A Trillion Dollar Crash and the Coaching Playbook That Will Fuel Energy's Recovery
By many measures, the energy industry was losing in 2020. It was losing momentum, relevance, and plenty of money.
And despite increasing demand and commodity prices throughout 2021, oil & gas companies continue to lose the current and future talent necessary for a sustained recovery.
So the question for current energy leaders today isn’t merely how best to streamline operations, clean up the balance sheet, and capitalize on the uptick in prices. The question is how to help employees—along with investors/boosters/fans—remain engaged, confident, and proud of the positive results that oil & gas can and should continue to produce.
To answer that question, this episode of The Energy Detox will encourage you to jump into the shoes of a football coach whose team is losing by two touchdowns at half-time. From there, you’ll ask yourself whether you’re doing things that are helping your team recover from this deficit and emerge victorious…or whether you’re doing things that are more likely to have your star players checked out and thinking about the next game, the next season, or perhaps an entirely different sport.
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How might a “Ted Lasso of the Oilfield” lead the energy industry to sustainable success? Find out in this Connection Crüe conversation:
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TRANSCRIPT:
00:00
How would you react to claims that a coaching mindset will be the single most important factor determining the fate of today’s troubled oil and gas industry?
Would you quickly point out that fluctuating commodity prices, unceasing environmental pressures, uncertain political climates, and disruptive new technologies will be far more influential than something as seemingly abstract as coaching?
Well, in this episode, we’ll drill into the reasons that today’s energy industry needs to fully embrace a coaching mindset in order to drive a meaningful and sustainable recovery from its trillion dollar plunge this year. And we’ll back up this bold assertion with specific examples that offer genuine hope for those of us navigating today’s increasingly toxic energy landscape.
And after that, we’ll show you how to apply a practical and effective coaching framework that—while not guaranteed to generate a trillion dollars in value—can produce sustainable benefits for you and all of your stakeholders.
[Intro Music]
1:19
Hello and welcome to 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 15 year energy industry veteran, helping you tap into the same resources fueling today's most successful and sustainable leaders.
And in today's conversation, we'll explain why many of those successful leaders aren’t just the recipient of coaching, but actively employ a coaching mindset themselves.
And we'll specifically address why the energy industry—faced with such intense market constraints and social pressures—stands to benefit from a broad application of this coaching mindset, especially when it comes to mid-career leaders who will need every advantage possible to carry their industry’s torch into the future—while avoiding the enemies of oil & natural gas who are trying to extinguish that torch…and replace it with a solar-powered flashlight.
And before diving in, it’s important to note that the enemies of oil & gas haven’t just been mis-informed political or environmental forces—or the coronavirus and its associated demand destruction; no, some of energy’s biggest enemies have been internal forces, specifically well-intentioned industry leaders who have relied on outdated, costly, and unsustainable approaches and strategies that lean far too heavily on “advising” and far too little on “coaching.”
So, with that said we’ll do 3 things today:
1) we’ll draw a distinction between “advising” and “coaching,” using the example of a proven leader who successfully wore the hat of both a coach and a corporate executive;
2) we’ll step through reasons why the energy industry is set up perfectly to leverage the power of coaching even in the face of inevitable bankruptcies, ongoing layoffs, and widespread uncertainty; and
3) we’ll leave you with the tools to generate meaningful shifts in the way you and your stakeholders approach today’s unrelenting challenges…
…even if your challenges aren’t related to the bankruptcies, layoffs, and uncertainty facing an energy industry that by some estimates will see revenue fall by 1 trillion dollars this year, dropping 40% from 2019’s $2.5 trillion to a projected $1.5 trillion in 2020.
And while such staggering numbers have prompted no shortage of valuable webinars, insightful articles, and encouraging messages floating through your LinkedIn feed, much of that well-intentioned content is not going to make a sustainable impact on you or your stakeholders, regardless of how valuable it seems and no matter how much time you devote to ingesting such “advice.”
