Are you unwittingly fueling a culture dependent on "voluntoldism?"
While countless energy industry professionals genuinely appreciate and enjoy opportunities to give back to their communities through corporate volunteer initiatives, the reality is that a material number of folks picking up roadside trash, assembling care packages, or planting flowers at senior centers are "voluntold" to participate. And in most cases, a little "forced encouragement" once in awhile isn't a bad thing at all.
But what happens when the day-to-day activities needed to run a business begin to rely on "voluntoldism" to get things over the goal line? What happens when clear ownership and responsibility are replaced by vague requests and unwritten rules? How should leaders respond when employees become focused more on non-core (yet highly visible) tasks than the projects they're actually getting paid to do?
Well, inspired by an independent PA DEP program that ties permit review prioritization to what some might oxymoronically claim are "voluntary requirements," this episode of The Energy Detox will help you look for signs that your organization is using volunteers to produce duct-taped solutions instead of incentivizing leaders to take decisive action...or, to steal a quote from the Marcellus Shale Coalition's response to the DEP program, this episode will help make sure you and your team aren't "building a permanent detour rather than fixing the roadway."
The headline: 𝐏𝐀 𝐃𝐄𝐏 “𝐕𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐲” 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐦 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐅𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐑𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐞 𝐄𝐧𝐯𝐢𝐫𝐨 𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭 (Marcellus Drilling News)
The goal: to (𝐆)𝐫𝐨𝐰, (𝐏)𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 (𝐒)𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧 success by pondering these 3 questions throughout your day:
💡 How might an over-reliance on volunteerism be limiting your organization's growth prospects?
💡 In what ways might a self-serving leader protect the interests of an organization better than a "selfless" leader?
💡 How are existing incentives failing to sustain interest and engagement among your employees?
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Transcript
(AI training in progress; please excuse any errors)
Hello and welcome to another 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 examine how some of those leaders use an appropriate mix of volunteerism in their overall culture within their company to move objectives forward. And we're also going to examine how some leaders are unwittingly relying on volunteerism when that might not be the most appropriate avenue to get whatever objectives that they have in place over the goal line. And to drive this conversation today, we're going to do what we've been doing on each of these iterations of the daily detox, I'm going to take one energy industry headline to help ask you several questions to avoid falling into some of the traps that leaders are falling into when it comes to volunteerism. And the headline today that we're going to examine comes from here in Pennsylvania, where the State Department of Environmental Protection has been proposing and tinkering with their permit timing and their application process, if you will. And the tinkering that they're doing surrounds a number of voluntary actions that companies can take to move themselves up on the priority list when it comes to the review. And ultimately, the issuing of certain permits. And again, to to hear this might make some sense, right to to incentivize companies to do something that is theoretically good and positive and and in turn, receive some sort of benefit in terms of reduced timing of their permits. While again, that sounds like a pretty good idea and some decent intentions. But practically speaking, it's clunky, it's confusing to the point where companies who would stand to benefit from this have basically said, No thanks to the DEP. And in fact, you know, those who are more on the pessimistic side are saying, well, this is just the DEP masking its inability to adhere to the standards that it sets for itself when it comes to permit timing. And to do this, they're going to try to force or voluntarily force if that's such a thing, they're going to try to force some of these things that they want done down the throats of these companies, so that these companies can in turn, get permits turned around quicker than they would otherwise. Even though if the state had simply adhere to what their own standards are, the companies wouldn't have any reason to have to accelerate permit timing and could live well within the rules that had already been set forth. And if what I just laid out there sounds confusing, well, it's because it is. And again, if you know best case, it's it's clunky. And the intention of the DDP is really not going to come to fruition, because the stakeholders, the companies are basically saying, No, thanks. So all that being said, the question for you today is, are you instituting some clunkiness in your incentives to get things done to get tasks done to motivate your people is that clunkiness being masked, as you know, some some positive altruistic rules that are that are meant to have some good purpose and, and bring people together and get people excited, when in fact, all it's doing is adding confusion. And really, the term for all of this, in many ways, is the old voluntold ism right? company decides to do something positive, and they have to maybe pull some people's arms and those people were volunteer to do something. But again, they're not being volunteered to do something, it's not the good of their heart, they're being voluntold to do something. And the problem is when company cultures reflect this voluntold ism, and they start to move further and further away from clear responsibilities, clear tasks, clear rules and regulations that people can adhere to, and that people signed up for when they decided to take the job. And in fact, that people are getting paid to do in fact, you know, their bonuses might be reliant upon very clear, measurable tasks. But when you move further away from that, when you have unwritten rules when you have winks and nods, and and, you know, unclear directives, you're asking for trouble, right? And the more this permeates throughout an organization, and the more that people are jockeying for position and visibility based on these voluntary projects that are all voluntary projects that basically we move further away from clear tasks that people have to abide by. Well, again, you're asking for trouble. And so today, we're going to examine the ways that you might be falling into that trap as an individual or as an organization. The first question that we're going to ask to help uncover whether or not this is happening