Have you unwittingly become a "Keep it in the Ground" leader?
With winter fast approaching and home heating costs rising, one might forgive leaders like Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts for expressing concerns about the potential impact of LNG exports on domestic natural gas prices, as she did in letters she sent to some of the top natural gas producers in the U.S. last week.
However, as industry leaders from the Marcellus Shale Coalition, the Gas & Oil Association of WV, and the Ohio O&G Association correctly pointed out in a response to Sen. Warren yesterday, her understanding of our industry and the role of exports is misguided at best...and completely counter to our nation's best interests at worst.
All that being said, today's live episode of The Energy Detox will use Sen. Warren's misinformed take on energy to help you identify areas of your professional and personal life where you're unwittingly defaulting to a "keep it in the ground" mentality and unnecessarily hoarding resources that could be used to better your team, your organization, your community, your country, your world...and yourself.
The headline: Appalachian shale industry leaders blast Warren's letter (by Paul J. Gough of the Pittsburgh Business Times)
The goal: to (𝐆)𝐫𝐨𝐰, (𝐏)𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 (𝐒)𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧 success by pondering these 3 questions throughout your day:
💡 In what areas your hoarding tendencies preventing you and your stakeholders from making progress toward your (stated) goals?
💡 What figurative "plastic covered living room furniture" are you afraid to sit on?
💡 How on guard should you be against the threat of being "too generous" with your precious resources?
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Transcript
(AI training in progress; please excuse any errors)
Hello and welcome to another Live episode of the energy detox a petroleum based blend of leadership conversations guaranteed to boost your professional and personal output by flushing away the hidden and often toxic barriers to peak performance. I'm your host, Joe Sinnott, a chemical engineer, executive coach, and 16 year energy industry veteran helping you tap into the same resources fueling today's most successful and sustainable leaders. And today, we're going to talk about how many of those leaders exercise generosity, how they give freely of their time of their energy of their resources, in a way to help themselves and all of their stakeholders grow and move forward. And to help drive this conversation, we're going to turn to a counter example of that from Senator Warren of Massachusetts who recently sent a letter to several of the top US Natural Gas Producers, expressing concerns about their generosity, if you will, and and more specifically about their desire and their history of supporting LNG exports, exporting their product around the world in a way to want of course, bring in revenue and generate profits, but also support the need for clean, reliable, abundant, affordable natural gas for our allies around the world who need this product. And while it's understandable to look at Senator Warren and say, All right, well, you know, we should be having our our nation's interests front and center. First and foremost, we shouldn't be worrying about protecting American citizens and protecting their pocketbooks and protecting their access to domestic energy. And again, on its surface. I agree with that. I think you know, an America First approach while you know, saying America first can be a trigger for some people, the reality is that is a good default position to have, we should be thinking about how to best use our resources to first and foremost, protect ourselves and protect our country. But at the same time, we need to ask whether or not the approach and the mindset that someone like Senator Warren has is short sighted. And as several industry leaders pointed out yesterday, in a letter to Senator Warren, her view is short sighted her view is if nothing else, incomplete, it doesn't represent a full understanding of how the energy industry works. And quite frankly, it doesn't represent or at least it ignores a fundamental understanding of why natural gas prices in her part of the world in the northeastern United States are sky high. And of course, the number one reason for that is infrastructure. It's because of a desire by her and others in her in her sphere of influence, if you will, and her those who share her mindset. It's a desire by them to remove progress towards the domestic production of natural gas that could result in lower prices as it has here in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, we have enjoyed billions of dollars in savings as a Commonwealth as a state because of domestic natural gas production and access to that gas. Whereas again, as the letter points out to Senator Warren, part of the reason that her gas prices are so high in her neck of the woods is because they are relying on foreign natural gas on foreign exports, in some cases from Russia to come all the way overseas to supply her constituents with the energy that's needed to heat their homes and
03:37
