Downtime with Monica Enand

What are you reading?

I have a book club with a bunch of great women that I met through a group of executive women involved with the Freshwater Trust. Our current book is All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr.

What are you watching?

This past weekend I watched King Richard, which is about Venus and Serena Williams and their family. It was amazing and super inspirational. It made me think a lot about how important consistency and persistence are to achieving hard things.

What is your 
must-have gadget?

I have a $10 milk frother that I bought on Amazon that I use to make tea lattes in the afternoon. Ever since I started working at home during COVID, this feels like a real treat.

What are your hobbies/interests?

I have really gotten into playing pickleball lately! It is super fun and the first sport I really love playing. I think about the game and how I can improve pretty often. I am also a bridge player.

What was your childhood or earliest ambition?

I think leadership has always been something I felt drawn to. I don’t think I had very specific ambitions, but I have always had this nagging urge to lead teams of people to do things they feel passionate about and to learn to work well together to accomplish them.

What is your biggest extravagance?

As my career started putting me in situations where I would be speaking in front of groups of people, I started to work with someone who helps me plan my outfits and wardrobe. I hate shopping and I am terrible at fashion, so it is a huge thing for me to have someone who is amazing at style to support me: Susie Wright, who worked for Nordstrom for a long time and now has a blog called So Susie. I don’t know if I can live without her, and I think she would be invaluable for all professional women.

What motivates you to come to work?

People. I love seeing people grow and thrive and do things they never thought they could. I am currently doing things I never thought were possible in my wildest dreams, and it never gets old seeing other people have that experience.

Who is your professional role model?

I am lucky to have had many people to mentor me and be a role model to me. Most recently, I have been so inspired by a woman named Malia Wasson, who is the chair of the board of NW Natural Gas. Her leadership style is incredibly special. She is crazy competent, having been the former president of US Bank in our area, spent much of her talents and energy being involved in our community, and served on many large company boards. Our community here in Oregon is very lucky to have her. She has taught me a lot about being a public company board director and, more important, how to lead bravely and authentically.

What ambitions do you still have?

I am really lucky to be at a stage in my life where I feel incredibly comfortable in my own skin. This is a fairly recent development for me (I just recently celebrated my 50th birthday). Once I realized I have the luxury of feeling this way, I have been focused on the inputs of a great life. I make sure I exercise, eat well, spend time with my loving family and supportive friends, read, self-reflect, get fresh air.

This doesn’t mean I don’t expect great things from the rest of my time on this earth, it just means that I focus on the inputs of a great life as opposed to any one specific ambition.

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