LaRhonda Julien of Georgia Transmission Corporation

In high-risk industries, success depends not only on technical expertise but on the ability of leaders to build, guide, and sustain teams that perform effectively under pressure. The successful leader in environments characterized by uncertainty and elevated consequences extends their role beyond task execution to include the cultivation of psychological safety, team cohesion, and adaptive capacity.

This presentation explores the core principles of leading high-performing teams in contexts where safety, precision, and collaboration are non-negotiable. Participants will gain insights into techniques for strengthening communication, reducing error potential, and aligning teams around safety-critical objectives while maintaining operational efficiency. Human performance frameworks will be used to illustrate how effective strategies transform potential vulnerabilities into strengths, driving both safety and performance outcomes.

Key topics include:

• The role of trust and psychological safety in high-pressure team dynamics
• Practical application of human performance tools to mitigate risks
• Leadership behaviors that promote resilience and adaptability under stress

By focusing on the human element of high-risk work, this session empowers leaders to develop teams that not only withstand pressure—but thrive because of it.

Biography:

LaRhonda Julien is the Inspection Performance Specialist for the Construction Inspection department at Georgia Transmission Corporation – a not-for-profit utility company that connects power plants to local electric member cooperatives by planning, designing, building, and maintaining the high-voltage power grid infrastructure throughout Georgia.  Her major duties involve human and organizational performance improvement, overseeing business continuity and change management processes, knowledge transfer, and strategic planning for capital construction projects and environmental protection activities.  She chairs the company’s Human Performance Strategic Team.

LaRhonda earned a Bachelor of Science in Industrial-Organizational Psychology with a minor in Business Management and Master of Science in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from the University of Phoenix.  She received a Lean Six Sigma green belt from the University of Georgia.  She is a Herrmann HBDI Certified Practitioner. 

LaRhonda has professional memberships with the American Psychological Association (APA), APA’s Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, the Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineers (Eta Kappa Nu, Senior Member; Region 3 Project Coordinator; Mentoring Program Mentor, Power and Energy Society Atlanta Chapter Vice Chair; Sustainable Energy Systems for Developing Communities Working Group, Electrification of Native Lands Task Force Chair; International Smart Village North American Regional Committee Member), CIGRE, the International Erosion Control Association, the Women’s International Network of Utility Professionals, and the American Society of Safety Professionals (Mentoring Program Mentor).  She also serves as a member of the North American Transmission Forum’s Human Performance Core Team, she is a team lead for the Department of Energy Human Performance Improvement Handbook rewrite, and she is on the Industry Advisory Board for Kennesaw State University’s Department of Robotics and Mechatronics Engineering and Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.  She is an inducted member of the National Society of Leadership Success. 

LaRhonda has presented for many organizations via conferences, webinars, and on-site events and she has been featured on podcasts and in magazines and blog spaces discussing how to employ the tools and techniques related to Human and Organizational Performance to manage risk and achieve desired results. 

LaRhonda lives in Atlanta.  She is an avid runner, assistant golf coach, and an ambassador for local non-profits.