4:04
So, faced with the harsh realities associated with energy’s “trillion dollar crash,” let’s step away from that constant barrage of advice for a moment and turn to the example set by a “trillion dollar coach.”
And this “trillion dollar coach,” the late Bill Campbell, was the subject of a best-selling book released last year. This book, titled Trillion Dollar Coach, tells the story a football coach turned corporate executive, best known for coaching a number of technology leaders, including Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, and a number of Google executives who co-authored the book.
The designation “trillion dollar coach” stems from Bill’s strong influence on companies that have gained well over a trillion dollars in value since Bill began to coach those organizations’ leaders. And while Bill’s leadership playbook is not enough to completely counteract the forces that have led to the energy industry’s “trillion dollar crash,” there are 2 foundational elements of his playbook that can significantly increase the odds of current oil & gas leaders making meaningful and lasting contributions to their stakeholders regardless of how things beyond their control play out over the coming months and years.
And those 2 elements are people and questions. That’s it. People and questions. And extracting the benefits of coaching doesn’t need to be more complicated than focusing those two things.
Because in an age where we can easily find ourselves reading leadership books and listening to motivational podcasts and attending self-help webinars every hour of every day, it’s more important than ever to keep things simple and to follow the example of someone who undoubtedly “got things right.” And for the purposes of today’s conversation, that “someone” is Bill Campbell…and the things he got right were people and questions….
And, sure, boiling a 200 page book filled with tons of useful takeaways down to just 2 things—people and questions—is a bit of an over-simplification…but the simple question driving today’s episode is whether a simple coaching approach can help a troubled industry more effectively than the often complicated and costly “advisory” approaches plaguing organizations today…so we’re going to err on the side of over-simplification today, as challenging as that can be for an engineer like me who is naturally wired to jump into details and, in turn, over-complicate things.
So, all that being said…people and questions? How does a focus on people and questions help us distinguish coaching from advising?
Well, to answer that, let’s start by asking, “What are people?” And if we turn to the book Trillion Dollar Coach, it clearly states [on page 39] that “people are the foundation of any company’s success.”
Sure…that sounds nice. And that’s certainly not a new concept, right?
Heck, I’d say there’s a good chance you’ve heard of repeated mention of “People, Process, Technology” as a business paradigm or transformation triangle or operating model, right?
And if you go back 25 years, “People, Profit, Planet” was popularized as the “Triple Bottom Line,” long before today’s ESG—Environmental, Social, and Governance—craze took hold.
7:07
But at any rate, there’s no mystery that people are the key to the success of any team or organization and that supporting such people so that they grow and contribute at the highest levels possible has tangible value.
And as a football coach, Bill Campbell certainly focused on people…When you’re dealing with over a hundred people on the sideline of a football field—from players and assistance coaches to various aids and support staff—you’re dealing whole bunch of individual people with different roles, but with one common mission: to win “the right way.” And Bill recognized that as soon as you lose sight of the people aspect and turn all of your attention instead to specific plays and techniques and outcomes, there’s a good chance you won’t be winning…and if you are winning, you won’t be winning “the right way.”
And none of this talk about “people” is meant to be overly sappy or earth-shattering stuff, but I’m saying it because if there really isn’t some fundamental agreement among leaders of sports teams, volunteer organizations, Fortune 500 companies, families, or any other group that people are central to their mission, then there’s no point continuing this conversation.
And if there is agreement that people—at least until the earth is taken over by self-aware robots—are central to the sustained success of whatever you’re leading, then you should be doing everything in your power to unlock and maximize the full potential of those people, something that Bill Campbell is lauded for throughout the book.
Because “unlocking and maximizing the full potential of people” is in many ways the most basic definition of what a good coach is.
And how can you most effectively unlock someone’s potential? Is it by telling them what to do? Of course not. Is it by rambling on about yourself and what may have made you so successful? No. Is it by constantly bombarding them with articles and quotes and other materials that you think they should digest? Again, the answer is no.
One of the best ways to coach people is to ask them questions.
