Is there any better day than today—National Poultry Day—to ask yourself:
"In what ways am I acting like a chicken?"
And is there any better month than March—Women's History Month—to ask yourself:
"How are the chickens leading my company unwittingly stifling the career development of our organization's women despite all of the surface level corporate commitments to 'diversity, equity, and inclusion?'"
Read MoreWhat better day to honor Chuck Woolery—former host of 'Love Connection' and owner of the classic pre-commercial-break phrase, "We'll be back in two and two"—than today, Tuesday 2/22/22?
And what better way to honor Chuck & and 'Love Connection' than by taking 2 minutes and 2 seconds to ask yourself how many of the connections in your life—be they related to love, business, career, faith, friendship, etc.—are INTENTIONAL connections...
...and how many of of your connections are merely based on feelings, passions, opinions, and trends that are as volatile as the price of oil?
Read MoreIn honor of Jerome Bettis’ 50th birthday, this episode of The Energy Detox will share the many ways that The Bus exemplifies sustainable leadership.
Read MoreIn honor of the feast of St. Josephine Bakhita—patron saint of human trafficking—and the "International Day of Prayer for Victims of Human Trafficking," this episode of The Energy Detox takes a break from the usual conversations about leadership and the energy industry to boost your awareness of (and encourage you to take action on) an issue that trumps most of the relatively comfortable topics corporations weave into their Corporate Sustainability Reports.
Read MoreThis episode of The Energy Detox weaves together 1) an announced alliance formed by EQT Corp, Marathon, U.S. Steel, and others to develop an Appalachian hydrogen hub, 2) the kickoff to Beijing's hydrogen-fueled, closed-loop, fortress-like Olympics, and 3) one of the easiest and most effective ways you can (but likely aren't) helping fuel future leaders.
Read MoreWhat leadership nutrients are found in Meat Loaf & American Pie?
Well, in honor of the 63rd anniversary of "the day the music died" when 3 young Rock ‘N' Rollers perished in a plane crash—and in recognition of another musical death 2 weeks ago—this episode of The Energy Detox will extract 5 sustainable leadership lessons/questions from 3 of Meat Loaf's hits to help you avoid a premature (leadership) demise.
Read MoreIf the Hedge Hog known as Petroleum Phil casts a shadow on February 2, should commodities traders expect 6 more months of $80 oil?
If you make one “bad” prediction against a slew of “good” ones, should that one bad prediction define you?
Well, in this Groundhog Day episode of The Energy Detox, we’ll help you 1) avoid putting too much stock in the results of a single prediction and 2) look for times when your fear of making decisions is holding you and your stakeholders back from sustained success.
Read More"Do you have the capacity to take on more work?"
Is your default answer to that question:
A) "Well...[audible sigh]...my plate is pretty full...maybe if I wasn't so swamped...[grimace and hope person walks away]."
B) "Absolutely! Bring it on!"
C) "I could probably reprioritize a few things on the ol' to-do list if needed and if you're willing to step through potential tradeoffs. Whatcha got?"
Well, as with conversations about electric generating "capacity" or pipeline "capacity," the way you think and speak about your personal "capacity" can be misleading—wittingly or unwittingly—to yourself or your audience.
That being said—and inspired by different reactions to this week's news that "Solar power will account for nearly half of new electric generating capacity in 2022," this episode of The Energy Detox will help you:
1) Do a better job of asking others about their capacity/bandwidth; and
2) Provide more honest, specific, and helpful responses when answering how much room you have on your own plate.
Read MoreWhat's your favorite and/or most nauseating leadership cliché?
"Do more with less?"
"Think outside the box?"
"There is no 'I' in team?"
"There are no stupid questions?"
Or is it, perhaps, "Don't run AWAY from something...run TOWARD something,” which is the focus of today’s episode of The Energy Detox, which is driven by a recent Hart Energy article that points out how running AWAY from fossil fuels via divestment is a short-sighted and counter-productive approach for those who erroneously THINK they're running toward a more rapid energy transition.
