In 2002, Hensel Phelps held its first Women’s Leadership Seminar (WLS) with 20 women in attendance. That marked the beginning of a tradition that continued from 2004 to 2018 when six additional national seminars brought together our women to share ideas and build connections. However, due to our growth since 2018, we faced a logistical challenge in 2024 – how could we provide the essential cross-regional networking and resources sharing these seminars were celebrated for, with far too many invitees to bring to one location? Hensel Phelps’ solution made 2024 a groundbreaking milestone for the WLS, with nine seminars hosted across the country celebrating women’s leadership.
A group of WLS leaders were selected to represent our nine regions and in developing an overarching theme and vision for the 2024 seminars. Together, the leaders landed on the phrase “ASPIRE” and the illustration of a grove of nine assorted trees was selected to represent the growing system of support and advocacy that the Hensel Phelps’ Women’s Network (WNet) provides across the regions of our company. WNet will always remain true to its roots while promoting evolution and modernizing our mission as we grow together.
On working to develop the theme and tracks, Nichole Bruce, Development Manager, Real Estate Development, says, “We wanted to reach every woman in the company and introduce them to women outside their region while keeping each event size intentional. It was important to develop a process that allowed for a consistent message to be carried out across nine different events that spanned coast to coast while also allowing each event to have its own unique personality. I believe we accomplished our goal.”
Under the canopy of this central vision, each WLS event worked to help support our women’s successful career and personal growth. To modernize our mission, the goals of each seminar were to:
- Reflect on our experiences because to grow yourself, you must know yourself.
- Empower ourselves and each other to be our authentic selves because our differences are valuable. And we will continuously work to create a gender-intelligent environment that values those differences as strengths.
- Aspire to greater heights. We did not come this far to only come this far. And we can go even further with WNet as a system of interwoven forests rather than a singular, isolated tree.
From the Southcentral Region’s kickoff event in March 2024 to the final event in our Southeast Region in November 2024, the seminars were intended to reach every woman in the company, fostering nationwide connections and promoting growth on both personal and professional levels. All women in the host region were able to attend their local seminar with each event also welcoming women leaders from across the company. The opportunity to interact with women from multiple regions created a safe space where attendees felt comfortable talking about the collective experience of being a woman in the construction industry and established new examples of Hensel Phelps role models.
Reflecting on the seminars, Shannon Gustine, Regional Vice President, Northern California, who attended seven seminars, remembers “it being truly inspiring to see so many talented and driven leaders come together, share their experiences and uplift one another.”
The magic of the 2024 WLS nine seminar approach was the ability of each region’s leadership team to tailor their event’s content to meet the needs and preferences of their attendees. In addition to the nine trees in the grove representing Hensel Phelps’ regions, they also represented the nine content learning tracks that were developed for each region to create their final programs. These topics ranged from lessons on mentorship to workshops on financial literacy. This allowed for variation from seminar to seminar so that women attending more than one seminar got a chance to experience something new. These impactful presentations highlighted personal stories and shared experiences.
“In a demanding and unique industry like construction, it’s important to surround ourselves with people who share our passion and understand our experiences. WLS is one of my favorite Hensel Phelps events because it offers an opportunity to do just that by bringing together women leaders from all different regions, departments and experience levels. I walked away from the event feeling encouraged after hearing the wisdom from our current leaders and inspired by the younger employees who are already contributing so much. I’m looking forward to seeing the impact of WLS multiply as we continue to grow and invest in the future of our company!” – Megan Golinowski, Project Engineer, Southeast
The regional approach gave our women the opportunity to express themselves and build regional memories in fun and unique ways. From treetop escapades in the Pacific Northwest, lei (flower garland) and lei po’o (flower crown head lei) making in Hawaii and a crab feast in Maryland (complete with Old Bay), the creativity of the regional seminar planners was on full display.
Thank you to everyone who developed, presented, attended and supported Hensel Phelps Women’s Leadership Seminars last year. Together, we are building a support network to ensure every woman in our company and our industry has the resources and encouragement needed to thrive. As we continue to grow and elevate each other, we are growing a legacy of strong, empowered women leading the way in construction.
“When I started in the industry, there weren’t many women to look up to, and there was this idea that you had to act more like a man to get certain things done. We have shown this isn’t the case with the support of many advocates and allies along the way. Fast forward to today, it’s incredible to see so many women at Hensel Phelps that we’ve even had to change how we run our Women’s Leadership Seminars. The old stereotypes have been busted by research, leading to better conversations and leadership training that highlight the importance of our different perspectives and even how our neurochemistry comes into play. It’s all about focusing on our individual strengths and what we bring to the table. I’m really hopeful that the insight we took away from WLS will be shared with everyone at Hensel Phelps, so we can continue to build a team of leaders who look past biases and lift each other up.” – Catherine Woodworth, Area Superintendent, Southern California.