And, again, using questions as a way to unleash the best version of someone is not a unique idea…in fact, it was documented over 45 years ago in a classic book called The Inner Game of Tennis, written by another sports coach—Tim Gallwey—who shared the secret he discovered about coaching: that you don’t need to be an expert to be an effective coach…you just have to be good at asking the right questions…especially if you’re coaching people who already have the keys to success inside of them…and those keys just happen to be buried under piles of the self-doubt, distractions, and toxic thoughts that build up inside all of us over time, robbing us of focus and energy and holding us back from realizing peak performance.
And, consistent with the goal of The Energy Detox, effective coaching helps identify those toxic things holding you back so that you can discover (and in many cases re-discover) what needs to be done to achieve sustainable success.
But expert or not, the most powerful tool that coaches possess is an ability to ask the best questions possible.
So, in a literal sense, coaching can be as simple as asking…people…questions.
And effective coaching can be as simple as asking people effective questions.
And, yes, good coaches have lots of other tools besides asking questions. In fact, the book Trillion Dollar Coach spends a lot of time talking about some of those other tools and frameworks and methodologies and one-liners that Bill used to help his stakeholders generate results. And if you haven’t read the book, I recommend you pick it up and check out some of those tools, especially Bill’s renowned used of storytelling to coach people by providing relevant examples instead of merely giving the suggestions or advice that might be expected of a coach.
10:59
Because Bill knew—and most coaches know—that advice isn’t the same thing as coaching. Advice has value. Advice can save your life. Advice can save time. Advice can help you land a new job. And when someone is clearly in need of advice, then the last thing you should do is start playing 20 questions instead of just telling that person what they need to hear.
One example that I’ve heard several times distinguishing coaching from advising is the story of someone politely asking you where the bathroom is. And typically, you would simply point that person in the right direction and tell them exactly where the bathroom is, right? That is “advice” in its purest form: a straightforward statement that helps solve the immediate problem of the person who needs to use the bathroom.
A stereotypical coach, on the other hand, would respond to the person’s request for directions to the bathroom by asking, “So, on a scale of 1 to 10, how badly do you need to use the bathroom? Is there anything else you’d like to do before answering the call of nature? In the past, where have you been most successful in finding the bathroom you were seeking? If you didn’t need to use the bathroom right now, what activity would bring you the most joy?”
And the point of this of this silly story is that sometimes you don’t need a coach. You simply need advice. And as valuable as it is for people to develop their own solutions and cultivate their own unique thoughts, sometimes people just need a bit of advice.
And an effective leader understands when he or she could add the most value by giving advice or by acting as a coach and helping his or her stakeholders discover what—in many cases—will be more sustainable and impactful solutions than would have been discovered if they mindlessly accepted the advice of someone else. And for this reason, organizations spend tons of money bringing in advisors to share expertise, provide recommendations, and help leaders make more informed decisions.
And I’m not going to beat this “advice versus coaching” comparison to death, especially since there are more in depth discussions out there available for you to check out if interested [including The Advice Trap by Michael Bungay Stanier], but coming back to my takeaways from the Trillion Dollar Coach, I do want to emphasize how important it is to ask yourself when it’s best to put on your “advisor” hat and when it’s time to wear your “coach” hat…and when you’re wearing that coach hat, to remember that effective coaching doesn’t have to be complicated and can, in fact, be as simple as asking the questions that will best help people unlock their full potential.
13:39
So, having spent several minutes distinguishing advising from coaching, and after taking the time to emphasize the importance of asking good questions, the logical question you might have is, “How the heck can any of this fuel the recovery of an energy industry that seems to be in free fall?”
And before answering that question, let’s define what such a “recovery” means in this context, lest you think I’m ignorant or naïve enough to think that anything—especially a simple coaching mindset—is going to completely reverse the financial impacts of the “trillion dollar crash” being experienced right now.
Because when I say recovery, I don’t just mean financial recovery, although I do firmly believe that what we’re talking today can and will produce tangible benefits to the bottom line of companies. And when I say recovery, I don’t mean that the hundreds of thousands of jobs that are or will be lost are all coming back.
