How Clean Energy Leaders Can Strengthen Teams in the Age of AI

In celebration of International Women’s Day 2026, members of the clean-energy community gathered for a national WRISE leadership webinar centered on a simple but powerful idea: when we share our challenges and insights generously, everyone gains.

Aligned with the global #GiveToGain campaign, the interactive session invited participants to explore how leaders across the renewable-energy ecosystem can strengthen team performance in a time of rapid change. The session was facilitated by Glenna Wiseman, founder of Permission to Bloom, and brought together professionals from across the country for a collaborative leadership lab focused on building high-value, future-fit teams.

Rather than presenting a traditional lecture, the webinar used a crowdsourcing model, drawing on the lived experience of participants working across the energy transition.

Participants shared perspectives from project development, engineering, consulting, finance, and organizational leadership. What emerged was both candid and encouraging: a shared recognition of the pressures teams are navigating today, along with a collective willingness to contribute ideas to help one another lead through them.

The High-Value Team Lens

The session opened with a brief exploration of what distinguishes a true team from simply a group of individuals working together. Then went a step further to present the characteristics of a high-value creating, future-fit team model.

A high-value creating team operates from a clear shared purpose and works toward outcomes that cannot be achieved by individuals alone. These teams actively engage stakeholders, consider their broader impact on organizations, communities, and the ecosystem, and continuously learn how to improve the way they work together.

As organizations navigate distributed work environments, rapid technological change, and growing expectations for impact, the effectiveness of teams has become one of the most important factors shaping organizational success.

What’s Getting in the Way: Challenges Facing Today’s Teams

During the first breakout session, participants were invited to identify the real-world friction points affecting their teams today.

Across breakout rooms, participants shared candid observations about the pressures and dynamics shaping their work environments. Despite differences in organizational roles and geographic locations, several consistent patterns emerged.

Across the conversations, four interconnected leadership challenges surfaced as particularly influential in shaping team performance today.

1. Leadership and Purpose Alignment

Many participants noted that teams struggle when purpose, priorities, or leadership expectations are unclear.

When direction shifts quickly or multiple initiatives compete for attention, it becomes harder for teams to maintain alignment around what matters most.

Participants described challenges such as:

• Lack of clarity around vision, priorities, and decision authority
• Difficulty aligning cross-functional teams around shared goals
• Limited empowerment or leadership development for team members
• Uncertainty created by rapid change in the industry

Without a clearly shared purpose and defined leadership structure, teams can find themselves working hard while still feeling fragmented in their efforts.

2. Location, Communication, and Distributed Work

The second theme centered on the realities of collaboration in hybrid and remote environments.

As teams increasingly span time zones, functions, and communication styles, maintaining strong coordination requires more intentional effort.

Participants highlighted challenges including:

• Building trust within remote or hybrid teams
• Navigating asynchronous communication across time zones
• Misalignment in communication styles or expectations
• Maintaining team cohesion when colleagues rarely meet in person

Many participants noted that while digital collaboration tools make distributed work possible, strong relationships and communication practices remain essential to making those tools effective.

3. Workload, Systems, and the Role of AI

A third theme focused on the growing pressure many teams face as responsibilities expand.

Participants described situations where portfolios and expectations continue to grow while team size and resources remain constant.

Key challenges included:

• Scaling systems and processes as projects and portfolios expand
• Delivering increasing workloads without additional headcount
• Maintaining motivation in environments affected by layoffs or restructuring
• Integrating emerging technologies, including AI, into daily workflows

Several participants raised the complexity of AI-enabled work. While AI tools are beginning to support research, drafting, and analysis, leaders emphasized the need for thoughtful integration and verification of outputs.

Many teams are still learning how to balance the efficiency AI offers with the accountability and judgment that human expertise provides.

4. Personal Voice, Psychological Safety, and Cultural Dynamics

A fourth theme that surfaced centered on the human experience of working within teams.

Participants spoke about the ways confidence, cultural dynamics, and organizational norms can influence whether people feel able to contribute fully.