The reality is that a "divestment mindset" will make it more difficult to meet the growing energy needs of our planet, a goal that all "runners" should be focused on.
And, as Citi's Chief Sustainability Officer Val Smith notes in the article, "We are going to have a very disruptive transition if divestment is part of that conversation."
So with that in mind, take a moment to ponder whatever professional and personal transitions are brewing in your life and ask whether you've become overly focused on "divestment" or whether you're truly excited about investing in something new.
Read MoreQ: What can Danny Tanner, the Pittsburgh Steelers, and Elizabeth Warren teach you about Leadership Humility?
A: That it’s ok to ask for a little help from your friends.
🆘 Danny Tanner—played by the late Bob Saget on 'Full House'—sought the help of his friend Joey and his brother-in-law Jesse to support Danny's daughters following the death of their mother.
🆘 The Steelers sought the help of the Jaguars, Raiders, and Chargers yesterday to make the playoffs as they helped themselves to an upset road win against the Ravens.
🆘 Senator Warren SHOULD seek help from her friends in Appalachia as her Massachusetts constituents 1) face the potential of blackouts and natural gas shortages this winter; 2) pay far more for energy than residents of Pennsylvania; and 3) rely on imports of natural gas from not-so-friendly Russians.
All that being said, this episode of The Energy Detox will challenge your leadership humility and help you (G)row, (P)rotect, and (S)ustain success by encouraging you to answer these 3 questions:
💡 In what ways is your refusal to seek help hindering your ability to grow?
💡 What do you think you're protecting by ignoring assistance from others?
💡 For how long can you sustain momentum before you need a push or pull from someone else?
Read MoreOn January 3, 2022, “Geriatric Millennial” Ben Roethlisberger likely played his final home game for the Steelers; and the Steelers may have played their final game under the shadows of giant ‘Heinz 57’ ketchup bottles.
And in this live episode of The Energy Detox, we use those headlines to help you defend against ageism in the oil & gas industry—regardless of whether you’re on the kicking or receiving end of this value-destroying problem.
Read More"Net-Zero: To boldly go where every corporation has gone—or said they're going to go—before!"
Do you honestly believe that the predictions or resolutions you're making for the new year are "bold?"
Or do you know that what you're saying or promising isn't much different from the scripted and stale words of a CEO trying to convince his stakeholders that his company's long-term net-zero plan—or in some cases, a "plan to come up with a plan"—is something unique or praiseworthy?
Either way, this episode of The Energy Detox will help you realize that there's nothing bolder than taking action TODAY to help yourself and your company (G)row, (P)rotect, and (S)ustain success. RIGHT. NOW.
That being said—and as you devote time and #energy looking ahead to the new year and beyond—take a moment to ponder the words of Marcus Freeman from his first address to the Notre Dame football team as their head coach a few weeks ago:
"This isn't about the future...this is about right now."
Read MoreAre you unwittingly spreading toxicity among your professional and personal stakeholders?
Find out now by taking a simple 3-step test that merely requires answers to these questions:
1 - In what ways are you limiting the growth of those around you?
2 - How might you be protecting yourself at the expense of others?
3 - How sustainable are your demands and expectations?
NOTE: Self-administered tests have a much higher likelihood of false negatives than tests administered by an independent third party...especially if that third party also tests your friends, family, employees, co-workers, and other close contacts.
Read MoreWhat's one Christmas "gift" you've received that turned out to be nothing but trouble?
🎁 A new puppy...that immediately ate all the other presents?
🎁 A promotion...that destroyed a career?
🎁 Free cheese...that harmed the health of its lactose intolerant recipients?
🎁 Renewable energy...that led to a cold, dark Christmas?
