Episode 12: Women in Utilities Network: building careers through connection

Future of Utilities Podcast 

Women in Utilities Network: building careers through connection 

Lindley Gooden: Hello, I’m Lindley Gooden. Welcome to the Future of Utilities podcast. We’re talking about inclusion, diversity, and the people agenda across utilities with a wonderful panel. Let’s meet them straight away. We have Karen Anderson from the Women’s Utilities Network – Karen, lovely to have you here. Tell us a little more about yourself. 

Karen Anderson: Hi there, I’m Karen. I’m executive director of the Women’s Utilities Network. I’ve worked with them for just over two years. 

Lindley Gooden: Brilliant. Next up, we have Sophia Goring from Business Stream – a bit more about yourself, if you wouldn’t mind. 

Sophia Goring: I’m head of sustainability at Business Stream. I’m a 2024 Mentor of the Year winner, and I’ve continued to support the WUN Mentoring Programme since. 

Lindley Gooden: Wonderful, thank you. And last but not least, we have Naz Khanom from Lanes Group. Naz, tell us who you are and what you do. 

Naz Khanom: Hi, I’m Naz. I’m head of people at Lanes Group, and I was Mentor of the Year within 2025. 

Lindley Gooden: Perfect, lovely to have you all with us. Let’s get into it. Karen, first of all, tell us a little more about the Women’s Utilities Network, because you’re doing some great stuff – we saw you earlier speaking to a lot of people. What do you do? 

Karen Anderson: The Women’s Utilities Network was formed back in 2018 by five influential women in the utilities sector, who realised they were often the only women in the room, and felt really passionately about the impact that increasing gender diversity in utilities could have. The network’s grown from strength to strength over the last eight years. 

Lindley Gooden: It’s great – we saw a lovely event earlier with a lot of people there. You must be really pleased to see the effect of greater diversity, and how it changes the workplace and the work itself. 

Karen Anderson: Absolutely. The event this morning here at Future of Utilities has grown from strength to strength over the last three years. Two years ago, we had half a dozen mentors and a few mentees stood in the reception area. Today, there were well over 100 women and allies stood together, networking and supporting one another – and that’s really the crux of what the Women’s Utilities Network is there for: to support women, and allies, right across the utilities sector. It’s amazing. 

Lindley Gooden: It’s incredibly positive, and it improves the way work gets done too. Sophia, one of the things I think we all feel a bit nervous about is networking – there are a lot of misconceptions about it, and it can seem really daunting. Give us some hope. How do we do this in a healthy, positive way, where it doesn’t feel like you’re selling hard, and more like you’re just having a decent conversation? 

Sophia Goring: Absolutely. I think it’s about going in with an open mind about the potential value. Some networking opportunities will come to nothing, but who knows – it might open up a career opportunity down the line, a new friendship, or at the very least, an interesting conversation. In my own career, I’ve got a great example of networking having a real impact. I met a wonderful woman called Lindsay, who worked for a social mobility charity called Career Ready, and at the time I was working in communications. Off the back of that conversation, we brought Career Ready in as a partner, and I realised how interested I actually was in that social value piece – how businesses can add real purpose to what they do. As our programme grew internally, I moved into heading up our sustainability team. Before that conversation, I might well have ended up somewhere similar, but it was such a pivotal moment in helping me work out where I wanted to go. 

Lindley Gooden: Part of why it feels daunting to nice people is that they don’t want to have to sell themselves – and actually, you shouldn’t have to. It’s not even something that should really come to mind. Is there a healthier way to think about networking, and about the mentor-mentee relationship? 

Sophia Goring: I think it’s about not putting too much pressure on yourself. We all have conversations every day, in our working life and our personal life, and think nothing of it – the minute you put a “networking” badge on it, people go, oh, that feels horrible. Don’t go in with expectations. Just have a nice conversation. Most people are genuinely happy to talk about themselves and share stories, and who knows what comes of it after that. 

Lindley Gooden: Naz, you’ve both been Mentor of the Year – well done, congratulations. We often rightly focus on the mentee, the person being helped, but there are benefits all the way around, aren’t there? How have you found that balance as a mentor? What have you got out of it – and what do you think they’ve got out of it too? 