cook their food etc. And so today, we're going to take some lessons from this back and forth between Senator Warren and our United States, domestic natural gas production industry, if you will. And we're going to take some of those lessons to help you recognize times where you are showing a perhaps short sighted view of the resources you have, and perhaps the view that you have limited resources that you don't want to share with others that you don't want to give others access to, because in some way, shape or form is going to limit your ability to move forward, it's going to limit your ability to to profitably and successfully achieved results, because again, as Senator Warren showed, and more importantly, as the responses to Senator Warren showed, by exporting and having an infrastructure in place that allows for exports, it doesn't hurt United States citizens it doesn't hurt our pocketbooks. Quite the contrary, it gives us flexibility gives us infrastructure, so that we are more adaptable so that we're not living in some Justin time only produce exactly what we need. And, you know, in a in a basically an inflexible scenario where we can't respond, we can't adapt. And you know, some of the irony, of course goes back to last week as well when United States and under President Biden's administration decided to release some barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Well, having access to those extra hydrocarbons, if you will do Giving the united states the flexibility, at least in their own words is something that can be used to our benefit. And again, as we talked about on Monday of this week in the energy detox, there are some short sighted views there and some incomplete views of of the fundamentals behind energy that that we won't rehash today. But at the end of the day, having an infrastructure in place, and being able to export a product that we have absolutely no shortage of, is ridiculous, right, we should be able to have exportation options, because they in turn, as these letters point out, help us. So again, coming back to you, in what ways are you in your professional and personal life, having a mindset where we have a finite resource, and we are unable to, to commit to giving that resource to others or allowing others access to it even for a price. And I see this all the time in the world of coaching, particularly around talent. In so many companies right now who are worried about the outflow of talents, or the organization's or other industries, there is a natural tendency to hoard talent to overly protect the talent that you have under your roof. And in many cases, there are unintended consequences, you're not going to fool the people who have other options to go elsewhere, like simply trying to hold on to them, and in turn, hold them back, because that's what happens, and might be the best of intentions, right? You want to hold on to your precious resources, whether they're molecules that can, again, provide energy to people or whether they're individuals with certain talents. It's a natural tendency. And again, as we head into winter here, you can look outside, you can watch the squirrels were burying all of their acorns, right? It's, it's natural for you to say, hey, look, there's some tough times coming here, it's gonna get cold, we're not going to have access to these things. So let's, let's gather what we can, let's bury what we can, let's try to hold on to it. But the reality is this mindset, whether we're talking about energy policy, whether we're talking about talent within an organization are quite frankly, whether we're talking about the time and energy that you devote to your community, to your family. The reality is, it's not as finite as you think it is, in many cases. And the reality is, of course, and this is about as cliche as it can get. But the more you give, in many cases, the more you get back. And that's true with energy policy, that's true with creating an infrastructure that allows for the exportation of energy, which in turn leads to more jobs. And I would say more important than those jobs, more flexibility as a nation to adapt and respond and to have some geopolitical influence over our allies or over our enemies, quite frankly, those are all positive things. But if you have a short sighted view, that you have a finite resource, and by allowing other people to have access to it, then you're somehow going to injure yourself and hurt your position. Well, again, you're asking for trouble. So as we've been doing on the energy detox, let's take this theme. Let's take this idea of leaders, whether they're in politics, whether they're in business, or again, whether they're simply in the community, let's take this theme of leaders who unwittingly in some cases inadvertently have this, this protection mentality. And yet, let's use it to help you ask some questions of yourself today that can identify times where you might be tending more towards a hoarder, if you will, then a free giving leader recognizes that investing some of your resources in others can provide tremendous benefits to you and your stakeholders. And that first question today is, in what areas are you expressing hoarding tendencies that are preventing you and your stakeholders from making progress towards your stated goals.
