Pioneer or Pretender: Are Semantics Unwittingly Fracturing Your Credibility?

Range Resources and Weird Al Yankovic have at least two things in common:

💡 On October 23, 2024, Range Resources celebrates the 20th anniversary of their groundbreaking Marcellus frac, and the world celebrates the 65th birthday of Weird Al Yankovic.

💡 Both Range and Weird Al are undoubtedly pioneers—although some might question those claims.

That being said, Episode 98 of The Energy Detox will reinforce a leadership lesson you're almost certainly aware of...but may not be fully implementing: the specific words you use can—and will—shape your credibility, impact, and legacy.

…and for more on this topic, give a listen to Weird Al's Word Crimes, which was released on July 15, 2014, a few days before Range Resources responded to the Marcellus "word crimes" that were uttered on stage during the 2014 DUG East Conference.

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REFERENCES

“Marcellus Shale: 20 Years of Success, Transformation, and Vitality” (Range Resources)

“Marker unveiled for first Renz Well Mt. Pleasant Twp. well helped launch natural gas industry in SWPA” (Observer-Reporter, 10/24/2024)

“Range Resources Responds To Magnum Hunter’s Marcellus Claim” (Hart Energy, 6/13/2014)

“Range Resources marks 20th anniversary of first Marcellus Shale well” (Pittsburgh Business Times, 10/23/2024)

Transcript

(AI training in progress; please excuse any errors)

What do Range Resources and Weird Al Yankovic have in common? Well, there's actually a couple different answers to that question that we'll step through here, starting with the big one, and that is that today, october 23 Range Resources is celebrating the 20th anniversary, the 20th birthday, if you will, celebrating, honoring, acknowledging the first big frack of the Marcellus Shale. Also today, october 23 we celebrate the 65th anniversary of the birth of Weird Al Yankovic. Now, again, the parallels don't end there, because another parallel between Range Resources and Weird Al was that they're both pioneers, and that word is very specific here, Pioneer. And again, we'll get again, we'll get into more detail here in a little bit. But it's because Range Resources, for at least a decade, as far as I could tell, refer to themselves as pioneering the Marcellus and certainly recently, all of the marketing that they've been using talk about themselves being pioneer of the Marcellus Shale. Meanwhile, of course, you could argue that Weird Al, Yankovic, again, is a pioneer in his field of parody music. But the third parallel is that some people might take issue with both of those claims. Now, again, with Weird Al, I'm not sure that anybody would knock him for what he does, but again, if you weren't familiar with Weird Al and his body of work, you might argue that, well, nothing he does is really original. He's not the first person to come up with parody music, and certainly none of his songs or originally, just changes the words around now, again, not sure that many arguments are made to that effect, but when it comes to range, there is at least one claim on record where somebody says, Not so fast, not so fast about your claims to have been the company that kicked off This boom 20 years ago, and that claim is captured in this one quote that I'll read word for word here, and that says “A company I'm not going to name, but their name rhymes with mange. Claims that their Renz #1 in Pennsylvania was the first slickwater frac in the entire Marcellus that kicked off this boom that we're all here talking about. Well, that's simply not true.” [Source: https://www.hartenergy.com/opinions/range-resources-responds-magnum-hunters-marcellus-claim-119623 ]