When I say recovery, I mean a recovery of the pride and optimism that have taken a hit from both external and internal forces. I mean recovering the narrative about fossil fuels and reminding all stakeholders that the development of oil and natural gas has had a net positive impact on humanity by almost every measure when looked at objectively and in relation to what life would be like without hydrocarbons in terms of health, education, freedom, mobility, and—yes—even the environment.
And even if the size of the oil and gas industry shrinks, there’s no reason for it’s strength to also diminish, so when I talk about recovery, I’m talking about recovering the fight in current employees who might be confused when they see companies like BP arguably cancelling themselves and the industry as they completely shift their messaging.
And by recovery, I’m also talking about fighting for future employees who might not be inclined to support an industry obsessed with transition and in the midst of what some might argue is a bit of an identity crisis. So, in that sense, it’s recovering the industry’s ability to attract talent and reversing—or at least slowing—the flow of talent leaking off to other industries.
So, yes, I’m not talking about a full recovery of market caps and cash flows and payrolls, and I concede that embracing a coaching mindset will not lead to a “full” recovery of the energy industry. And, hey, as those in oil and gas know, 100% recovery is not a reasonable expectation when it comes to extracting hydrocarbons from a reservoir…but by taking a few thoughtful steps—especially free steps like the ones we’re talking about today—to increase your “recovery factor” can lead to greater production and, in turn, greater profits.
So, all that being said, the reasons that a coaching mindset matters when it comes to today’s energy industry and its chances of recovery is that it reduces uncertainty and increases engagement of all stakeholders.
Because needless to say, if there’s one thing that people of the oil and gas industry have today, it’s uncertainty; and if there’s one thing that uncertainty can lead to, it’s disengagement.
And if people are disengaged, recovery isn’t going to happen.
So, let’s say you agree that virtually every person in the energy industry—from petroleum engineering students to veteran CEOs—is faced with some degree of uncertainty right now. Well, whether that uncertainty stems from a recent layoff that’s left people seeking new opportunities or whether that uncertainty has to do with the knowledge that a current employer will almost certainly be bought, bankrupt, or blended with some other challenged organization in the near future, all of the “advice” in the world isn’t going to do much to reduce those feelings of uncertainty.
And knowing how debilitating such uncertainty can be—and how it dangerous it can be when that uncertainty becomes a cancerous distraction impacting hundreds of thousands of people—leaders across the industry must spend much more time asking questions of their people and being there as a coach…and spend less time merely offering advice and trite tips and suggestions.
And, yes, taking the time to ask questions of individuals in tough spots is the right thing to do and the human thing, but the reality is that it can also have tremendous impacts on the bottom lines of companies and the survival of the industry if it’s being done at a critical mass. Because sadly, at a time when leaders need to coach…and ask questions…and lead…often the opposite happens (or at least appears to happen).
Yes, there might be genuine empathy. Yes, there might be some shared understanding that things are tough. But when such empathy is interpreted as defeatism or hopelessness, it doesn’t quell the uncertainty. And when it seems like leaders are waving the white flags and admitting that this industry is deeply flawed and destined to fade away, that does nothing to help the companies slow their decline; it does nothing to help the collective morale of the industry; and it does nothing to help individual people sustain the confidence and pride they should have in the contributions they’ve made so that they can build off of that pride and their accomplishments.
And, sure, we can talk all day long about helping people in transition and helping people pivot, and I enjoy the time and energy I spend helping people do just that. But it’s far more enjoyable working with people who carry a positive view of this industry instead of those who simply feel like they are abandoning a sinking ship…as accurate as that analogy might be.
Because you know what? When people are running away from something instead of running toward something, it shows. And I hate uttering clichés like that, but in the case of today’s energy industry, too many leaders are unwittingly causing their folks to figuratively “run away” because they are not taking the time to put on their coach’s hat and ask questions…ask questions about what their reports and colleagues think about the future of the industry…or their future roles…or what transferrable skills they have.
