Committed to Culture

NRG’s Culture in Focus series highlights our unique workplace culture via conversations with some of the company’s most influential figures. Our 18,000 teammates across North America bring a wide range of skillsets, values, and behaviors, but the ultimate mission stays the same – serve our 8 million customers with pride each day.

The next installment of our Culture in Focus series spotlights Executive Vice President of NRG Business, Rob Gaudette.

Katy, Texas native. Army veteran. Girl dad of two. Rob Gaudette knew from early in his adult life that leadership had to be a big part of his future.

After his time in the Army and business school, Rob started his civilian career as a trader in Atlanta, and though it delivered excitement and challenges, he missed the leadership aspect of the military.

After he was named Chief Commercial Officer of GenOn, Rob and his family returned to Houston where he was actively involved in trading, but also had the opportunity to lead the entire commercial team.

As a leader, Rob has leaned into many of the lessons he took from the Army and has used those to help shape the culture of NRG today.

Fewer silos. More collaboration. Teamwork. More winning.

Rob believes it’s these key ingredients that drive a top-notch, united culture, one that will lead NRG to even more success in the future.

When it comes to answering the question, “What sets NRG’s culture apart?” Rob believes it’s the strong sense of pride each of our team members has toward their roles, toward their teams, and toward our company.

“There is pride in the business and pride in what those people do and the teams that they work on. And that pride ultimately drives better outcomes, but it’s a better place to be, right? You want to be somewhere where everybody’s excited about being there.”

Rob then went on to describe his experiences when visiting different departments in locations across the country and the unified feeling he gets when he’s there:

“If I take you to a power plant, you’d feel it the second you walk on. The trading floor, you know you’re on the trading floor. Or if you go talk to some of the professionals on the retail team here, they’re proud of their company, their brand, whatever it is that they work on. And that pride permeates across NRG. I think there’s lots of people who have pride working at this company.”

In the military, Rob experienced firsthand that working for the person beside you is the only thing that matters. He believes the same is true during difficult moments on the corporate side where people work together to solve a problem and are not focused on personal gain.

“It’s the team concept. Everybody wins or loses together and that often gets lost in the corporate world.”

He went on to highlight just how important his team is to him personally and to our company’s success:

“I have a team of really incredible people and my job is to make them better every day. I love my job. I love my team … I love this company, because I think we do great work, even when things are tough, we manage to get through it.”

For Rob, being a good leader means being a good listener and having the ability to look around a corner and see what might happen next. And when it comes to shaping culture, leaders must be able to set a standard that is consistent with where the company is trying to go.

“You figure out what makes somebody tick and you look across the company and you line that opportunity up with that human and all of the sudden you’ve got a winning solution for the company and for the employee.”

According to Rob, most leaders do well in this regard, but to get to the next level, the PhD level of company culture, you need to understand how OTHER departments are adding value to the company. He explained:

“If you’re very myopic and only think about your little part of the world, and you and I don’t work together, well, we’re going to have two really great parts of the world, but we’re not going to solve the ultimate answer.”

So, if you’re a job-seeking professional open to opportunities, why should you consider joining the team at NRG? For starters, the energy industry is on the upswing, and NRG is a company at the forefront of the energy evolution, ready to take off with it.

And last, but certainly not least, any smart free agent should look at the team he or she will join at their next stop. This is where Rob believes NRG really separates itself from the pack.

“You need to think about the 18,000 people that you’re going to join because those people will make or break your career. And I’ve been here for 23 years. I have learned everything that I ever needed to learn in this industry from these people. And that’s at the end of the day, what you should be looking for is: Can you learn? Are you going to get challenged?

And the answer is yes, and yes, at NRG.”

Want to connect with Rob? Visit his LinkedIn here.

Interested in learning more about our workplace culture? Read previous installments of our Culture in Focus series here.