The Energy Detox

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.

And by the end of this episode, you should be asking these questions of yourself:

1) Is my over-reliance on outside resources causing me to take my hands off the wheel?

2) Am I over-investing in one fuel type and ignoring the many benefits of hybrid options?

3) How is my relentless focus on future goals (generally a good thing) causing me to ignore historical information that WOULD be staring right at me if I’d just remember to glance at my mirrors once in a while?

4) Am I ignoring lights and alarms telling me when I need to check my pressure while I unwittingly drive along with a slow leak?

5) While my company (and the energy industry as a whole) drive ahead at 100MPH, do I at least remember to slow down BEFORE heading into a turn so that I don't lose control?

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:


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


And, to help you answer that question, today’s episode of The Energy Detox podcast will encourage you to do 2 things:

1) Determine how your existing “transition team” might be setting you up for failure; and

2) Develop a leadership mindset that generates an INCREASE in power during all types of transitions…even those that might seem like a one-sided concession of power to another party.


And along the way, we’ll drill into examples from the presidential transition, the global "energy transition," and the career transitions that many oil & gas professionals have faced throughout 2020.

Looking for the CliffsNotes version of “How to Successfully Lead a Sustainable Oil & Gas Career?”

Well, you’re not going to discover it in this 12,000 word episode of The Energy Detox podcast.

You will, however, hear Gyrodata’s Stephen Forrester outline the competitive advantage that (good) writing plays for the smattering of individuals and organizations who will manage to thrive in the face of today’s challenging energy landscape.

Stephen also shares his first-hand experience navigating this industry as an English major, while providing an impassioned plea to re-introduce the good old-fashioned paragraph as a way of countering the onslaught of superficial writing bombarding our eyes each day. 

Connect with Stephen:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/slforrester/

E-mail: [email protected]

Stephen's Book Recommendations:

The Red and the Black by Stendhal

Kokoro by Natsume Sōseki

Kazuo Ishiguro

Haruki Murakami

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 nearly 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.”

On the heels of last episode’s “Trillion Dollar Coach” discussion, we now turn to the wisdom of another “coach” who unwittingly put his life in jeopardy in order to help someone else follow a dream.

And building on this coach’s assertion that “everyone has a big ‘but’,” we’ll explore the impacts that little “buts” can have on success and leave you with 3 things to keep in mind as you lead your team, your family, and yourself toward a more sustainable future:

1) You can openly acknowledge and embrace your "buts" without allowing them to drain your energy and slow you down;

2) You can help your stakeholders understand how to use their “buts” as an opportunity to grow; and

3) That while using blunt or negative words like "but" and “however” and “no” can have unintended consequences, artificially avoiding words that occasionally need to be said to others—and to yourself—can sometimes cause even greater damage.

ADDITIONAL “BUT” AVOIDANCE RESOURCES:

From Fast Company: “The One Word That’s Undermining Everything Else You Say”

From Marshall Goldsmith: “Do you begin Every Sentence with No, But or However?”

From Success Magazine: “5 Things Successful Leaders Don’t Say”

By many measures, the energy industry is losing.  It’s losing momentum, relevance, and plenty of money.

And more importantly, it’s losing the current and future talent necessary to generate any meaningful and sustainable recovery.

So the question for current energy leaders today isn’t merely how best to streamline operations, clean up the balance sheet, and ride things out until market conditions improve.  It’s how to ensure that the people executing on whatever strategy is set forth remain engaged, confident, and proud of an industry that has contributed so much to the health and well-being of the planet, regardless of increasing attempts to “cancel” fossil fuels.

So, in today’s episode of The Energy Detox, you’ll jump into the shoes of a football coach whose team is losing by two touchdowns at half-time.  And you’ll ask yourself whether you’re currently 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.

Do you ever feel like your time and energy are escaping over a bridge to nowhere?

Have you ever considered yourself as CEO…of yourself?

And do you ever desire to proactively set off a few targeted charges to avoid an uncontrolled explosion later on?

If you answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions…or if you just want to understand the benefits of having a team meeting where you’ll address each different version of yourself, then we invite you to enjoy this episode of The Energy Detox podcast.

In this episode of The Energy Detox podcast, we reveal a different type of PPE that will protect your prior successes without becoming a barrier to continued progress.

And we’ll also demonstrate the universal value of a “safety mindset” that can be gained by asking three simple questions:

1) What is actually worth protecting?

2) Am I falling victim to a false sense of security?

3) What hazards can I influence…and which ones are outside of my control?

And, finally, if you're unwittingly investing too much time trying to predict and prevent the hazards that will limit your success instead of spending time improving your ability to respond when things inevitably don't go as planned, we’ll also help you strengthen your adaptability in the face of challenges so that you can take the decisive action expected of great leaders. 

At this point in your life, you are well aware that failures and mistakes are necessary building blocks for long-term success.  You have countless experiences to prove that the “best laid plans…often go awry.”  And you know that seemingly straightforward data can often be misleading and shouldn’t always be taken at face value.

So why do you instinctively assume that bad results mean that the decision that led to those results was also bad?  Why does your embrace of “extreme ownership” and your “no excuses” attitude prevent you from acknowledging the fact that sound decisions sometimes lead to poor results?

In this episode of The Energy Detox, we encourage you to generate more confidence in your leadership and in the decision-making abilities of you and your stakeholders by keeping one question front and center: “Do the results speak for themselves?”

In this second part of our "authentically fraudulent" conversation, host Joe Sinnott encourages you to move beyond the typical "personal brand building" exercises that we're all encouraged to do and instead spend time crafting an autobiography of sorts...even if you're the only one who will ever read it.


Because as polished as your social media presence and content might be, and as impressive as your resume and LinkedIn profile are, nothing is going to drive you forward more effectively and confidently than carrying with you a deep understanding of the authentic experiences from your own life that set you apart from others.