What Being Chair of an Employee Resource Group Taught Me About Leadership

When I volunteered to lead a sustainability-focused Employee Resource Group (ERG), I thought I would spend my time talking about environmental initiatives, organizing events, and helping employees connect around a shared passion.

I was wrong.

What I actually learned was far more valuable: how leadership works when nobody is required to follow you.From 2021 to 2023, I served as Chair of AlsoSustainability, a sustainability-focused employee resource group at AlsoEnergy. What started as a small idea grew into a community of roughly 100 members, developed partnerships with local sustainability organizations, and created educational opportunities for employees across the company. Looking back, the experience fundamentally changed how I think about influence, engagement, and organizational change.

Nobody Owes You Participation

One of the first lessons I learned was that participation in an ERG is entirely voluntary.

People join because they want to.

People stay because they find value.

Unlike a traditional management role, there are no performance reviews, deadlines, or reporting structures to drive engagement. Every meeting attended, every event supported, and every initiative completed is the result of genuine interest.

This forced me to become a better communicator.

I couldn’t tell people why sustainability mattered to me. I had to help them discover why it mattered to them, and which projects they wanted to see invested in in the office and around the local community.

Change Happens Through Relationships

Like many people passionate about sustainability, I initially thought the strongest argument would win.The data speaks for itself. Sustainability matters for our local communities and worldwide ability to survive.

The business case would be obvious.

The opportunity would be clear.

In reality, change rarely works that way.

People support ideas when they trust the people behind them. Progress happened when we built relationships across departments, listened to different perspectives, and found common ground.The most successful initiatives weren’t necessarily the most ambitious. They were the ones where people felt included in the process.

Education Creates Momentum

One of the accomplishments I’m most proud of was helping establish a Platinum-Level partnership with Jack’s Solar Garden and creating educational opportunities that connected employees directly with innovative sustainability practices.

What made these experiences impactful wasn’t just the information itself.

It was seeing sustainability become tangible.

People are more likely to engage when they can connect ideas to real-world examples. Education creates understanding, and understanding creates momentum.

That lesson continues to influence how I approach training, process improvement, and organizational change in my professional work today.

Leadership Is Service

Before chairing an ERG, I thought leadership was primarily about vision.

Now I think it’s primarily about service.

Leadership often means doing the behind-the-scenes work that nobody sees. Scheduling meetings. Following up with stakeholders. Building presentations. Answering questions. Coordinating volunteers. Solving problems before they become obstacles.

The visible moments are only a small fraction of the effort.

The real work happens in the consistent, often unglamorous actions that help other people succeed.

Sustainability Is About Systems

My background in sustainability studies taught me to think in systems.

Leading an ERG reinforced that lesson.

Whether you’re discussing environmental stewardship, employee engagement, organizational culture, or operational excellence, you’re ultimately working within interconnected systems.

Small actions can create ripple effects.

A single conversation can inspire a new idea. An educational event can influence future decisions. A volunteer initiative can strengthen company culture.

The outcomes aren’t always immediate, but they matter.

The Biggest Lesson

If there’s one thing I took away from my time as Chair of AlsoSustainability, it’s that meaningful change doesn’t require formal authority.

It requires consistency.

It requires patience.

It requires the willingness to show up repeatedly for something you believe in.

The experience helped me develop leadership skills that continue to shape my career today; from customer enablement and training to operations planning and cross-functional collaboration.

Most importantly, it taught me that creating positive change is rarely about one big action.

It’s about helping people move in the same direction, one conversation at a time.

And sometimes, that’s enough to build something that lasts.