Experiences shared included:

• Not feeling seasoned enough to contribute to discussions
• Navigating age differences or generational expectations within teams
• Experiencing microaggressions or subtle bias
• Perceptions of women being placed more often in staff roles than leadership roles
• Lack of diversity in teams with similar backgrounds
• Difficulty demonstrating the value of behind-the-scenes work
• New team members struggling to find their place within established groups

Participants also noted that layoffs and ongoing industry uncertainty can affect motivation and willingness to speak openly.

Many emphasized that psychological safety is not simply about comfort. It is about creating environments where people feel able to ask questions, challenge assumptions, share ideas, and bring their authentic perspective to the work.

When leaders cultivate these conditions intentionally, teams gain access to a broader range of insight and experience — strengthening both innovation and resilience.

From Challenge to Contribution: The Give in Give-to-Gain

In the second half of the session, participants returned to breakout rooms with a different lens.

Rather than focusing solely on challenges, they were invited to offer their ideas to address the challenges proactively.

Using a transformational solutions lens, participants explored whether solutions addressed root causes or simply treated symptoms. Transformational solutions were defined as those that shift communication patterns, strengthen shared purpose, and improve value for key stakeholders.

The result was a rich exchange of practical strategies.

Top 10 Insights from the #GiveToGain High-Value Teams Lab

1. Shared purpose is the anchor of strong teams.
   When teams clearly understand why their work matters and how it connects to larger goals, alignment and motivation strengthen across the system.
2. Leadership clarity reduces friction.
   Teams move faster when roles, decision authority, and expectations are clearly defined.
3. Hybrid work requires intentional communication.
   Effective teams don’t leave communication to chance. They establish norms for when, how, and where conversations happen.
4. Trust must be actively cultivated in remote environments.
   Human connection still matters. Simple practices like picking up the phone, scheduling informal conversations, or gathering in person when possible, can strengthen collaboration.
5. Clear accountability accelerates progress.
   Tools such as RACI (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed) frameworks, project charters, and defined decision owners help teams move from discussion to execution.
6. AI is a tool, not a replacement for human judgment.
   Many teams are integrating AI to support research, drafting, and analysis. At the same time, leaders emphasized the importance of verifying outputs and maintaining human accountability.
7. Scaling systems is becoming a major leadership challenge.
   As clean energy portfolios grow, teams are often asked to deliver more without adding headcount. Leaders must rethink processes and collaboration models to keep pace.
8. Psychological safety unlocks contribution.
   When team members feel safe sharing ideas, asking questions, and challenging assumptions, the quality of thinking across the team improves.
9. Healthy boundaries protect long-term performance.
   Teams function better when expectations around urgency, availability, and workload are openly discussed and respected.
10. Generosity strengthens leadership communities.
    The spirit of the session reflected the International Women’s Day theme: when leaders openly share ideas, tools, and lessons learned, everyone benefits.

Three Practical Actions to Try With Your Team

Participants emphasized that even small leadership shifts can strengthen team effectiveness.

Consider trying one of these practices with your team this month.

1. Reconnect your team to purpose.
   Take time in a team meeting to revisit why your team exists and how its work contributes to the broader mission of the organization.
2. Clarify roles and decision ownership.
   Tools such as RACI frameworks or project charters can reduce confusion and accelerate progress.
3. Start a conversation about AI.
   Invite your team to discuss where AI is helpful, where verification is needed, and where human judgment remains essential.

Continuing the Team Leadership Conversation

Participants were invited to continue exploring these ideas through the Permission to Bloom Team Leadership Development Toolkit, a reflection resource designed to help leaders strengthen shared purpose, communication, and systemic awareness within their teams.

The International Women’s Day session demonstrated the power of collective leadership in action.

When professionals across an industry openly share both their challenges and their solutions, the entire community moves forward together.

In the spirit of #GiveToGain, the message of the gathering was simple:

Leadership grows when we give our insights to one another.