Utilities continue to make major investments in modernization: upgraded Human Capital Management systems, financial management platforms, asset systems, digital field tools, and customer-facing technologies. These upgrades promise speed, intelligence, and integration across the organization.
But here’s the tension most leaders quietly acknowledge:
Technology is not the barrier.
Leadership is.
Utilities are modernizing their systems but not their leadership operating system. And the gap between system speed and leadership speed is where transformation begins to unravel.
The Modern Utility Runs on Real-Time Information
New platforms generate continuous data, insights, and feedback.
Customer expectations shift weekly.
Regulatory and market pressures evolve quickly.
Workforce dynamics change faster than ever.
Yet many leadership teams still operate with:
• long decision cycles
• outdated governance
• silo-driven priorities
• leadership habits built for a slower world
It’s like installing a high-performance engine but keeping the original steering mechanism. The capability is there — the ability to use it is not.
Utilities are attempting to run twenty-first-century systems on twentieth-century leadership logic.
Transformation Isn’t Just Technical — It’s Behavioral
For decades, utilities have been rewarded for operational excellence: safety, reliability, compliance, and process discipline. Those foundations remain essential.
But modernization introduces a second requirement: behavioral excellence.
A utility can implement new technology flawlessly and still stall if leadership behaviors don’t evolve at the same pace. The necessary shifts include:
• moving from managing change to leading it
• aligning around direction, not just approving work
• challenging legacy thinking instead of protecting it
• adapting in real time as new information emerges
• treating course correction as learning — not failure
Modernization succeeds when the mindset shifts alongside the system.
Why Modernization Efforts Stall — And It’s Not “Change Fatigue”
“Change fatigue” has become the easy explanation for stalled momentum. But, in most cases, fatigue is a downstream symptom.
The causes are upstream:
• unclear or inconsistent alignment
• competing priorities leaders do not reconcile
• governance that creates bottlenecks
• decision-making that lags behind system speed
• old operating patterns layered onto new infrastructure
These issues aren’t about employee resistance.
They are indicators of a leadership operating system that needs updating.
Reinvention as the New Leadership Operating System
The utilities that gain traction treat reinvention as an organizational capability, not a reaction to crisis.
Reinvention looks like:
• adjusting strategy as new data emerges
• responding without slipping into firefighting
• revisiting decisions without defensiveness
• modeling adaptability at the leadership level
• maintaining clarity even when conditions shift
In these organizations, shifting course mid-stream isn’t instability — it’s resilience.
What High-Performing Utility Leaders Do Differently
Across the utilities I support, high-performing leadership teams show similar patterns:
• Align early and repeatedly — not just at kickoff
• Make governance transparent, so decision-making is predictable and fast
• Reduce drag instead of compensating for it
• Normalize course correction, without blame or shame
• Create clarity, even when complexity is high
These teams understand a core truth:
A fast, integrated system cannot be delivered by slow, fragmented leadership.
The Reset Moment: Where Reinvention Begins
Many utilities hit a point where the work is technically “on track” but organizationally heavy.
Noise outweighs progress.
Teams are busy but not moving together.
This is the moment where leaders must choose between:
• pushing harder with the same patterns, or
• pausing to realign and reset
Every time I guide a leadership team through a reset, momentum accelerates. Clarity returns. Decision-making speeds up. Execution improves. Leaders regain the space to actually lead.
A reset isn’t going backwards.
It’s clearing the way forward.
Why It Matters
Utilities are investing millions in modern systems. Those systems will perform — but only if the leadership operating system evolves at the same pace.
The future of the utility sector isn’t defined by technology alone.
It’s defined by leaders who can think differently, align decisively, and embrace reinvention as a daily practice.
Modernized utilities don’t just install new tools.
They upgrade how their leaders lead.
Leslie Ellis is a change advisor, speaker, and CEO of Meaningful Change Consulting, where she helps organizations build reinvention capability and lead change as a strategic discipline. She works with executive teams across the utility sector to align leadership, accelerate modernization, and design change “right the first time.” Leslie is recognized for her truth-telling approach and her expertise in helping organizations reset, realign, and achieve results with less drag and more clarity.