title: People Power: Rethinking Utility Leadership in 2026
author: On The Grid
contenttype: podcast
publication: On The Grid
published: 2026-02-05T17:48:58+00:00
sourceurl: https://feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/2260866755-zpryme-agency-people-power-rethinking.mp3
word_count: 3771
Happy New Year, everyone, wishing everyone a great 2026. My name is Jason Rodriguez, I'm the co-founder and CEO of Z Prime and Frolick. Excited to kick off our first episode of Z Prime on the grid. We're joined today by the founder and leader of Mintora. Gladless Ayala joining us from Chicago, Illinois. Carlos, Happy New Year. How you doing and how's your new year off to you? Happy New Year, Jason. Glad to be back. It's excited for the new year. All the amazing things are about to happen this year. Super thrilled to be here this morning with you. Great, great. It's been a pleasure getting to know you over the past year and understanding the work, the meaningful work you've been doing. Not just now, your current company, but in your future journey and your past journey here. So, want to kick it off for our audience just to get to know you a little bit better here. So, Carlos, would you mind sharing just a little bit about your journey in the energy industry and how you got here and maybe a little bit also about some of the things you did before entering the energy industry? Sure. So, my journey, Jason, into the energy industry began more than a decade ago. For me, it was probably sparked by a curiosity of how the energy and utility space worked. I really became fascinated just in general how it worked, the cost factors and how they were determined. And most importantly, how the system operates, right? When you start thinking about the utility space, it's just so complex in many ways. But when you start thinking about the small towns and the major cities that the utilities plays a key role, you know, I do remember driving down I-70 in Kansas City on my way to work. And I started looking around a lot of utility polls and wondering how does all this electricity really impact people, homes work, right? And sometimes you have to take a step back and really just appreciate all the amazing things that happened, right? So, that curiosity stayed with me throughout my career. And, you know, throughout it, you know, whether it was at Hallmark or whether it was at Honeywell, and most recently a nice source for me, it's been a journey where the utility space for some form or shape does play a key role into everything that we do in today's society. So, for me, once I began to understand how it really works, how it became more fascinated with the overall impact that I want to make in this space and in the role that I played in the last couple of years. So now in this new journey with Mitura, and can you tell us a little bit more about one, Mitura, who you guys are, what you guys do and the story behind a really why you wanted to step in and start this new venture? Yeah, so Mitura LLC is basically also started with the same curiosity and purpose, right? I began as an opportunity for Mitura to start thinking and bringing that strategic thinking that I've been working on for the last decade in organizations and bringing that meaningful value to people to organizations with really, for me, the focus is on helping people, helping leaders become stronger, better, more effective, not only in the early stages of their career, but throughout the longevity of their careers. I think it's so important that we're there helping build and workforce of the future. And so for me, anything that Mitura can do from the strategic piece of professional development, employee resource group training, I find all those elements critical for bringing the value proposition to any organization. But I also do want to point out that as I was reflecting on what I wanted to do after my previous role, I set around one afternoon and I found myself reflecting on just a really simple element of just how do I bring that power of knowledge that I've acquired in the last few years and bring that to most supporting leaders and people. So if I can do that with Mitura, then I can certainly continue on my journey and helping leaders become better people, better leaders, and most importantly, empowering leaders to do what's right in their organizations and drive that innovation and growth. Well, it's certainly a time where leadership is needed more than ever and the visibility of leadership and not just being out there and talking with their customers and their staff and community, the heightened importance of that as we've talked many times is highly critical. So Mitura can help them lead and guide them through this through their own journey that you're spot on and we're excited to have you continue to do your work in the energy industry as we get to talk to leaders over the course of the year and we constantly hear the challenges they have with not just retaining employees keeping them encouraged, especially in the current environment. So we're really excited that you're getting to bring that to a broader group in the industry and looking forward to seeing what you guys continue to do in the future as well as we head into 2026. Want to back up a little bit, obviously we both share a Latino heritage and it's it's both important in a part of who we are as people, but it's also reflected in our in our career journeys as well. Can you share a little bit how that has shaped your own career journey. Yeah, you know, coming from El Salvador to the US at the age of nine, I would say that one extremely blessed to be in the US to extremely proud of my culture and my heritage. And I think it's always been part of my DNA of who I am, but it took me a while to really embrace it and I would say probably earlier my career. As a presidential pointy at the White House is really where I started really embracing the overall culture that I owned and and how do I begin to leverage it to benefit me in my professional career, but I'll also be proud of it right and. And so I attribute a lot of my my heritage and my culture to my mother who who is still really what I would call the humility factor, the servant leadership type. But most importantly, I think what I require from her is just that resilience of never giving up and continuing to fight for the opportunities, fight for my own beliefs, fight for what I think is the right thing to do. And always, you know, wake up in the morning with that passion to do what's right for the organization right for me and most importantly, right for the people that I lead and have the privilege of leading throughout my career. So I think the cultures play a key role in anything that we do from a from a background perspective, especially for me, from that humble upbringing of just, you know, really, and I call humble humble