonderful, very insightful question. I've been very sensitive to the fact that as I've taken on a broader leadership role in this organization, I don't want to feel isolated from people who are working throughout the organization. And so it's been a real challenge that I've given myself not to feel isolated, to really try to push myself to be out there in different ways. And I will just say a silver lining of this pandemic and quite frankly my first year is that what would ordinarily have been in-person meetings, me traveling throughout the different states where we operate in order to meet people, we've really embraced as a culture that we've got to communicate in this way. And that's enabled me to have what we call 'CEO Chats' on a relatively regular basis where employees can ask questions and that kind of thing. Certainly, I tell people I know that just by virtue of sitting in the office that I'm in, there is this tendency to lose touch with what's really going on. And I am very intentional. As a matter of fact, I had this same conversation last week with a group of people that are leading our safety initiatives, and I said, 'I really want you to tell me when you feel like I'm missing something, I'm not seeing something, or quite frankly that I've taken a misstep or whatever. I want to know because I know that just by nature of the fact that this is a large organization, I can lose touch, and I don't want to do that.' So I make it really a mission of myself to stay in touch with groups throughout the organization, and it's a really important role, in my opinion, that every leader should strive for.

Yeah, they're big kind of Webexes where all employees are invited. We've had, I think, close to 500 employees at each one. And we have topics. I share topics, I usually bring a friend with me, one of my other leaders in the organization, and we talk about a topic and then answer questions. The challenge is that questions, because it's such a big group, they can't be, we would just spend all of our time. So we ask people to submit questions in advance so that we can try to reserve time. These are usually like 45 to 50 minutes. Then I've also recorded, much to my dismay, selfie videos. So I've done a few videos at various times, and certainly never part of what I thought a CEO's skill set needed to be, but it's been just critical as people are wrestling with some really tough stuff. I've just felt it was really important to share my caring and that we're all in it together.

Yeah, I hear you. I know it's a challenging time. We have opportunities at ALLETE, and I would just tell you, for me, it's who the person is in terms of passion for learning new things, taking on new challenges. Certainly, again, I mentioned integrity is non-negotiable. And so really understanding, are you committed to growing with us as we navigate what's ahead? And I think that's just the most important aspect. So again, continuous learners, people who are curious, passionate about what we're doing, and really committed to working as part of a strong team and bringing diverse strengths to our team. Those would be things that I would be looking for for sure for any position that we're hiring for at ALLETE.

Well, I shared with you one thing that I wish I had done when I was in college. I wouldn't change the not knowing my major and really working very hard to cobble together really diverse interests that I had. I wouldn't change any of that for anything. It was probably more work than a lot of my classmates, they were like, 'Why are you having to take all of these extra classes and do a senior thesis?' I wouldn't change that for anything. But I would change the fact that I did not seek out and develop strong relationships with professors. I just think that staff and professors, they're there for you, and they're there because they love what they do. And when you think of somebody that you admire and that you just want a little bit of insights from, I would just encourage you to take advantage. This is such a unique time in your life that you quite frankly will probably never have again. And again, I try not to live my life with regrets, but that is one that I would do differently for sure. For the other question, advice for a student who may want a leadership role in the future. Well, I talked a lot about mentoring. For me, it was really insight. People were very helpful to me in terms of sharing, 'These are the things that you bring to the table, these are some things that you need to develop.' And so there was a lot of intentionality once I got to ALLETE in terms of, if you want to be a leader, you're going to need some exposure to these types of things and you're going to need some experience in these types of things. So there are concrete experiences, but then there are also attributes, things that you might need to cultivate. And I always ask someone who says, 'I want to be manager of this' or 'I want to be director or vice president of this,' my question is always, 'Why?' And if it's because you want the title or the salary or quite frankly the glory, those are probably not the right reasons because it has to be about other people. Leadership is always, always, always about other people and how you can be better in order to make whatever they're doing. I call it being a brush clearer. Talented people, my job is really just to clear the brush out in front of them and let them run. And certainly, there are boundaries, values, all of that. But it always has to be about other people if you want to be a leader.

That's a good question. I am such a work in progress in figuring out being in this role and taking care of myself, to be candid with you. I love to read, and I actually read a lot of fiction and non-fiction, so I read really widely. I love to be outdoors. This is the most, we live, I'm not from here, remember. I fell in love with Lake Superior the moment I crested Thompson Hill almost 20 years ago, and I wouldn't live anywhere else. We have the most beautiful place to be outside at four seasons of the year. And so anytime I can get outside, I don't care what I'm doing, even if it's sitting on a bench, but snowshoeing, hiking trails, anything on the lake, love to sail. Outside, all good.