for you and your company is how might an over reliance on volunteerism be limiting your organization's growth prospects? Because what happens when you're overly reliant on volunteers? Well, you might begin to lose some of the incentives that people have when they're getting paid, when they have clear incentive to show up each day. And that's not to disparage anyone who volunteers for anything. There's many organizations that are built on volunteerism. But for the most part, it's very clear when that's the case, it's very clear when you're relying on volunteers, and it's very clear the incentives that are bringing people on board. And those incentives can be you know, pretty wide ranging, some of them might just be feeling good about themselves. Sometimes people are checking the boxes and ticket service hours in for something or other sometimes again, they're maybe being nudged from their their corporate partners, or, you know, the corporate overlords, if you will, to do a certain activity wherever the case might be, at least it's generally pretty straightforward. But what happens in your own company, when a lot of the tasks that are kind of being thrown out there for people to jump on and do is, you know, kind of overwhelming, the clearly defined tasks that might not be as sexy, they might not be as appealing? They might not be as visible? What happens when that's the case? Well, again, you're going to stifle your ability to grow. And it's going to feel like you're just in a constant state of panic, trying to look for Person A, B, or C, whoever's willing to jump up and stand up and do things. And on an individual basis, that's fine. Having incentive and having opportunities for people to to stand up and volunteer and go above and beyond. That's fine. But are you over relying on a system like that? And if so, how can you rectify it? So that's the first question for you to ask today. The next question today is, in what ways might a self serving leader protect the interests of an organization better than a selfless leader? And again, when it comes to politics, how often do you find yourself talking about how great it would be if you just brought in somebody from the outside that that was not in it for themselves that
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truly just came and cared about constituents and cared about people and wanted to get the job done and, and had no other interests there, no financial interest, no other ties was just doing it out of the goodness of his or her heart? Well, that sounds great. And that would be great. But the reality is, there are times within an organization where you need a little bit of selfishness, a little bit of selfishness is not necessarily a bad thing. And even in some, you know, nonprofit organizations, it's it's easy to cast stones at some people who might be highly compensated, who are at the top, and getting the job done for what is a nonprofit organization that relies heavily on volunteers to get the job done. And in many cases, people casting stones don't appreciate that. Sometimes, sometimes you need a financial incentive. Sometimes you want to bring in the best, you want to get the best results, you need some incentives, you need people who are there, and are trying to serve their own interests so that they can serve the interest of everyone else in the nonprofit, maybe better than they would otherwise. And again, you need to ask yourself, are you falling victim to this mindset? Were incentivizing people with money and with material things? And with again, a little bit of a, you know, a, you know, a nod to their ego? Is that always a bad thing? Or are you going so far the other direction where you're going to slowly chip away at what drives many people. And again, that is their own safety, security when it comes to their own financial and professional well being. The next final question for today is how are existing incentives failing to sustain interest and engagement among your employees? And as we just said, we all know that one of the biggest incentives, of course, is money and increasing titles and, and power, if you will, but what other incentives are in place that you have that might not be doing the trick anymore? And again, going back to that first question, are you over relying on people's sense of being a part of something bigger, and being part of a great culture and, and being part of a place that that makes him feel rewarded and happy? Those are all great things, but at the end of the day, are you becoming over reliant on some of those software things? Are you becoming over reliant on the things that are not as tangible, not as measurable, but that at the end of the day, need to be in place in order for you to sustain momentum as a company, and if you don't feel like you're in a good spot when it comes to incentives? Well, again, ask yourself or more importantly, ask your stakeholders, what they're looking for. It can't hurt to ask the question, it can't hurt to have that data. But too many companies now are getting caught up in some of these intangible and well intentioned initiatives that are meant to bring people on board that are meant to incentivize people, but that again, lose sight of the things that are most sustainable for organization. And that is many cases, good compensation, good opportunities for growth and development from an individual standpoint, and opportunities to be part of something that is bigger, and that has purpose. And while you might say that something bigger and purposeful sounds like some of those softer incentives, the reality is, if you are clear about it, or as an organization, and again, if you can measure it As an organization, and if you can show people how they are directly contributing to some bigger purpose. And again, that purpose could be stock price as much as it could be the 1000s, or 10s of 1000s, or hundreds of 1000s of people that are being impacted positively by the work that you do with, again, a nod towards the energy industry who, at times might not get full credit for all of the work that we do to help support people around the world. All that being said, or you're doing a good enough job of demonstrating from a measurable standpoint, how these people are contributing to not only their own well being, but to the well being of everyone else around them. And again, if you're not doing that, how could you do a better job of that. So with all that being said, I appreciate you voluntarily giving up some of your time to listen to the energy detox this morning. And I welcome as always any feedback or comments or criticism that you might have about the topics that we're including each day. And regardless of whether you so choose to provide feedback or so choose to continue listening and watching the energy detox. I would like to thank you again for taking the time today to listen. And with that, I hope you have an excellent rest of the day and excellent rest of the week. And thank you again