upbringing. Thank you. Thank you. And for four, we jump into a little bit more of the industry part of the podcast. Maybe if you don't mind sharing just a little bit about do you have daughter's sons and they're located there near you or where they are there. Sure. So I'm proud father of three kids, you know, my oldest lives in Chicago, my daughter recently moved out to San Francisco, the joint organization out there. And then I still have a senior in college at Ball State. So proud of the fact that I've been fortunate enough to, you know, to lead my family. But as you will know, the backbone of any organization in any family is a female. So I'm proud to tell you that, you know, my CEO in the house is my wife, who we've been married for 30 years. And I would say that the success that I've had and the success that we continue to have is partly from her who not only shapes the house, but also serves as a good mentor counselor and everything that I do professionally and personally. Well, sounds good. And I have five kids myself and it can't agree more in terms of like my wife and the mother of the household is the glue and in the true, the true champion. But if I could ask all of the other three children there, do you see yourself a lot in all of them or is there one you think might may sort of mirror some of the things you in your journey as you grew up it and maybe from a career perspective as well. You know, all three kids have their own skill sets and their uniqueness, right? And, you know, my oldest is very analytical, very strategic. My daughter is my go getter, you know, without the fear of anything, their resilience. And then my young one is the methodical one who is sitting there analyzing, observing. So all of them have amazing traits. I probably when I reflect and look at all three, I would say that I look a lot. I mean, I see myself and in my daughter quite a bit that just that positivity, the energy that resilience. Sometimes I think it's when I was young, I see the overconfident come out quite a bit. And so, but in general, I tell her that, you know, just keep doing what you're doing and so many similarities when I was starting my career as well. Well, thanks. Thanks for sharing that. I'm sure they're wonderful and very proud, proud of both you and your wife and and thanks for sharing a little bit more about that Carlos, but let's get back to the industry, the things and the challenges you get to work with and help executive solve every day. Just starting out like you get to talk to a lot of executives that you've got to know several across a different organizations do you work with, but within the utility industry when it comes to executives, what, what do you see them getting wrong when we talk about building a winning team or culture. Yeah, it's a great question. I think in general, we all strive to put in place the best teams. I think that's priority number one, no matter what function or department you're in, but I would say probably one of the toughest parts is in the utility energy industry is that we, we have a tendency to hire people that just look like us. And so when you're thinking of building winning teams and cultures, I think we also need to challenge ourselves to say, how do we go about and look at people outside other industries that can bring a different perspective. A different point of view on processes, improvements, really to help us really understand our customers, do a better job of reaching the customers and providing that service that we're striving for. So I would say that that's probably one of the biggest challenges that I see. And at the same time when you start thinking about how do you create a truly high performing team, I do think that we need to embrace the variety of diversity out there. And the more that our teams become diverse, the more that we're going to thrive, the more inclusive they become. And that's where I think the opportunity to rise for a lot of not just leaders, but also organizations in general. Now, looking at this from a different perspective too, because you've got to dissect and work with many types of teams here, there's this idea of blind spots, especially being so busy, being highly curated. And we have to be correct and be careful of everything we say, especially public facing and sometimes internally wanted to bring up this idea of blind spots. And what do you see some of those general blind spots executive struggle with when it comes to organizational alignment, particularly in this case, when we're working with our different HR teams or HR leaders or departments. Well, I think everyone, all of us have right those blind spots and some form of another. I would say that too often, I think, you know, leaders, companies, I think one of the challenges and the things that I see is that we look in work too closely. So when we're hiring people who have only worked in the energy sector, I think sometimes we get caught up in that that's like the, the know it all right. But when you start thinking about how do I bring in different perspectives into my team, I would say that the industry experience is valuable, right. It's real helps us drive innovation, but at the same time, when you start bringing folks with different categories, I think what you start bringing is a different fresh perspective, right. The perspective that I mentioned earlier about processes, efficiencies and the ways of working together to do what's right for the organization. And I would say that also in the utility world, I think, you know, when you start really believing that you've got to figure out, I would say that that's when you got to go back to the drawing board and start also looking at and say, OK, what do I need to do differently now to, you know, to ensure that we are driving not only just reducing the cost factor, but at the same time, bring in the utilities or the electricity, energy gas, whatever it might be. To homes and businesses. So I do believe that if we can eliminate our blind spots, it can certainly help us deliver better outcomes for our customer and our shareholders within organizations. Thank you. Thanks for that. No, no turning to the topic that's on everyone's mind or technology tools, whether it's whether it's AI or on the other side storage, whatever it might be. There's so many things we get to look at, examine and work with here in the, in the utility space. So you've been around and you've got to see how this applies to different parts of the organization. So which, which types of technology tools are you excited about specifically going into 2026. So I think all of us have worked in corporations that they were all, you know, privileged to work with such amazing, you know, internal tools and all the technology that's out there. I think for me, the one that I've seen to embrace and, you know, seen the technology