This week Women in Solar+ Europe gives voice to Liz Cammack, CEO of UK’s Cammack Consultancy Ltd. She says diversity and intentional inclusion are essential to innovation, requiring leaders to look beyond familiar talent pools, challenge bias with evidence, and build teams with genuinely different skills and perspectives. Drawing on her own career, mentors and experiences, she encourages women to reject cultures that limit them, embrace every opportunity to learn, and build strong networks that help others succeed too.
If you look back at any of the great industrial revolutions, diversity has played a major role. It’s clear to me that any major technological or economic transformation at the scale we now need will require a multi-dimensional group of people. Historically, necessity forced businesses to look beyond their traditional male talent pool. During the technological revolution of the Second World War, the capability was already there but just lay undiscovered. Women became engineers, technicians, codebreakers and scientists. New industries can open doors, but they can also create old inequalities unless inclusion is intentional.
I’ve always worked in typically male industries. In the past, if I’ve felt adequately rewarded for my contribution, then it wouldn’t bother me that my boss had fewer credentials and yet was in a more senior position. If the leadership team suggested a golf day, I would just have scoffed and suggested also arranging something for a wider demographic. But in recent years, I have become less tolerant of the “high-five” lad culture that is rife in some boardrooms. I’ve come to realise that it usually masks a company ill-prepared for wider opinions or ideas. Today, I would step outside of such an organisation. Having said that, I’ve recently taken up golf, if only to shake things up a bit!
I’ve had some brilliant mentors. During my pharma years, they taught me how to lead without ego and how to sell by listening, which is a highly valuable skill, whatever role you have. My parents founded their business the year I was born, and then my older brother Julian diversified into renewables, and they taught me entrepreneurship, resilience and hard work. Andy Pegg, the founder of Segen, is the polar opposite to me in many ways and taught me lots about myself and about managing risk. Many of the women I’ve worked with and mentored over the years now stand with me as leaders in this industry. They are all making their mark.
I always try to consider all points of view, to see things from every paradigm, and I encourage others to do the same, rather than to have an emotional response to things. Where once I might’ve started with a gut instinct, I learnt from Andy Pegg that gut isn’t enough. If you can always support what you are proposing, or what you are challenging, with data and evidence, rather than just opinion or emotion, then you can overcome bias and scepticism. And for someone who is highly emotional and empathetic, that wasn’t a skill that came naturally!
I talked earlier about ‘intentional inclusion’, and if you look closely within your teams, you may spot that managers have recruited within their own safety zone. This can leave gaps and will create a very one-dimensional environment, which will limit results. To develop diverse talent, you must first identify the missing skills or the personality trait that will bring everything together. And then recruit intentionally to complete the picture.
My advice to any young woman entering the solar industry today would be that you absolutely can have it all! Don’t expect it to be easy, and don’t settle for a culture that doesn’t fit. Either hunt for the one that suits you, or create it yourself. Every role and experience will be one you will learn and grow from.
You’ll meet some great people on your journey. Give them a leg-up when needed or introduce them to your network to help them out. You never know when they’ll come around again, and you might just need them. It’s the people who make this industry so great.
Having embarked on her career in the solar and renewable energy industry in 2010 when she co-founded Zenex Solar Ltd, Liz Cammack was also MD and Global Advisor at Segen Ltd, and now works with leading businesses in the sector. She is a member of the Board of Advisors of OpenSolar, Chair of Genius Roof Solutions Ltd, Strategic Advisor to SolPlanet and to Wolseley UK Ltd, Non-Exec Director of Solar Energy UK, member of the UK Government’s Solar Council, and CEO of Cammack Consultancy Ltd.
Interested in joining Liz Cammack and other women industry leaders and experts at Women in Solar+ Europe? Find out more: www.wiseu.network
The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own, and do not necessarily reflect those held by pv magazine.
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