Naz Khanom: Mentoring has given me a sense of purpose. Seeing people build confidence, overcome obstacles, set goals they thought were impossible, and then watching them achieve those goals – that’s been genuinely rewarding for me. It reminds me how much investing in people actually matters. It’s also a two-way relationship – I’m learning as much as they are. Having those conversations, hearing about their experiences, broadens my own understanding. It also helps with my imposter syndrome, which I know a lot of people struggle with, but it’s normal, and I understand it now. 

Sometimes what you might call imposter syndrome is actually a bit of a superpower – because you keep checking yourself, keep improving, keep asking the questions that you’re probably the first person to ask, the hard ones nobody else wants to ask you. That’s also a form of self-improvement, a way to keep growing in your own role – especially now, in the age of AI as well as in utilities, it’s important to think differently and think about the next steps. 

Lindley Gooden: Do you feel more prepared because you’ve been a mentor – and perhaps because you were once a mentee too? 

Naz Khanom: Yes, I think so. It’s helped me in my role as part of the senior leadership team. People come to me in moments when they need a nudge, some support, and it feels rewarding that they see me as a safe space. 

Lindley Gooden: That’s valuable – and you mentioned the word “purpose,” which is important. Sophia, what about you? Take us back to situations where you’ve helped people. This isn’t a soft skill – it’s a genuinely valuable, hard skill for all our careers going forward. What have you got out of it? 

Sophia Goring: I think you get a huge amount out of it, whether you’re a mentee or a mentor. We focus a lot on the benefits to mentees, but there’s real value there for mentors too – the coaching experience you gain is significant, because everyone you mentor is different, so learning to adapt to what works for them matters a lot. I also go into a mentoring partnership with what’s probably a fairly naive hope – that I might make a new friend – and I’ve genuinely enjoyed working with the mentees I’ve had. I’m mentoring two women through the programme at the moment, and I look forward to catching up with them each month. Both have said things to me that made me think, “I’ve never considered that” – because we’re so busy doing the day job, none of us really give ourselves, or each other, enough time to reflect. Whether you’re a mentor or mentee, it’s an opportunity to talk more widely about your career goals. 

Lindley Gooden: How much support do we really get at work? Karen, I’ll come to you in a second – but first, a quick straw poll of our audience. Who here has been a mentor? Hands up. 

[A number of hands go up.] 

Lindley Gooden: Lovely – that’s just over half. And who’s been a mentee? 

[More hands go up.] 

Lindley Gooden: That’s about half too. And who would like to be a mentee, if they haven’t been one already – wherever you are in your career? 

[A few more hands go up, a little hesitantly.] 

Lindley Gooden: A slightly embarrassing question, but there are definitely a few “yes, please” out there. Karen, that’s important, isn’t it – this is a supportive network you build. You build friendships, yes, but you also build the kind of support that helps your career. And it helps the business too. 

Karen Anderson: Absolutely – you never know when you’ll need a network at some point in your career, so it’s worth starting that early, whether within your own organisation or through networks like WUN, and networking with people across different parts of the industry. You never know when you might need to call on it, so it’s great to start that journey as early as possible. 

Lindley Gooden: I’ve had the honour of being a mentor myself, and it felt great – we forget that giving a little bit out actually makes you feel stronger, gives you a bit of confidence, and reframes how you think about your own job. Naz, I think that’s what you were describing too – realising things about your own experience you hadn’t quite thought of that way before. Has it changed you, or given you more of a step up, because you’ve become better at your work through helping someone else? 

Naz Khanom: I think, naturally, we as people aren’t always good at listening. Through mentoring, the most important part is listening – and that applies throughout every part of my role. I take a step back and make time for people to feel properly heard, which is genuinely valuable to them. 

Lindley Gooden: How difficult is it to find a mentor? You’re here with us today, which is lovely, but more can always be done – and that’s true across utilities. People are busy, out on the road, fixing things, keeping the business running. It’s not always easy in a full diary to find people, especially across different locations. What can we do to make that easier? 

Naz Khanom: I’d look for someone who can help you navigate the challenges in the area you want to develop in – someone with experience in that space, and who’s genuinely willing to share their knowledge, their successes, but also their mistakes, and what they learned from them. That’s valuable in itself. 