growth throughout my career. I would say that they want to really fascinate me as AI. Not just because I think it replaces people, but I also think it helps us think and challenge ourselves a little bit differently, right? And it helps to find those efficiencies that helps us think about processes that helps us challenge our ways of looking at things. I think AI, if it's used correctly, I think it's going to help us move the needle quicker on many things. I think it's also going to help us sharpen our skills and refine those ideas that we're thinking about. And I think if people can get away from the belief that it's going to replace me. I think you will realize that it's not just going to help you grow, but I also think it's going to help you become more productive and become a better person and a better leader as you continue to work and collaborate with people within your organizations. Yeah, well said, well said, and a lot of the perspective on AI and how you take it to really being a part of our growth versus looking at it in this A or B type of way, these outcomes that don't include one of the other where there's this, there's a synergy between people workforce and executives and how we embrace that there. And sometimes we're the headlines drive us to having these opposing views of it and actually leads us right into one of the exciting parts of this conversation that I always look forward to in these conversations and that's our hot take section. And Carlos, if you're okay with it, we're going to run down a few key topics here and really wish want to get your rapid response to them here. Are you okay with that? Yes, that was good. Sounds good. Perfect. All right, well, we'll start off with with one you just mentioned. So we'll write off the top AI embracing diversity on it affordability needed across the board work from home flexible. 2026 will be the year of. I would say both a combination of personal growth and just growth in general. Failure. Every day, every day. And this one, what's one of your favorite quotes here? So there's a book by David Moranis who wrote about Vince Lombardi and for me, it's the one that kind of, you know, to the previous one about failure. I think it's not whether you get knocked down. It's whether you get up. And that to me has kind of been my mantra. It's, you know, you can certainly go down quickly, but you also got to get up very quickly. And in these times, I think in general, all of us. Need to look within ourselves to say what can I do differently to get up and shake it off right as a new year begins. Yeah, yeah, that's that's definitely up there in terms of with the motivation factor, especially as a journey as a leader, a journey as an owner, especially when you venture. I think that that mentality just really fits into all the good stuff that you've been talking about here the past 15 minutes in this conversation. So really, really strong quote there and thank you for sharing that and can't, can't leave out that ETS 26 is coming up in April. And we're excited to have you back Carlos and our theme this year is hack the planet where we're really taking a look at. Just new ways or new approaches that help us get to the places we want to go within this grid transformation journey faster, maybe let more less expensive or just maybe doing things completely differently. So I wanted to see if you had a story of yours to share or a lesson when it comes to changing or trying something different or to use our award right hack where you've seen a transformation or how you get to a transformation. And what do we need to be what advice do you have for us so we can have those types of moments? Well, if you if you use the philosophy of constantly challenging your teams of getting better, driving change, whether it's cultural, whether it's, you know, digital, whatever the case might be, I think also I would encourage all of us to think about. How do we also continue to grow within ourselves right and I think it's. As we move up organizations, we are getting professional development, you know, to help us, whether it's improve our communication, work on power points, whatever the case may be, but I would also challenge leaders that as we continue to grow, it's we're going to also have to change our ourselves to do a better job of leading our people. Creating that space where we empower people and we bring out the best in people and I think as we think about our personal growth for the new year, I would also say and challenge leaders to say what can we do differently to grow ourselves and. And if you take the analogy of sports, right, you got to kind of practice every single day to get better and in the business where I would say it's also the same thing, you got to continue to practice yourself practice to make sure that you're you're becoming a better leader and help those around you make you better and let the people that you lead embrace them and support them, but at the same time learn from them and grow with them. Thank you, thank you, Carlos, I appreciate you coming on, this has been a fascinating conversation and we'll get to dive more into this in April to and hopefully those to audience listening Carlos, once once again, congratulations on a new journey with mentors are very exciting to have you again doing this work, but also where working people find you at that want to reach and get in touch with you. You can find me a LinkedIn or you can also go to mentora advisers.com and you can find me there and you know happy to connect with anyone anytime and here to support not just people, but also organizations bring at the best in people and Jason, I appreciate you and your organization and bring me on board. I think it's a great opportunity to continue to demonstrate the value that organizations like you continue to bring to organizations that are striving to develop their people, so excited to be a part of the ETS 26 again. Thank you, Carlos, our pleasure, I'm always excited to speak with you always learn something and as a leader, I think in this conversation what resonates is something that we always get stopped. We're so busy going forward, but we have to and sometimes we have success, but it's always important to just reset and reflect on how can we get better and what am I missing in this conversation was a good example of how you continue to bring that to just an everyday conversation, but also the impact you have when you're working with your different partners and stakeholders at mentora. So, can't thank you enough for letting us kick off the year with this conversation. Very excited again to see the work you continue to do. Great to be reconnecting in April, but Carlos, do you have an amazing 2026? Thank you again for being on the first episode of Z-Pribe on the grid in 2026. Thank you everyone, you guys have a great day. Thank you.