19:31
And one of the reasons I chose to use the book Trillion Dollar Coach to help frame today’s discussion is that the lessons of Bill Campbell are perfect for those who are or may be in transition, not just because his coaching approach can help people gain clarity and confidence, but because he himself is a perfect example of someone who successfully pivoted careers.
In fact, it wasn’t until his late 30s that Bill shifted gears from coaching football and entered the corporate world. And then only 5 years later, he was a senior executive in a tech industry that had been completely foreign to him beforehand…and that “transition story” is remarkable and an obvious testament to the power not only of transferable “soft” skills…but to the tangible value that a coaching mindset can bring to an entire industry.
And while examples like his can be inspiring (which is why Bill was so keen on using examples and stories to help people vs. spouting out advice and suggestions), the other surefire way to help people cut through the uncertainty is by asking questions.
And as I spoke about in Episode 4, proactively asking questions, allowing others to flush out their thoughts, and helping them actually feel like they have at least some control over how things play out over the next 12-18 months will not only have benefits for them as individuals, but for the industry to realize some meaningful and sustainable recovery.
Because when you ask questions, you engage. You’re not spewing the same corporate speak and telling folks worried about losing their jobs they’ll “land on their feet” quickly. When you ask questions, you keep them in the moment. You help keep them focused. You actually help keep them safe. And you ensure that the variables that are within the energy industry’s control (efficiency, safety, technology, strategy, costs) can all be positively supported by a workforce who is not looking to “run away” from the industry merely because leaders at every level seem to be waving the white flag.
So, in summary, the reason that coaching and asking questions of people is so critical to the oil and gas industry right now is that it’s a simple (and free) way to keep existing talent as engaged as possible instead of them passively digesting the doom and gloom associated with the apparent demise of fossil fuels and, in turn, making it far more difficult for the industry to realize any sort of reasonable recovery.
22:06
But keeping talented contributors engaged through a coaching mindset is not enough to fuel a meaningful recovery of the energy industry And maintaining a level of pride among the remaining workforce while attracting future talent is not enough to improve and sustain the industry’s performance.
But if that entire workforce is also given the coaching tools and the authority to ask questions about how the work that they do impacts others and, in turn, be up front and honest about how the work of others impacts them and their responsibilities, you won’t just break down silos and achieve “transparency” and enhance communication and check the boxes on a few other buzzwords…and you won’t just eliminate redundancy and increase efficiency across different teams and departments…what you’ll do is open the entire organization up to sustainable solutions, and you very likely eliminate the sense that everything and everyone is constantly in transition…and running away from old processes….and eternally changing…and moving on to the newest technology and software that will be replaced in a year or two by something new.
And, yes, companies must continue to embrace digitization and new technologies and fresh approaches to survive…and I wholeheartedly agree that those are necessary pieces of any recovery, but none of those things will matter if leaders aren’t asking the right questions, aren’t uncovering the true problems, and aren’t on guard against solutions that don’t keep people—especially the most talented people—engaged and excited about the work they’re doing.
And the simplest, cheapest, and most effective way to ask the right questions, get the answers needed to address the long list of problems facing companies today, and to help people feel engaged is not to put on your lean six sigma hat and begin a full-blown process improvement project. It’s not to enlist the help of advisers to come in and map out every single existing process and interview every stakeholder to come up with some new “solution” and get them excited about the future of your organization. It’s not to have some giant dashboard with every task and project and priority of everyone in the company on it under the banner of “transparency and accountability.”
All of those things can add value, but my argument today is that there’s nothing simpler and more effective in any organization—and especially in oil and gas organizations operating under such a cloud of fear, uncertainty, anxiety—than encouraging and empowering people to constantly ask how they might unwittingly be impacting others, both positively and negatively.