On today's live Christmas-themed episode of The Energy Detox, we'll string together the following topics to help you be a more conscious leader...and gift-giver:
📰 The 40 year anniversary of the "Government Cheese" Program
📰 Last month's Strategic Petroleum Reserves headlines
📰 The unintended consequences of renewable #energy
And as always, we'll gift you 3 questions to help you (𝐆)𝐫𝐨𝐰, (𝐏)𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 (𝐒)𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧 success:
💡 Are you unwittingly growing a stockpile of moldy, smelly, and over-processed #leadership gimmicks?
💡 In what ways might the "gifts" you're giving your employees actually inflicting harm?
💡 What's one gift you can give your team that they'll actually still use a year from now?
Read MoreWell, with the U.S. Department of Energy announcing a new $20 billion "Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations" yesterday, what better time to ask yourself whether you're better at TALKING about your theoretical value or DEMONSTRATING your actual results.
So, to help answer that question, today's live episode of The Energy Detox turns to the personification of CLEAN ENERGY DEMONSTRATIONS: the late Pittsburgh native and OxiClean spokesman Billy Mays.
The headline: 𝐃𝐎𝐄 𝐄𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐬 𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐎𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐂𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐄𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐲 𝐃𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐔𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐢𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐧 𝐈𝐧𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐋𝐚𝐰
The goal: to (𝐆)𝐫𝐨𝐰, (𝐏)𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 (𝐒)𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧 success by pondering these 3 questions throughout your day:
💡 Do you have a clean and clear vision of the results your audience expects you to produce?
💡 How well are you protecting and promoting your prior successes?
💡 What are all the ways you can demonstrate your current and future impact on the "real world?"
Read MoreIf you live north of the Equator, you'll experience the shortest, darkest day of the year today.
If you follow The Energy Detox, you probably expect some friendly reminders and/or bad puns about how the oil and gas industry helps figuratively and literally brighten the world.
If you follow workforce trends, you've undoubtedly seen headlines about rampant burnout, exhaustion, and figurative darkness permeating many organizations.
And if you tune into this live episode of "The Daily Detox," you'll answer 3 questions that will help you address employee engagement, morale, and well-being issues plaguing today’s energy industry:
💡 (G)ROW: What is ONE way you can you better connect with ONE employee TODAY?
💡 (P)ROTECT: Are you unwittingly widening fractures between corporate "wellness programs" and company culture?
💡 (S)USTAIN: How much time, money, and energy are you wasting on outside "fixes" to workplace burnout, anxiety, & disengagement?
Read MoreDoes it make sense for an oil & gas operator to spend $1 billion to prevent $30 million in costs associated with fishing, sidetracks, screenouts and other unplanned—yet manageable—events?
Does it make sense for leaders like you to place all your faith in a "foolproof" plan that makes you look like a fool when you're unable to adapt to some unforeseen issue?
While you're likely to answer "no" to each of those questions, you're also likely to spend more time than you should today worrying more about perfecting plans than about perfecting your ability to adapt to changing conditions...especially when it comes to talent management within your organization.
So in this live episode of The Energy Detox, we draw upon recent industry news, a recent controversial Joe Rogan podcast, and a few sports analogies to help you ask the questions needed to appropriately balance the PREVENTION of personnel problems with the TREATMENT of talent troubles so that you—and your company—emerge as a more sustainable leader.
The headline: 𝐎𝐦𝐢𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐧 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐮𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐃𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐍𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐓𝐞𝐫𝐦 𝐕𝐨𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 (Rigzone)
The goal: to (𝐆)𝐫𝐨𝐰, (𝐏)𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 (𝐒)𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧 success by pondering these 3 questions throughout your day:
💡 How might your small and stale playbook be limiting your growth potential?
💡 Are you worrying more about your competition than your customers?
💡 Have you unwittingly become over-dependent on offense, defense, or special teams?
Read MoreWhen it comes to investing in yourself, your team, or your company, it's easy to default to a fairly limited menu of training & development options.
