In a Forest Full of Energy Leaders, How Do You Stand Out?
Most meetings? Unremarkable.
Most resumes? Forgettable.
Most leaders? Replaceable.
Most LinkedIn posts? Unbearable.
Agree?
Then check out this Arbor Day episode of The Energy Detox that challenges you to follow the path of differentiated energy leaders who stand out in a forest of mediocre managers by continually asking:
"How can we make this the best ____________ ever?"
RELATED CONTENT
“Only YOU Can Prevent Corporate Wildfires” (Episode 80)
In this June 2023 episode of The Energy Detox, which was also recorded at Deer Lakes park above the Marcellus wells drilled by Range Resources, you’ll learn how to prevent (corporate) wildfires by following these 4 Smokey-inspired leadership tips:
1 - Speak the same language as your audience, NOT in easily dismissed or ignored talking points. For example, when speaking to an environmentalist about headlines linking fossil fuels and Canadian forest fires, acknowledge their disappointment regarding the millions of acres of lost trees...and calmly point out that you'd need to burn 3-4 million acres of forests per year to generate the same amount of energy the United States produces from natural gas.
And when trying to convince a high-potential job candidate that early career, in-person work is more beneficial than remote work, calculate and present the potential increase in LIFETIME earnings; and make the value of this investment crystal clear.
2 - Manage excessive "fuel loads" in your team. Regularly clear out rumors, uncertainties, and unresolved issues that may be causing stress or confusion.
3 - Ensure effective "fire suppression" by giving people the space they need to execute, clearly defining roles and responsibilities, and avoiding micromanagement.
4 - Eliminate the "diseases and insects" leading to large areas of dead and dying wood. Actively remove any toxic or unproductive elements causing decay or harm.
How can you be seen as a differentiated commodity?
Transcript
(AI training in progress; please excuse any errors)
Did you know that you would have to burn over 1 million trees to equal the same amount of energy produced by a single Marcellus well over the course of its life?
Well, whether you did or did not know that, fun fact, there is no better day than today, Arbor Day, to share it with somebody else. Because, well, as we stand here on Arbor Day at the end of Earth Week, in the midst of Earth Month, well, there's plenty of excuses to remind ourselves of how impactful natural gas has been for the planet, and in particular, for trees. And so again today, remind yourself and remind others of how many trees have been saved essentially by the development of natural gas.
00:43
But as you might expect here on The Energy Detox, we're not just going to stop with a fun fact. Instead, we're going to weave that into a brief energy leadership conversation that you can use to be a more impactful leader in this industry. But that tie in does have something to do with trees, because we're going to remind you that there is one simple tool out there that is underutilized, even though we've talked about it a number of times here on The Energy Detox, but it's that one tool that can truly help you stand out among a forest of other leaders. And that simple tool is to ask yourself, Hey, how can I be one IN a million instead of one OF a million?
01:22
How can I stand out and truly be the best at what I do? And that simple superlative question, if you will, is one that is often not asked by others for a number of reasons, at least reasons that I observe, the first of which is mere humility. It takes some effort for a lot of people, including myself, to say, all right, Am I really that special? Which, again, the point of this question is not to determine whether you are or aren't special. It's to ask that question, well, what can I do? What actions can I take to stand out among a forest of others? And so today, the simple request for you is to do that, not just for yourself, although if you happen to be in career transition, that is very much the exercise that I encourage you to do. But even if you're just going through your normal day with your normal job or your normal personal activities, ask yourself, well, how can I make this the best day ever? How can I make this the day that is truly one IN a million? How can I make this meeting that's coming up the best meeting ever? How can I make this job interview the best one ever? How can I make this dinner the best one ever? Or, if you're like me, you got a baseball game that you're attending for one of your children tonight. How can that baseball game be the best one ever for that child? All of those questions all come back to the same individual premise, which is, there are activities you could do to at least get closer to being one IN a million and not one OF a million.
02:43
So that's it today in terms of the message and the leadership lesson and most importantly, the action that I'm encouraging you to take. But it's not it in terms of at least hammering home this advocacy theme, if you will, around that fun fact of having to burn a million trees to equal the same amount of energy of one Marcellus well, because this episode that I'm recording is right here in Allegheny County, at a county park called Deer Lakes. And underneath this park, almost 10 years ago, Range Resources drilled several wells, and the significance of that is well multi fold, the first of which is if you were asking yourself 10 years ago, well, how can we make this park the best Park ever, one in a million Park. Well, if you ask my kids, you'd say, well, we put in a splash pad, we'd have new playground equipment, and you'd have a slush fund available to help upkeep all of that equipment. And Well, lo and behold, when Range drilled those wells, it led to millions of dollars being dedicated to this park and to other Allegheny County Parks, but millions of dollars earmarked for this park to put in new equipment, to put in that splash pad that's over my shoulder there. And again, a direct answer to the question of, well, you know, how could you make this park the best Park ever? Well, natural gas helped deliver that. And the second reason I chose to come here today to record this Arbor Day episode is because this park is almost 1200 acres, which means there's several 100,000 trees here that, again, even if you burned them all, you would still not generate the same amount of energy as one of the Marcellus wells that is running underneath this park.
04:13
So with those fun facts in mind, with the idea of you yourself standing out as one tree, if you will, among a forest of a million other trees, ask yourself, what can you do today to make this the best day ever? What activities are you undertaking today that you can make the best ever? What conversations are you having throughout the day that you can make the best ever? And as I sign off from this podcast, that as always, I try to make the best ever, remind you that you're not always going to heck whatever activity you have be the best ever. But that isn't an excuse to not try.
04:50
The difference between sustainable leaders, inspiring leaders, effective leaders is the ones who continually ask that question, hey, what actions can we take to make this end? Ever. This company, this event, the best ever. What can we do to make this operation the safest ever? What can we do to make this investment the most successful transition or merger or acquisition ever? That superlative question to get people thinking in a way that moves beyond complacency, beyond mediocrity is a prime example of the conscious leadership that we bring to you each and every episode here on the energy detox. So with that, whether or not this was indeed the best episode ever, I appreciate you tuning in, and I look forward to you joining right here next time on The Energy Detox.