Ya know, if everyone stopped every so often and asked, “What is the purpose of this task? Who’s using this data? Why am I sending this e-mail? Who else might be doing the same thing?” And if everyone was given permission to freely take action when one of those questions revealed something troubling…would it make everyone go around all day asking questions, pretending they were coaches, and never getting any work done? No, but it would mean that actual problems and inefficiencies can be identified organically and without expensive consultants coming in to find problems and inefficiencies….and it means that once such problems are revealed, better and more sustainable solutions can be sought out and implemented faster and easier and more cheaply versus a solution that arrived on the scene before such problems were actually identified.
And so, how do any of these help the recovery of the energy industry? How does giving people permission to ask questions and, in turn, pave the way for better “solutions” to the problems of specific companies really have an impact?
Well, one easy answer is that you cut down on distractions, because at the pace that things are changing, individuals and companies do not have time for distractions. When you’re constantly in an uncertain state, going down a fruitless path—especially when resources are limited—can be catastrophic.
But the biggest reason this helps is engagement. When you empower people with the coaching tools to help understand their interconnectedness to each other in an organization that goes beyond existing workflows and org charts, you’re going to get a stronger and more focused workforce. And you’re going to see faster and more impactful implementations of the solutions that will ultimately help the energy industry sustain momentum over the next decade.
And having a clear engagement framework, a clear way to encourage good questions, and a clear embrace of coaching isn’t just some theoretical mumbo jumbo I dreamed up this morning….it’s something I’ve been a part of…at a company…in the energy industry…intent on embracing digital transformation and on doing the things necessary to connect internal stakeholders with the data needed to make faster, better, and more confident decisions.
And one of my biggest lessons learned from that experience and from my time leading a data governance and analytics team was not related to the best way to structure data or the importance of transitioning to cloud-based solutions or any of the technical things that I absorbed from the incredibly talented team I had…no, it was how critically important it was to ask questions of the people who were supposedly going to be the beneficiaries of the work we were doing.
Seems pretty obvious, right? Before you begin any project, you meet with stakeholders. You figure out their needs. You ask what’s working and what’s not working. You address concerns about the project you’re undertaking. You map a few things out. That’s project management 101, right?
But what I didn’t realize at the time is that the approach we were taking was so well received not because we were following a project management script and not because we had some checklist of pre-defined questions to ask stakeholders, but because what we were doing was in many ways coaching.
The leader of the data governance wing of my team and I met with individual leaders and we asked questions. And we listened. And we didn’t offer those leaders magic solutions to all their problems on the spot. And we listened to the pain points they had prepared, but more importantly we helped them discover some additional pain points and opportunities that either impacted them directly or that were one or two degrees removed from them, yet still related to the actions and decisions of their teams.
And by following what I would call a “coaching framework” and by not just sending out a list of 20 questions, gathering the data, and making decisions, I think we generated a level of engagement that was totally worth the time and energy that we—and particularly the individual on my team who deserves all the credit for this approach—invested in these one-on-one conversations, each of which unfolded in slightly different ways.
And I share this because our team’s mission—which included cleaning up databases, establishing better data pipelines, improving access to data, and reducing the time people spent hunting for insights—was all a no-brainer. And we could have just plowed ahead, done a decent enough job, and moved on with life. But we took the time to engage, and we did it in a manner that in hindsight feels a whole lot more like coaching than mere project management and data gathering. And as I discuss the process of standing up similar data and analytics teams with others, the one piece of advice I offer right off the bat (and, yes, I know I already spent a few minutes earlier cautioning against giving “advice”) is to ask questions, listen, and ask more questions of the leaders whose teams will be most impacted by your efforts.
And I’m sharing this because, again, while is might seem obvious to slow down on occasion and take this “coaching approach,” the oil and gas industry isn’t exactly known for patience, especially for smaller companies who try to leverage their flexibility and nimbleness to pounce on opportunities. But if the last few months have taught us anything, it’s that such approaches are not sustainable, if for no other reason than the people needed to execute on these ever-changing strategies are growing tired….and running out of patience…and don’t want to be part of what too many people are categorizing as a “sinking ship.”
