SARDINE LEADERS: High Oil Content, Low Toxicity, Natural Sustainability
Turkey may be the highest profile protein in the United States this week; however, in honor of "National Sardines Day"—celebrated every year on November 24—this LIVE episode of The Energy Detox dives into the many parallels between one of the world's most sustainable seafood options and some of the energy industry's most sustainable leaders.
To aid in our mission of helping you become more sardine-like as you lead people at every level of the corporate food chain, we'll also turn to some news from Stanford University, where a recent study has found that methane—captured from landfills, wastewater treatment plants, etc.—can be fed to certain bacteria that, in turn, produce a cost-effective source of fishmeal.
The headline: 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧 𝐚 𝐠𝐥𝐨𝐛𝐚𝐥 𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐚 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧
The goal: to (𝐆)𝐫𝐨𝐰, (𝐏)𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 (𝐒)𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧 success by pondering these 3 questions throughout your day:
💡 In what ways are you missing opportunities for the "bottom of the corporate food chain" to fuel your company's growth?
💡 Are your stakeholders unwittingly consuming toxins that the biggest fish in your organization have accumulated over the years?
💡 Does the "sustainability" label you've slapped on your company really carry the weight you think it does?
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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 oil and gas 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 embrace the power of sardines to achieve sustainable results. And if that seems like a bit of a stretch for today's episode, well, it's because it is but it's also for good reason, because today is National sardines day. And even though being Thanksgiving week, most people are focused on Turkey as a as a great source of protein. The reality is that sardines can be even even better source of protein, a sustainable seafood that's rich in good oils. And of course, as we know from the media, not all oil is good. But in this case, the omega threes that sardines have are good, they're good for you. They're They're the building block, if you will, of healthy lifestyle. And so too, can they be the building block of a healthy organization, if you're able to channel the power, that is this tiny little fish that's relatively low on the food chain, but that again, can provide many, many health benefits. The other reason for this forest analogy today is that we do have a fish related headline that ties into the energy industry as we've been doing on the the daily iterations of the detox. And this headline today comes from Stanford University where researchers have found that methane, methane that might otherwise be released into the atmosphere from landfills or from wastewater treatment plants, or from some oil and gas facilities that aren't properly capturing methane, whatever the source is, that methane can be captured and can be economically turned into fish food into a fish meal that might otherwise be produced from different sources, but in this case, can use methane that's fed to a certain type of bacteria that can then in turn, feed fish. And of course, we know that methane is the building block for many things that we enjoy here and in modern life. But what's extra interesting, of course, is that this methane would again otherwise be released into the atmosphere. And as we've learned, if we've been paying attention to climate related news, methane is far more impactful from a heating standpoint than carbon dioxide. So the ability to take this otherwise released natural gas into the atmosphere and to take this and create a sustainable source of food for fish, which in turn can be a sustainable source of food for human beings is a positive thing. So we're going to take this idea of methane as a building block for fish and take the idea of sardines as a building block for a healthy life and can weave this into a leadership conversation that may be a little bit more fun, given the holiday week here, then there may be some other leadership conversations that you're going to find out there. And the third and final tie in here between sardines and Thanksgiving and perhaps leadership is when I was thinking through the story this morning, I went back 15 years when I was on one rig offshore in the Gulf of Mexico that wasn't exactly the best rig in terms of its cuisine and one positive is that they had no shortage of sardines and I will confess to being an avid kind of sewer of sardines here. In fact, it's one thing that I had the privilege of eating growing up I think my my parents often said it was brain food and and whether or not that was true, the reality is, it is a good, easy, nutritious and my opinion, tasty source of food. And on this particular rig, which didn't have very good food, it was great to have a nice variety of sardines. And in fact, I remember the one day that I did not eat sardines on this particular week was actually Thanksgiving so I was out there I think it was a 2016 or Thanksgiving and I did not insult the cookout there by by turning to a can of sardines even though again the Thanksgiving meal was was perhaps not not what you're likely to enjoy if you're if you're privileged to have a nice home cooked Thanksgiving dinner this year. But all of that being said and and coming back to the to the heart of today's episode or the heart friendly theme for today's episode.
