5 Leadership Lessons for Tradies from Wind Energy Sales Manager Chris Hale

Guest: Chris Hale

Episode: Season 1, Episode 7

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Chris Hale came up through sport and coaching before landing his first leadership role at just 18, managing a call centre team up to three times his age. He's since built a career in the wind energy industry.

This is what he learned about leadership when leading people with more years of experience.

Lesson 1: Leading A Team More Experienced than You

Chris was just 18 when he first found himself managing a call centre team ranging in age up to 60, a genuine eye-opener after being thrust into leadership early.

Rather than lean on the authority of his title, which he sensed wouldn't land well with people old enough to be his parents, he tried to put himself in their shoes and deliver instruction in a way that would actually resonate.

"I tried to make sure that I delivered my content in a way that would resonate with them," Chris says. "You don't have to see me as your manager, just see me as someone who's here to help you do your role better."

Lesson 2: Lead From the Front, Every Time

Chris credits much of his leadership philosophy to his own boss at Skylar Education, who taught him never to ask anyone to do something he wouldn't do himself.

In practice, that means Chris is genuinely first to put his hand up for the unglamorous jobs. If someone calls out that there's a spill downstairs and a mop is needed, he's the one grabbing it.

"No one's bigger than anybody else," he says. He believes that visible willingness has a flow-on effect: when the person at the top is seen mopping floors without a second thought, the rest of the team is far more likely to jump in themselves when something needs doing.

Lesson 3: Why Safety Training Matters in High-Risk Trades

The wind industry roles Chris trains people for are genuinely high-stakes: blade technicians working over 100 metres in the air, often in remote locations far from any emergency services.

That distance from help is exactly why Skylar's safety training leads the way, and goes well beyond a tick-box exercise.

"Our training is vital," Chris says. "Somebody will have the skills to either save themselves or save their workmate."

He describes the atmosphere in Skylar's training rooms as noticeably different from a typical compliance course. Participants are engaged and hands-on, because everyone in the room understands exactly what's riding on getting it right.

Lesson 4: Supporting Women in Clean Energy

Chris has watched the wind industry shift meaningfully on inclusion in recent years. Sites now offer dual-gender sleeping arrangements and toilet facilities where a shared portaloo was once the norm, and clients increasingly have women in site manager roles.

What impresses him most is how Skylar's male trainees have learned to offer help rather than take over.

"We'll invite you to participate and be involved in this... but you've got to ask for us to give you a hand. We're not just gonna automatically do it," he says.

He recalls a nervous first-week technician, encouraged by a roomful of men she’d never met, to climb the ladder and have a go herself.

Lesson 5: Leadership Lessons from Sport

Chris has played almost every sport going (cricket, soccer, footy, basketball, and now a casual golf habit) and says the parallels between captaining a team and leading a workplace have shaped him more than any formal training.

"To be a leader in sport is you're a leader of people who are pushing for the same common goal," Chris says. "In the workplace, for us, it's exactly the same."

He still leans on sporting analogies constantly at work, enough that his team occasionally rolls their eyes at him for it, but he maintains the comparison holds regardless of the field.

Chris’s Advice on Everyday Leadership

Chris keeps it simple: "The main thing is attitude. Just having the right attitude. Not being negative, not being overly positive, just have the right attitude, and be an advocate."

He doesn't think leadership requires grand gestures, just consistency in how you show up, day to day.

Catch the full conversation with Chris Hale on Tradies Who Lead for more leadership lessons for tradies, out now wherever you listen to podcasts.