And the investment of time and energy associated with embracing a company-wide coaching mindset is arguably the best way to attain some level of stability among the most important natural resources at a company, which are, of course, the PEOPLE.
Because costs will continue to decrease. Disruptive new technologies will be embraced. Innovation will continue to happen. All of those things are inevitable. What’s not inevitable, however, is that enough talented people will care enough to further the mission of the industry and to preserve the positive legacy of oil and natural gas development.
And without those people to carry the dimly lit torch of the energy industry, it cannot and will not recover.
And my point today is not that companies need to bring in outside coaches and consultants to boost engagement, drum up some false sense of excitement, and preserve talent within the industry. In fact, I think companies need to tread lightly when it comes to the long list of people offering their services when every dollar matters and G&A budgets are under a microscope.
And I’m not making a case for the rate of return that comes with executive coaching, because I think there’s a pretty strong consensus that proven executive coaching probably offers one of the highest rates of return of any 3rd party service when you consider the cascading effects on leadership throughout and organization and the 6 or 7 figure savings realized when such coaching leads to the retention of talent and/or a measurable increase in productivity.
And the idea that coaching can boost performance outside of the corporate world is also no mystery in 2020, with millions of life coaches, health coaches, career coaches, relationship coaches, mindset coaches, spirituality coaches, and every other kind of coach you can imagine out there.
[Note: For an entertaining take on the different types of coaching playing a significant part in today’s world, I recommend listening to Season 2 of the podcast Against the Rules hosted by Michael Lewis]
And really, the coaching we’re talking about here today is probably best described as “recovery coaching,” whether you’re recovering the engagement and pride of battered workforce; or recovering the confidence of someone who is or will soon be laid off; or recovering the narrative surrounding fossil fuels and their impact on the world.
And this “recovery coaching” can be summarized in a couple of simple steps that anyone can employ and practice at no cost. And you can probably google and find a number of simple coaching methods with more or less steps. Or you can keep my oversimplification in mind and just focus on asking good “questions” that help “people” better understand themselves and avoid keeping their potential locked up inside of them.
But since I promised at the beginning to leave you with a universal coaching framework, and since you’ve already invested enough time getting to this point in the episode, I’m going to leave you with the 5 steps that I think best define a simple and practical coaching mindset and approach that can be used by anyone, regardless of the hat you wear, the industry you’re in, or your relationship with the people who could use a bit of coaching:
Ask what the person’s goal or mission is—short-term, long-term, it doesn’t matter; and we’re not talking about every goal, but ideally one specific thing that that causes them to light up a bit;
Ask questions to uncover what’s really holding the person back from that mission or goal;
Clarify what you think you’re hearing from that person;
Help that person generate a path to solving their problem and achieving their goal. And this is the step where resisting the urge to jump in with advice is key, as the most beneficial thing to do is assume that the person you’re coaching can probably figure out a solution better than anyone else; and
Figure out the best way to help them remain accountable.
That’s it…it’s repeatable, it’s engaging, and it might just prevent the best and brightest contributors to the energy industry from riding the transitional tidal wave to another industry.
Ask what the goal is; uncover barriers to that goal; clarify what you think you’re hearing; help that person generate their own solutions; and do whatever it takes to hold them accountable moving forward.
And so, with that in mind, today’s final question to ask yourself is…
“If I were the head football coach of a team down two touchdowns at half-time, am I doing things that are more likely to cause my team to recover from this deficit and emerge victorious, or am I doing things that are more likely to have them checked out and thinking about the next game, the next season…or perhaps an entirely different sport?”
And as you ponder that, please allow me, your grateful host, Joe Sinnott, to sincerely thank you for listening today, especially those of you who already do a fantastic job of coaching others through the craziness of 2020.
And until next time, please remember that if you want to fuel your stakeholders, boost their performance, and increase engagement, don't fill them up with quick fixes, inspirational quotes, and trivial advice….instead, fill them up with the one thing that will challenge them to grow and develop in a far more sustainable way: coaching.
Thanks again.