Episode 16: Miranda Ballentine

In Miranda Ballentine, we have a CEO with both.com and.org experience and

some.gov experience to boot. Most know her as the head of the Clean Energy

Buyer's Alliance, but her experience runs a gamut that includes stints as a

sustainability director of Walmart Consulting through David Gardner Associates,

and as Air Force Assistant Secretary, managing energy budgets for 170 military

installations. She also was CEO of Toronto-based Constant Power that develops

distributed energy projects.

6:40 - Don’t feel pressured to automatically accept a promotion and encourage

your employees to do the same. With any job change, ask yourself: Which of the

jobs allows me to make the greatest difference for my organization? Which job

would allow me to, um, have the most positive impact in the world? Which job is

just going to be the most fun?

17:45 - In addition to developing the culture and vision of a company, a CEO

needs to be adept at resourcing and problem solving. The more senior you get,

the more complex problems you are expected to solve. Learn to prioritize

problems and outsource the smaller ones to managers when you can.

18:51 - Learn whether you are an entrepreneur or INTRApreneur. The skillsets

required to influence and persuade and move big systems (intrapreneur skills)

are absolutely critical in the climate change movement.

31:31 - The most successful hiring panels have a diverse set of interviewers (in

job title, seniority, race, gender, experience). And make sure your questions for

interviewees account for different ways of thinking.

42:12 - Building a strong culture for your company is imperative, not a nice-to-

have. You will see negative impacts if culture fit and cooperation is neglected.