08:24
And again, if you're happen to be watching this broadcast, you'll see that stated is in parentheses, because of course, the stated goals of someone like Senator Warren, of course, is to fight against the impacts of global warming and climate change. And as we know, one of the best ways to do that, of course, is to rely as heavily as possible, at least in the short term on natural gas and to replace many of these high carbon producing high emitting energy sources like the burning of biomass with natural gas. So of course, the stated intention from a, again, from a geopolitical standpoint, and from a from a climate change standpoint, is seemingly at odds with the desire to not give access to people around the world. Access to natural gas, right? So same with you, you have a stated intention, I'm sure again, in a business sense to say grow profits, or to balance your books, or to reduce debt or increase free cash flow, whatever the case might be. And so now you need to work backwards and say, Alright, well, what are some of the things that you're doing to fight against that, and again, I'm sure that list is very long, but let's focus in particular on areas where you're holding on too tightly to resources that you don't need to be holding on to. And those could be something as simple as sharing how you're doing business with some of your peers. And I don't mean this in some sort of, you know, antitrust manner. I'm not talking about divulging intellectual property, but are you open and honest about how you run your business? Are you open and honest about your day to day challenges that you're facing as a leader when you're speaking with other leaders? And if not, why, why are you holding on to that? Now as a coach again, I'm privilege to have conversations and to have the the trust with those who I'm conversing with for them to share their challenges to share what's working well, and you know, what isn't working so well so that we can, again, work toward some sort of solution and keep moving and moving faster and more confidently in a better manner. But when you have opportunities to share your challenges with others, are you holding on to them? Are you are you holding on to them? Because you're afraid that you're going to reveal something positive that might give others a competitive advantage? And if so, how might that be short sighted? How might an extra ounce of collaboration and communication again, all aboveboard, and all you know, without violating any sort of, again, antitrust rules and regulations? How might that lead to better results for you, for your company, for your team for your stakeholders, and again, I've seen this not just in the world of coaching, of course, but in my career in the corporate world, in particular, one manager who was happy to bring people in and show them how we did things, show them how we operated, show them the tools and the tricks and, and the approaches that we took to conduct our business. And I remember he said this repeatedly, you know that he was not afraid to bring them in, because it was much like McDonald's, that was the analogy he would use where he said, McDonald's would come in, and they'd show you all of how things worked. They'll bring you down to the basement of all of their various restaurants. And they'll they'll show you how things work because they weren't afraid, because they knew that you couldn't replicate the culture, you could try to replicate the things that they're doing. But there's these other things in place. There's some of these intangibles that other companies, other competitors simply wouldn't be able to replicate. And by opening up the doors, if you will, if nothing else, McDonald's was confident that if anything, they would glean additional information that people would ask questions that would cause them to think and cause them to operate better and more efficiently. So ask yourself, are you on guard for those opportunities to bring other people in to share openly and freely what it is you do with others, in an attempt to get them more excited to get them more engaged and to in turn, help you stand out. And again, this only works when you believe that you actually have a differentiated project or a differentiated approach or differentiated product or whatever the case might be. And again, as a leader, I hope you have some confidence that you are differentiated, that you're able to bring something to the table that others aren't. So if you have that confidence, and if you have resources in place, and you're willing to open up your your doors and your lines of communication, ask yourself how that might lead to better results, and help get you closer to your stated goals.
