To help you answer that question, this live episode of The Energy Detox will use some climate news out of China to reframe the way that you are approaching your professional and personal commitments.

The headline: China says it must consider food and energy security when curbing emissions

The source: Reuters (David Stanway and Dominique Patton)

The takeaway: Just as China says that it needs to “manage the relationship between pollution reduction and carbon reduction and energy security, industrial supply chain security, food security and normal life of the people,” you, too, should be asking how well you're balancing your core principles against potentially conflicting stakeholder demands.

The goal: to (G)row, (P)rotect, and (S)ustain success by pondering these 3 questions throughout your day:

💡 How might your short-term focus be hindering long-term growth?

💡 What are the hidden costs of protecting a flimsy narrative?

💡 What tools are you using to better connect your purpose to your people?

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Thanks to the inescapable “energy crisis” headlines flooding newsfeeds, the world’s AWARENESS of energy—or at least awareness of rising energy costs—is greater than it’s been in years.

As is often the case with headlines, however, they can distract you from underlying issues that may be even more problematic—albeit not quite as sexy or attention-grabbing as something labeled with the word “crisis.”

Similarly, many energy industry leaders are suffering from a “Consciousness Crisis” and are unwittingly ignoring issues that are chipping away at their credibility and effectiveness as they and their teams focus on navigating the energy crisis, the supply chain crisis, the labor crisis, and whatever other crises are grabbing their attention.

That being said—and in honor of Energy Awareness Month—this episode of The Energy Detox will raise awareness of the common (yet often hidden) barriers holding leaders like you back from achieving sustained success.

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How much of your precious time, energy, and money do you invest (waste) on conventional leadership resources?

Are you trying to outrun (or outscroll) an avalanche of books, webinars, podcasts, videos, articles, and nauseating LinkedIn posts?

If so, take a moment to challenge the advice, slogans, and quotes your connections are sharing and ask yourself some of the unconventional questions posed in this episode of The Energy Detox.

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If you thought the Colonial Pipeline attack was bad, just wait until you see how vulnerable your company’s communication pipeline is to leaks, corrosion, bottlenecks, and other potentially catastrophic threats.

And to help you identify those vulnerabilities, this episode of will lay out the 5 most important communications-related questions you and other energy industry leaders need to ask so that you can avoid unwittingly damaging your personal and professional relationships.

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Sure, you may be sitting in the driver’s seat…but your passengers know that your “autopilot” leadership style is driving them away from long-term success.

So, to prevent the leadership equivalent of “highway hypnosis,” we kick off Season 2 of The Energy Detox by sharing 5 parallels between Driving, Drilling, & Leading that you need to be aware of so that you don’t wind up stuck on the side of the road, in a mile deep hole, or at a hopeless organization.

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While the universally condemned events at the U.S. Capitol on January 6 were inexcusable, indefensible, and counter-productive, it remains important for you as a leader to ask whether you might be settling for “peaceful” transitions in your own life when what you and your stakeholders actually need is a little bit of (lawful and non-violent) disruption.

And in this Season 1 finale of The Energy Detox (recorded November 2020), you’ll be encouraged to ask:

1) "In what ways am I unwittingly sabotaging my chances of long-term success because of short-term (and misguided) pressure from my stakeholders?" and

2) “How are the hundreds of discrete ‘transitions of power’ I make each day unwittingly draining my precious time and energy?”

And to help you answer those questions, we’ll weave together examples from sports, parenting, the global “energy transition,” corporate mergers & acquisitions, and—of course—from the U.S. presidential transition.

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The writer H.L. Mencken once said, “For every complex problem, there is an answer that is clear, simple…and wrong.”

And with this idea in mind, one could argue that the KISS principle—which commands us to “keep it simple, stupid”—may not be enough to provide truly sustainable solutions to the many complex problems facing our planet and its 8 billion inhabitants.

And when it comes to leading teams, families, and businesses, it’s unlikely that merely embracing simplicity is going to yield the sustainable success that you and your stakeholders desire.

So, in this episode of The Energy Detox, we propose a slight tweak to the KISS principle that encourages leaders to “keep it sustainable, stupid.”

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