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Let's go ahead and dive into the three questions that will help you grow, protect and sustain success for you and for your organization by becoming more sardine like in your leadership. And that first question today is in what ways are you missing opportunities for the bottom of the corporate food chain to fuel your company's growth and The idea behind this question came from a conversation that I had with a CEO a couple of weeks ago, where we were talking about ways to leverage your your rank and file employees as a mechanism to get your message out there and to fuel your mission, if you will, to fuel your message, particularly when it comes to the benefits the undeniable benefits of natural gas. And what it is that natural gas has done and will continue to do for our country and for our world, for that matter. And the genesis for this conversation revolved around politics and the fact that at least here in Pennsylvania, we have some very high profile races that are coming up in 2022, for governor and for US Senate. And certainly all of the the US Representative races that are out there. And the question was, without telling people who to vote for, of course, but you know, to help better inform people about the issues, particularly related to energy, how can you better use your your rank and file employees, if you will, the bottom of the corporate food chain? To put it bluntly, how can you use them to deliver a message that might be more impactful and more sustainable than messages that are delivered from the highest people on the food chain, the people whose messages might get lost, if you will, or might be seen more overtly as being compromised by, you know, corporate goals and the bottom line of your investors, whatever the case might be? And again, it's a nuanced conversation, right? You never want to force people, you don't want to force your employees to do what they're, you know, not wanting to do. But if you're arming them with facts and figures, and if you're arming them with the truth, quite frankly, regarding energy policy, and the impact that politicians can have, well, then is your message going to be more effective? And that same conversation flows through everything that's going on in your organization? Whether it's some sort of cultural transformation, or some sort of technical Initiative, or whatever the case might be? Are you properly utilizing everyone in your organization to get that message out there? And if you're not, well, why not? Why aren't you arming the people that are there that are doing the job that might have a different perspective on things? Why aren't you arming them with the information and the tools and and the communication channels necessary to fuel your mission to fuel the the goals and the agenda of your company. And again, coming back to the to the sardine theme, if you will, what is the sardine Well, sardine, again, is very low on the food chain. And that's a good thing. For a lot of reasons. It's, it's fresher, it's not live long enough, it's not alive long enough to pick up a bunch of toxins. It's an again, as we've pointed out the beginning here, it's, it's rich in good things and good oils, and it has a lot to give and a lot to offer, even though a lot of people might turn their nose up at it, quite frankly, because, you know, they've they don't know, we smell so good. And again, if you're a leader who is unwittingly giving off the opinion that you know, the the rank and file employees don't smell so good, and, and you don't want to push them out publicly to the masses? Well, again, you're doing yourself in your company, a huge disservice. Because yes, while sardines might give off an unpleasant odor at times, and, and while again, a can of sardines might signify more of a more of a here, here I am on camera here, more of a blue collar element that, that you may find yourself removed from if you've been in leadership ship for some period of time, you need to ask yourself again, what is the service you might be doing to your stakeholders. So again, bringing it all back together, ask yourself if you're fully utilizing the, you know, perhaps less sexy, can of sardines, if you will, within your organization, if you're avoiding them, and you're not fully utilizing them to help move your company forward. And all that brings us to the second question, which is, are your stakeholders unwittingly consuming toxins that the biggest fish in your organization have accumulated over the years, and obviously, one source of toxicity is this unwitting sense that leaders are high and mighty, and that those below them are again off putting or stinky and again, that's a pretty stark description of organizations. And fortunately, in my experience, both in the corporate world and now as an executive coach, I'm not seeing a tremendous example of those who are sitting in their ivory tower and executive boardrooms, and, and, you know, looking down upon their, their rank and file sardines, if you will, an organization. Fortunately, that is not something I see, in fact, quite the opposite.