But just as the decision by New York City Council yesterday to ban clean, domestic, reliable, affordable, plentiful Natural Gas from new construction will lead to plenty of unintended consequences for NYC residents (at least the ones who don't decide to move out of NY by the time the ban takes effect), your decision—whether conscious or unconscious—to limit access to certain resources may be costing you a whole lot more than you realize.
That being said, this live episode of The Energy Detox will help YOU avoid unwittingly cutting off access to resources that can elevate you and your organization above your short-sighted competitors.
The headline: 𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐘𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐂𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐠𝐚𝐬 𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐮𝐩𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐟𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐜𝐥𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 (CNBC)
The goal: to (𝐆)𝐫𝐨𝐰, (𝐏)𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 (𝐒)𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧 success by pondering these 3 questions throughout your day:
💡 What are all the resources that can best fuel sustained growth and development?
💡 Which resources are you unwittingly discouraging yourself or your stakeholders from accessing?
💡 In what ways are sexy and short-term "solutions" blinding you from proven and sustainable resources?
Read MoreToday is not only "National Cat Herders Day," but it's also the 4th anniversary of the death of AIM: AOL Instant Messenger.
Born in May 1997, AIM left this world on December 15, 2017 at the age of 20, providing a great excuse for us today to ask how you might unwittingly be killing whatever "aims" you have as a leader...and whether the time, energy, and money you're devoting to achieving your stated intentions are really just masking the fact that you're an ineffective leader who is aimlessly trying to herd cats.
The headlines:
📰 ‘Enormous buying power of federal government’: Biden aims for carbon-neutral U.S. by 2050 with new executive order (MarketWatch)
📰 Music Industry unites to pledge net-zero emissions by 2050 (The Guardian)
📰 Nebraska aims to decarbonize its power sector by 2050 (The Hill)
The quotes:
💬 "If you aim at nothing, you'll hit it every time." - Zig Ziglar
💬 "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky
💬 "Aim small, miss small." - The Patriot
The questions:
💡 (G)ROW: How well can your stakeholders articulate your supposed goals?
💡 (P)ROTECT: What's holding your team back from taking the shots needed to secure victory?
💡 (S)USTAIN: How well can you shift between big picture targets and discreet intermediate steps?
Read More20 years ago today, news broke that George O'Leary had resigned as Notre Dame's head football coach less than 5 days after being hired.
The reason: a few "inaccuracies" on his resume.
Now, did the masters degree (that he didn't actually complete) or his time as a fullback at the University of New Hampshire (where he didn't actually play) have anything to do with why he was hired by Notre Dame? Nope...O'Leary was hired for his proven ability to coach.
Did O'Leary even remember that his resume/bio still referred to those 2 lies that he'd included 20 years prior while trying to get a job? Maybe...but 2 decades after he'd first fibbed about his credentials, those lies probably weren't keeping him up at night.
Can we really draw parallels between the resignation of a college football coach in 2001 and leaders within today's energy industry? Absolutely!
In fact, given the number of job-seekers (and gainfully employed folks) in oil and gas who are worried that their resumes "aren't good enough," today is a great day for you to consider the ways that you might be unwittingly opening yourself or others up to integrity issues that could cost you a whole lot more than just your dream job.
It's also a great day to remember that threats to your integrity are often far more subtle than the blatant threats posed by countless phone scammers trying to take advantage of utility customers over the holiday season...
The headline: 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐔𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐒𝐜𝐚𝐦𝐬 𝐈𝐧𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐃𝐚𝐲, 𝐏𝐆&𝐄 𝐖𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐇𝐞𝐥𝐩 𝐂𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐓𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐩𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐦𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐅𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐕𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐦 (Business Wire)
The goal: to (𝐆)𝐫𝐨𝐰, (𝐏)𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 (𝐒)𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧 success by pondering these 3 questions throughout your day:
💡 What are you most tempted to "fib" about to increase your odds of short-term success?
💡 What are the biggest daily threats to your integrity and reputation?
💡 What baggage can you get rid of to sustain the trust of your stakeholders?
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