I’ve worked with transport companies – I won’t say who – on mental health specifically, and getting men to talk is genuinely difficult. One very brief story: there was a driver working through one of the hardest parts of the mental health spectrum. Drivers would pass the office and say, “Alright mate, how’re you doing, see you soon.” Next day: “We’ll grab a coffee sometime.” The day after that: “Actually, can I have a word about something.” It takes weeks – but the impact on that particular client’s business was remarkable, and awards have been won off the back of it. The reason, in this case with men specifically, was that it created unity. It gave a sense of purpose, and it answered questions people were carrying. This was specifically about mental health, not just about work, but it had a real impact on how people worked and on relationships across the business. People started having conversations, and the work itself got done better, with less friction and less frustration. 

Lindley Gooden: Absolutely – and think about how much time we spend at work, probably more than ever before. Feeling supported, feeling like there are people you can rely on, matters. 

Sophia Goring: Mentoring partnerships take different forms, so to answer your question about where to find a mentor – the WUN mentoring programme is a brilliant portal for that. But you might also find informal mentoring relationships throughout your career. I’ve spoken before about “secret mentors” I’ve had – people who to this day probably don’t know I looked up to them, but who’ve helped shape my career because I admired something they did, or a skill I wanted to develop. I don’t think you ever stop needing a mentor. It’s not just for people starting out – I think you need it throughout your career. It can give you confidence, though it doesn’t change who you are – you still have to keep renewing and working on that. It’s also just nice to have people tell you you’re good at what you do. That simple thing matters, and I think we’ve all felt that at work. A kind word in the right direction can make your day, your week, and hopefully you go into work the next day feeling a lot happier. 

A mentor can also sit completely outside your own work environment – that’s the beauty of the WUN scheme. You can have a mentor from outside your business, even outside your particular part of the industry entirely, which means you get someone with a genuinely different viewpoint from your immediate team or line manager. That’s really valuable – a mentor removed from your own situation can give you honest, unbiased support. 

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Lindley Gooden: Can I ask about the role of women in utilities specifically, and how important that is? The days of it being a purely male-dominated industry, doing every job, have clearly changed radically. What’s the role of women in making sure businesses run better – Karen, to you first? 

Karen Anderson: It’s not just a woman’s role to make sure businesses run better – it’s about building cultures where everyone feels welcome, everyone feels it’s a place for them. That means having role models, people from all different walks of life in senior leadership positions, which then influences the culture right through an organisation. It’s everyone’s role to make sure workplaces are places people can join, stay, and thrive in. 

Lindley Gooden: Is there a shift happening – more openness, more willingness to talk, when there’s a healthier mix of men and women in a business? These might be broad brushstrokes, but what do you think, Sophia? 

Sophia Goring: I’d say so. At Business Stream, we have a female CEO, who’s also a mother – and I think sometimes it’s simple things like that. When I started at Business Stream with a one-year-old, knowing there was no ceiling in terms of potential made me realise I could go far and balance motherhood with a career. So role models really matter. I also think we have a responsibility here – utilities face a number of big challenges, we’re not going anywhere as an industry, and we need a future workforce that can help address them. Exposing young people to that early, going into schools and letting them see that you can be male, female, from any ethnic minority background – it doesn’t matter, there’s a role for you in this industry. Diversity brings diversity of ideas, and that matters. 

Lindley Gooden: Naz, I want to bring you in here too – I know it’s a big topic, but how important is the principle of diversity, and diversity of ideas specifically? People from different backgrounds, different parts of the country, different ages, a younger workforce coming through – that’s inevitably where utilities is heading. What do you think? 

Naz Khanom: Diversity is paramount to all organisations. We all bring a unique style, different voices, different opinions, and sharing those brings us closer together – we’re able to tap into each other’s strengths, which is why it’s so important. We bring stories from our own backgrounds, from different industries, and sharing both the good stories and the harder ones helps all of us. It’s connected to fear of failure too – if you have an open conversation, an open culture, there’s less fear of failure. Ideas can be aired, and in a time when they can be aired, they can also be acted on. 

Lindley Gooden: That’s a pretty healthy way to run a business. Karen, what do you think? 

Karen Anderson: In terms of utilities specifically, your workforce is a reflection of your customer base – and that customer base is genuinely diverse. If everyone within a team looks the same, thinks the same, acts the same, you’re simply not reflective of the customers you’re serving. 