Now, that claim, that line was delivered about 10 years ago at the conference formerly known as DUG East by the CEO—the former CEO—of the company formerly known as Magnum Hunter. And His claims were that, you know what, a company that they had acquired, triad Hunter, actually fracked the Marcellus a year earlier. That was in [Noble County, Ohio], and then couple months later, in the middle of 2004 few months before the rents number one, they also fracked the Marcellus in West Virginia, and now certainly in following up range 10 years ago. Said, again, not so fast with those claims. In fact, sure, they fracked it. In fact, companies for decades have tried to frack the Marcellus and complete the Marcellus, but none of them have been commercially successful. That was very key, right? None of them have been commercially successful. Sure, some gas may have been produced, but certainly not enough to justify continued development. Unlike the Rens number one, which did produce enough gas to say, Hey, we got something here. Let's keep moving forward. And again, I'll spare all the details. I'll link to the article from hard energy that describes ranges. Full response to Mr. Evans, again, the former CEO of Magnum Hunter. But what's the point today? Well, pun somewhat intended. The point is, as I stand here at Point Park University in downtown Pittsburgh, it's that words matter. Words matter whether you're a public CEO, words matter whether you're a individual contributor with a company and everything in between. And the word that, again, range latched onto, was pioneers. And I'm standing here because Point Park University, while their mascot is the pioneers, as you can see here on this fresh hat that I just purchased a couple minutes ago, to really hammer home this point. And so that being said, On this episode of the energy detox, as we always do, we're gonna turn some of those anecdotes and be inspired by range's 20 year anniversary and, of course, by Rear del Gen COVID. And we're gonna go ahead and offer you a couple reminders that could save you from danger, from harm as a ambulance goes by here, at least the type of harm that could derail your credibility, that could derail your progress as a leader, whether you're the leader of a company, or, again, whether you are just starting out in an industry like energy and other things fueling this. Because, again, long intro today, but a couple other things fueled this. One is that couple episodes ago, I received a comment on LinkedIn from somebody who said, Hey, Joe, as an executive coach and an engineer, I think you should spend more time on data and less time on semantics, less time on the words that people are using. And I vehemently disagree, because so much of my time is actually spent on words, because the word like pioneer carries a lot of weight. It suggests that, you know what? Maybe we're not the first but we're the ones who set the stage. We're the ones who kicked off a two decade long march towards progress. Saying that we were the first ones to frack the Marcellus would be factually incorrect. Saying that we're the first ones to drill a. Marcellus Well, well, that's a little confusing, because some of these test Marcellus wells, whether it's triad hunters or ranges Rens, number one, they weren't drilled as Marcellus wells. They were drilled targeting other formations, and then after some failed attempts at those formations, they came back and cracked the Marcel. So again, Words matter. Pioneer is a strong word. It carries weight, as I said, but how many leaders, including yourself, are out there just throwing words out into the ether that could damage your credibility, and that's really the big question for today. We'll dive into some specifics you can use to help answer that question. But anyway, the other thing that prompted this was a prior episode of the energy talks from a couple weeks ago where I stepped through the history of what some might claim is the first commercial natural gas well, that being the haymaker well in Marysville, Pennsylvania. And again, on the heels of that podcast, I received some comments saying, well, that's not really the first commercial natural gas well. What about the well from a couple decades earlier in Fredonia, New York, that was drilled and that, again, wound up lighting the town well? Again, it comes back to that word commercial, the same word that range leaned into because the haymaker well was undoubtedly commercial. That well led to a pipeline that sent that gas into Pittsburgh, again, where I'm standing here today, and clearly had the pressure and the volumes that could support the industry for the following 150 some odd years. That was not the case with that Fredonia, well, which you could argue wasn't even drilled. In fact, it was just dug by hand, 20 something feet, or by hand, at least with shovels, but certainly not with a rig, certainly not with a derrick. And so again, semantics, sure, but important ones, so that you me CEOs don't lose their credibility. So how do we proceed? Long introduction again, but how do we move forward? What can you do to help make sure that you are putting an appropriate amount of time on semantics? Well, got a couple different things, the first of which is simply asking, Hey, how often do you share something that you're about to say, or, more significantly, something that you're going to put in writing with somebody else. How often do you take advantage of somebody else's eyes and ears to say, hey, what's the tone? Play devil's advocate for a second. What could somebody come back to me and say, well, is that true, Joe, and in turn, potentially discredit everything else that you're going to say. Because unfortunately, I'm sure you've run into that many times, either for yourself or for others. And fortunately, as an executive coach, I spend a lot of time with people who will forward me a quick email and say, Hey, Joe, can you give this a once over? And a lot of times, my response is simply saying, hey, is there a better word here, or could this word be misconstrued again, a very simple thing that I do on a day to day basis. But the question for you is, are you enlisting the help of others? Whether it's a coach, a colleague, a boss, an employee, spouse, to say, Hey, can you give this a once over? And if not, why not? What's the harm? Is it pride? Is it concern that you're going to be wasting another person's time? Are you ignoring the fact that by doing an exercise like that, you could save yourself a whole bunch of time again, I go, I go back, and I look at, you know, ranges detailed response from 10 years ago to the claim from Mr. Evans there, from Magnum Hunter, again, that response probably took a fair amount of time to construct, to put together. Could that have been saved early on if they started off by, again, simply referring to them as pioneers of the Marcellus and not necessarily the first ones to frack again, not saying that they did, but it's questions like that that should serve as reminders for you that you're likely missing out on opportunities to check your words. Also, another couple points here, going back to my short list, think about Weird Al Yankovic. So one cool tidbit with Weird Al Yankovic, when it comes to consistency, and certainly as leaders, the one thing you want is consistency, not just in your language, but in your actions, in how you carry yourself,