12:30
And again, one final note on this, again, bringing it back to the world of coaching that I'm in, I'm happy to share what I do. I'm happy to share the insights, I'm happy to share anonymized insights and tidbits and results from those who I work with, because it's great because I enjoy it. Because at the end of the day, it helps everyone. It helps me talk through these things. It helps me ask better questions, it helps the people that I'm engaged with, ask better questions, instead of just holding on to all of this information, this data, these insights that, again, people can charge for people can write books on people can can sign up people to their master classes for but at the end of the day, a lot of this information is out there, the real value comes for you as an individual leader, and your ability to work with others and to be there in the moment and to be conscious and to make decisions with all of this information. And again, so too in the world of coaching, I don't get paid because I'm I'm here talking and asking new questions and sharing insights from current events and sharing insights from those who, who I work with and the results that other people have achieved. No, I do that freely. Because where I quite frankly, make my money. And where I generate revenue is by these one on one conversations that I have with individuals to help them think more clearly, to pull all of this stuff together in a more efficient way in a much more effective way than perhaps they can because individual leaders, like you, quite frankly, are short on time. In many cases, you're short on energy, you are short on some legitimate resources that you would love to share with others but can't. And what coaching can do, of course, is to help take your fears of, of having limited time, having limited money, having limited energy, and can take those fears and flip it into a place of abundance, if you will, to recognize that look, you do have those resources, but you need to use them as efficiently and effectively as possible. And having someone there to help pull different pieces off the shelf and guide you in that direction is something that I enjoy doing. But it starts with me freely sharing what I can share, which is pretty much everything. And it's freeing, it's enjoyable. It's it's nice not having to worry about having this the short sighted approach that someone like Senator Warren has, who believes in uh, you know, quite frankly in an erroneous way, that we have some sort of limited resource that we need to keep in the ground, and that we shouldn't share and that by doing so could could harm the position of the United States. The law. That being said, let's move on to the second question today, which is, what are the figurative plastic covered living room furniture pieces that you're afraid to sit on? And again, this is a play of course on some of the the question cliched, nice, good living rooms, if you will, that, you know you're not allowed to go in as a kid, you're not allowed to certainly sit on the furniture in some cases, and some families, you know, they might even be covered in plastic, again, just this, this visual representation of someone who has something who has a resource who has a couch or a chair a place to sit, but you're not allowed to sit on it, you're not allowed to enjoy it. And again, this is consistent. And of course, the whole theme from today, which is, what are you holding on to what are you preventing others from having access to that, in turn, could actually run counter to your mission? Because again, if you're talking about a living room, what's the goal, it's to bring people together, it's to enjoy life, it's to enjoy your home. But when you're afraid to go into that room, and only use it on certain circumstances, and only use it on holidays, and you know, don't want to sit on that furniture, because I don't know, for some reason you you want it to be around for the next several decades, whatever the case might be, in many instances, it's obviously completely short sighted and ridiculous. And who cares if that couch gets a little wear and tear or even a stain? It shows that there's life it shows that just people together shows that there's kids running around the house and and again, what is your mission in life? Is it to simply Hoard and hold on to this furniture? Or is it to enjoy life? Is it to be productive is it to allow other people to be productive, which again, bringing this conversation back to exports? That's what LNG exports do. It allows everyone to win. It allows everyone to be productive. And contrary to Senator Warren's expectations, at least if the 11 natural gas producers actually respond to her contrary to what she believes. It's not like we're talking ridiculous profit margins here. There's still infrastructure that needs to be built, there's still supply and demand issues that are going to prevent some sort of artificial, skyrocketing or artificially high margins on export natural gas. The reality is, the market does work. The market does work, just as the letter that was published yesterday points out to Senator Warren market influences with obviously reasonable protections in place for consumers works. And when you take the opposite approach, and you bring things together, and you remove infrastructure, and you remove a an appreciation for domestic energy production, you're going to have unintended consequences, which, again, speak to fear, speak to irrational fear and speak quite frankly, to this idea that we need to hold on to things instead of allowing our resources to help others and to help you know, people enjoy life, much as we should be doing in our living rooms here in the United States and around the world. And finally, moving on to the third question here,
17:27