Lindley Gooden: I really hope this conversation shifts a mindset slightly, even a little – because these are things I think we all feel, but a lot of us don’t dare talk about at work. That’s the interesting thing: whether we can open up to having genuinely good conversations with one another. 

Karen Anderson: Raising that awareness really matters. I work for the Women’s Utilities Network, so I talk about my job, and the things I do at home, constantly – my husband’s heard it for years now. I was really proud of him recently, because he called someone out at work over their language and behaviour, which he wouldn’t have done a couple of years ago. That’s the awareness piece – the more we talk about it openly, at work and outside of it, about hearing people’s voices and making sure everyone has a seat and a voice at the table, the better. 

Lindley Gooden: And it doesn’t have to be purely about process – mentor-mentee relationships are also about getting things done. You can move faster, more openly, if those relationships exist in a business – particularly one that has to run every day, every second, like utilities, under real pressure in a changing time. 

We’ve got about five minutes left, so let’s talk advice. What would you say to younger people starting out – but I also want to hear about people further into their careers. Sophia, start us off – what would you say to people either starting their career, or people who feel like they’re being phased out? I’m reaching that age myself, so I understand why someone might feel that way, but let’s start with the younger end. 

Sophia Goring: For younger people – we spend a lot of time going into schools, and one of the most interesting things is how little awareness there is of how many different jobs exist within any one industry. There’s a perception that everyone in the water industry is out there fixing burst pipes, arm-deep in a hole. 

Lindley Gooden: Exactly that image, yes. 

Sophia Goring: But people don’t realise there’s a communications team, a finance team, a people team – so many interesting opportunities in an industry that undoubtedly has its challenges, but is also addressing major issues around climate change, water pressures, and so on. I think it’s about encouraging young people to stay genuinely open-minded about industries, and to do that exploratory work into the range of jobs that actually exist in any one sector. We have a responsibility to share those stories with them. 

For people who feel they’re being phased out – that’s what’s brilliant about mentoring. It takes you out of the day job and forces you to think about where you are and where you want to go, which otherwise just gets sidelined because we’re all so busy. We forget that having expertise and experience doesn’t mean you have to be static. You actually have a huge amount of experience – and working with younger people, as we said earlier, can be genuinely refreshing. That relationship could work better both ways, honestly. 

Lindley Gooden: Naz, any thoughts from you – there’s so much we could say to younger people, but let’s go with your first instinct. 

Naz Khanom: I’d say – don’t be afraid to be yourself. Does utilities need you to just be a functioning piece of the machine, or does it need you? We bring traits and qualities the industry might not otherwise have, so being yourself, being unique, really matters. People need to see that and hear that – that reassurance builds confidence, and it brings out the best in people. 

Lindley Gooden: That echoes what you were saying earlier, Karen, about utilities serving everybody – everyone receiving the service should be represented in who delivers it. One thing that’s come up a lot at this summit is the importance of conversations that go beyond just utilities looking inward, and think instead about the knock-on effects, what feeds into the industry – that could be technical, but it can also be about how we understand the world around us more broadly. If you understand the world around you, you relate better, and a more diverse workforce helps with exactly that. It’s simple, but it works. 

Karen, your thoughts on younger people too – and maybe on how we need to elevate this conversation a bit further? 

Karen Anderson: My advice for younger people – I’ve got a 20-year-old daughter who’s forever hearing me go on about what she should be doing with her career – is about building connections, having those conversations, sometimes being a bit brave and speaking to someone outside your normal daily tasks. That’s difficult early in your career, but find out more about what’s happening across your organisation, and further afield too. At the end of the day, nobody cares as much about your career as you do – but there are a lot of people out there who genuinely want to support and help you. You just have to ask. What’s the worst that can happen? 

Lindley Gooden: We could keep talking, because it’s been a lovely conversation, but that’s all the time we’ve got. Thank you so much for joining us – Sophia, Naz, and Karen, thank you very much indeed. 

Karen Anderson / Sophia Goring / Naz Khanom: Thank you very much. 

Lindley Gooden: And that’s it for now from the Future of Utilities podcast. Great to have you with us as always – we’ll see you again soon. Take care. 

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