08:49

act, some might argue, even in what you wear. I saw some commentary that said, hey, if nothing else you know, Donald Trump's appearance at McDonald's the other day. It's not like he dressed down. He kept his normal suit on. He did take off his jacket. He put on his apron, there's a level of consistency there that, again, breed confidence, that help people know what to expect, which then makes communication easier. You spend less time having to defend the fact that you know what. Maybe you're trying to be something you're not. And so what does that have to do with Weird Al Yankovic, well, there was a cool anecdote that said, back in 1998 Weird Al had LASIK surgery, and weird. Al, prior to that, had these glasses that he wore regularly. And you know, again, he was known for that. And he pondered, after having LASIK surgery, the idea of, you know, what, just wearing fake glasses. I don't need these anymore. But again, this is me. This is, this is iconic. Do I maintain that image? And he decided, No. And again, who knows how true the story is, but apparently he did it because he wanted to be consistent. It would be a lie of sorts. Same thing with the language you're using, are you just throwing out language that doesn't carry a lot of weight, that could be misconstrued, instead of taking the time to hone in on specifics, again, to play devil's advocate. And another tie in to this is. Course, earnings calls, we are in the season of earnings calls here with companies like Range Resources who had their earnings call this morning. And again, I'm not going to comment on the specifics of their earnings call, but like a lot of calls, they spend several minutes reading through the scripted comments before taking questions. And again, any earnings call that follows that same approach has a clear distinction between the scripted comments and the words that are used and the more natural human answers to the questions that analysts are asking. And I must say that in listening to that call myself this morning, Dennis Degner, the CEO, answered two of those questions with words that then stuck with me far more than anything that was in the safer, scripted language that was the first 15 minutes of the call. And again, I'll, I'll read those here, the first of which he said is, hey, over the last 20 years, we continue to get better. We're getting better and better, more efficient. We're setting records, still 20 years in. And again, he used that to talk about that as a testament to their employees. And again, that was not a scripted comment. Sure, I know he's shared that in the past. I know at last year's shell insight, he shared a similar sentiment, but the fact that he can say that in normal human language, again, that's going to resonate. And then the other thing he said later on the call in response to a question, was that success begets success. Success leads to more success. And again, that is a testament to the continued partnerships that they have, with their vendors, with their third parties, who again, have been along for the ride for the last 20 years. He used real language there that clearly, again, was not read off of a script. Which brings us back to you in your emails, in your correspondence, even in a casual text message. Are you defaulting to cliche language, safe language, buzz words, or are you challenging yourself to come up with something that's a little bit different? And even if it's the latter, even if you feel you're challenging yourself to come up with something different, I would argue that you're not going to be effective on your own unless you're using someone else, something else, to challenge you, to play devil's advocate, to say, Hey, are you the first ones to go forth and Frack the Marcellus? Or are you pioneers? Because pioneers is more sustainable pioneers carries more weight. Being first again isn't necessarily a badge of honor. As we head closer to the election, of course, there's going to be plenty of media entities who are vying to be the first ones to call a state or the first ones to call an election, but as we've seen in prior elections, that's not necessarily a badge of honor. Do you want to be the ones who provide the most accurate information? Do you want to be the ones that people turn to to have the most insight and the sustained results and reliability and consistency? I'd argue, probably yes, and it's no different. For leaders in the energy industry. You want that consistency. You want people to look at you. It's not just the first but the current that catalyst, the one or ones who are able to generate sustained impact. And that all starts with your words. It all starts with semantics. So again, to the individual who commented that I as an executive coach and engineer need to spend more time on data and less time on semantics. Again, I say absolutely not. Semantics can derail everything that you've worked for, everything that your team has worked for, and if you don't invest proper time in that, you are opening yourself up to risk. And so with that, again, what are you doing to check your semantics. Two, what are you doing to be seen as a pioneer in your field, in your department and in your industry, even as an individual, what is that you're doing that would cause people to say, hey, look, he or she is a pioneer, even in this small area. Maybe they're not the first, but they're definitely the ones that have provided that spark. And then my final question for all of you today is a very important one, and that is, of course, what is your favorite Weird Al Yankovic song?

Leadership, Management, Coaching, Energy, Envronment, ESG, SustainabilityJoe SinnottOctober 23, 2024Leadership, CoachingComment

Pioneer or Pretender: Are Semantics Unwittingly Fracturing Your Credibility?

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