how long guard? Should you be against the threat of being too generous with your precious resources? Because I said at the outset, on its surface, Senator Warren's concerns do make sense, right? You know, if if we did have a finite amount of resources, and if LNG exports were to, you know, be translated into an unnecessarily high domestic cost of energy, then yes, those would be very real concerns. But of course, those concerns are not completely based in reality, and, and as we've expressed here, over the last 15 minutes or so. But the bigger question for you is, at what point are you being too generous? At what point would it not be in the nation's best interest to have a robust export infrastructure? At what point in your own life, whether it's your personal life or your professional life? Might it make sense to hold on to your talent a little bit more, and to perhaps prevent people from moving up and having more opportunities to move to other companies, you know, in, in, you know, all with the hope of at least in the short term, holding on to them for just a little bit longer? Is there a point where that makes sense? And again, it's an open ended question, I certainly have my my biased answers based on the results that I've seen. And, and again, I'll go ahead and share those. The answer is, there really is no point, at least when it comes to companies and talent, were sharing and giving people opportunities and allowing them to grow and flourish and giving them your time and your energy. So long as you're doing it in a mindful and a conscious way. There really is no point where you should have to be worrying. In fact, if you come at this from a place of abundance, and again, at the risk of sounding more like a life coach who speaks about abundance mindsets, and all that, which is all valid, but bringing it back to just dollars and cents from a business standpoint, from a bottom line standpoint, if you firmly believe that you do have an abundance of talent that's out there. And if you firmly believe in yourself as a leader and what your company has to offer, then you should never be afraid you should never be afraid to have this generosity first approach. And you should never be afraid to ask yourself, hey, if there's any way that you or your fellow leaders or really anyone in the company are exercising some sort of hoarding mentality, some sorting approach where you're you're simply squirreling away acorns and resources. And if anybody's doing that stop, everybody should have permission to call people out. Just as from a safety standpoint, people have permission to call out incidents where they think somebody something is unsafe and somebody could get harmed or injured or there could be an environmental release. People should have the same authority within your organs. to call out people when it seems like they're simply burying ideas, they're burying resources, they're holding on to the things. They're saying, hey, you know what, let's wait. Let's wait until a rainy day to use this, let's let's wait to exercise this. Because in an industry that's as fast moving as oil and gases, the reality is many cases, it doesn't make sense to wait. You know, one of the first things that I learned when I jumped into the world of upstream oil and gas is, of course, about the time value of money, while again, the time value of money is the same as the time value of your energy of your time of your resources. And if you're not making use of it now, and you're burying it for some time in the future, to go ahead and uncover your your figurative acorns, if you will, well, then ask yourself, why is there really value in that? Is there really a reasonable point at which you should be afraid of being too generous?
20:52
And so with that, with that final question there that I'll let you stew on, I will continue, as always, to thank you for investing your time in the energy detox and in the insights that I'm happy to share with you as a listener with you as a leader and with you as a part of this energy industry. And as always, I continue to welcome your your feedback, I continue to welcome your own insights and your own questions. And as I see here, we have for those of you watching live, we have a comment from Jim conkel, who says 2022 looks to be an interesting year. Yes, indeed. Obviously, I'm going to assume this is in reference to the politics of course, that will only get more fired up and of course, more toxic, if you will, which is why, on the whole, we try to avoid being political here on the energy detox because politics and and toxicity seem to go hand in hand, of course, but when given the opportunity to call out the facts, and to simply report on the headlines and tie it into very real challenges that leaders like you are facing, whether or not you're in the energy industry, or whether you're in some other industry, the reality is the these things are real. They're front and center, and the same short sighted approaches and the same unconscious leadership styles that many politicians like Senator Warren exhibit, are in many ways, similar to the same patterns, the same short sightedness that leaders like you are exhibiting. The problem is in many cases that leaders like you are exhibiting them in an unconscious way you don't realize you're doing it, which again, for those of you who are new to the energy talks, or who aren't familiar with waiting partners, the company that I founded, the idea behind wedding partners is to help you be more conscious of a leader. In fact, the name comes from the idea that you want to be a wedding conscious partner in your own life. You want to partner with people who can help you think more clearly and more consciously so that you avoid unwittingly limiting your odds of success. And so that you avoid unwittingly sounding like, quite frankly, somebody who's stupid as Senator Warren did with the letter that she sent two days before Thanksgiving. And so with all of that, again, I thank you for your engagement with me here on the energy detox with wedding partners. And I certainly encourage again, your questions, your feedback, and if nothing else, I encourage you today to look for ways in which you are becoming a little bit more like a hoarder than a freely giving generous spirited leader that again, you should be and can be if you want to achieve sustainable results.