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I think there are indeed good hearted and good faith efforts to, to, you know, kind of unify, if you will, those at the bottom of the food chain. And those are the top regardless of, you know, pay differences and differences in perks and prestige and all of that. However, there are lots of leaders who are unwittingly getting off Tompkins that they've accumulated over the years and they don't even realize it. Sometimes it's bitterness. Sometimes it's this idea of being jaded because of what they had to go through as an employee, you know, 2030 years ago, and they're still carrying that with them, even as they project this, this sense of being this, this giving warm, empathetic leader. The reality is these toxins build up over time. And one of the advantages, of course of sardines is that they're not quite alive as long as some of the bigger fish like tuna, for example, that accumulate lots of heavy metals. and toxins. So the question is, are you holding on to these toxins unnecessarily? If you are a leader, or are you more like a sardine where you're fresh, you don't build up the toxins or if they're, they're there, they're so short lived, and you're able to flush them out of your system that it doesn't have the same impact, if you will, that again, these larger fish hat, which is again, why sardines are great for pregnant women, because they have the same benefits, the same omega threes, all of the all of the good stuff without the bad stuff without the buildup of mercury and other toxins that again, a tuna fish has that is not necessarily recommended for for pregnant ladies to eat, you know, more often than they should. So that being said, again, ask yourself, are you unnecessarily and unwittingly sharing these toxins that you've built up? Are your stakeholders ingesting these toxins from you? And do they not even realize it? And do you not realize it? And if so, again, how can you kind of channel the role of a sardine which is shorter lifecycle, lower on the food chain, and consuming only things that don't have toxins, because again, from a scientific standpoint, not to go too far in the weeds, the reason that sardines don't have a big buildup of mercury and other toxins is because they pretty much just eat plankton, and again, plankton are short lived, and they certainly don't have time to accumulate these these toxins in these heavy metals. So again, what are you consuming as a leader? What are you ingesting? If you will, what are you exposed to? Are you exposed to other leaders or other sources? or quite frankly, other, you know, potentially toxic sources of media? Or of investors or stakeholders that, yes, they're going to exist, and they're out there? But are you able to kind of push them aside and move forward and not let them build up inside of you? And in turn, flip it around to your other stakeholders? Who are going to see that who are going to feel it and who are going to suffer the consequences of your toxicity? And wrapping up with our third question today, does the sustainability label you've slapped on your company really carry the weight that you think it does, and if you happen to have seen the Netflix, show, documentary, whatever you want to call it? C spirity, I think it was called and, and again, the idea behind that show is that all of the claims for sustainable seafood, and all of these labels that you see might not actually indicate how sustainable the operations are. In fact, in some cases, the operations the the fishing operations are quite the opposite. They're polluting, they're damaging to other fish species. And even though they might have gained this sustainability stamp from one of many different organizations rally is doesn't carry a whole lot of weight. And so the question for you is, as you tout your company's sustainability efforts, or your diversity and inclusion efforts, or whatever the case might be, the reality is, does it really carry that much weight? Or are there people out there like those who put together the C spirity? Documentary? Who know who know that there
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are plenty of chinks in your armor, if you will, when it comes to this sustainability label? And if so is the more that you use this label separating you from your stakeholders in terms of authenticity, and accountability? And quite frankly, your reputation? Are you hurting your reputation by slapping these labels on but not fully understanding what actually goes into gaining such a label. And some of this if you're interested again, for some Thanksgiving Day ramblings can be found in a conversation that I had recently with Jason speaks of the crude life and go ahead and link this in the show notes. But we had a conversation about the movie Tommy Boy, where if you're familiar with that movie from 2526 years ago, one of the key scenes is when Tommy, Tom Callahan is trying to sell his products, sell his company's product to somebody who really wants a guarantee stamped on the box. Other companies are putting guarantees on their boxes or brake pads, but Callaghan autoparts, was not. And of course, in that famous scene, you know, Tommy Callahan goes ahead, and and he convinces this potential customer that look, that guarantee doesn't necessarily mean anything you can you can stamp a guarantee on anything. But that's, you know, that's only going to be worth so much. What you want is a quality product, a quality offering that is backed by decades of results. And that's what you want to be as a leader. And that's what you want to be as a company. Yes, you can have these fancy names and labels and everything else. And yes, as all of these companies go ahead and certify their natural gas, that's a good thing. However, are you unwittingly running away from some of the core foundational things that have built your company to what it is today? And so too, with seafood, no matter how many sustainability labels you slap on something, the reality is that sardines are naturally sustainable. They are plentiful, yes. There's less sardines in the world than they used to be. And we can go you know, into the weeds on that, but the reality is, sardines don't need some fancy marketing. And yes, they might not come in fancy packaging like this can of sardines here, but the reality is, they're good for you. They have high quality oils, low toxicity, and again, they don't need a sustainability be labeled to know that they are a sustainable source of protein and energy for you. And so with all that being said, I encourage you to be more sardine like in your leadership today, both on national sardines Day, which we celebrate here on Thanksgiving, even in every day of your life, of course, and as always, I thank you especially again on the eve of thanks, giving for tuning into another edition of the energy detox. I've enjoyed weaving together various energy industry themes and energy industry headlines, even headlines like this from Stanford that are maybe a bit bit of a stretch, but again, I hope you've enjoyed I appreciate your feedback. I appreciate you listening, and I hope you have a healthy, happy and enjoyable Thanksgiving. Whether you're eating turkey ham, or perhaps sardines.