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April 14, 2025 14 mins

Energy is at the core of developed societies.

Feedback is at the core of developed leaders.

Those two core truths converge on Route 50 in Avella, PA, site of Episode 110 of The Energy Detox podcast, which draws on:

1) The 50-50-50 Energy Corps vision announced by EQT’s Toby Rice and Dr. Scott Tinker last month at CERAWeek—50 MWh and $50K GDP per capita within 50 years to lift people out of energy poverty and help them thrive.

2 - The Meadowcroft Rockshelter and Historic Village—a reminder of how people in North America lived, but didn’t necessarily thrive, for most of the last 19,000 years without modern energy.

The result is a 50-50-50 feedback challenge that pushes you—and other energy leaders—to consciously give and request 1 piece of feedback each day for the next 50 days—so that you and your stakeholders don't just survive...but thrive.

For more information (and to download a simple feedback challenge tracking sheet), visit: https://Feedback50.com

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
So you already know that energyis the core of a developed

(00:04):
society, but what is the core ofa developed leader? Well, I Joe
Sinnott, I'm standing here alongRoute 50 in Avella, Pennsylvania
to make the claim that feedbackis the core of a developed
leader. And over the next coupleof minutes, I'll explain why I'm
standing here in Avella,Pennsylvania to make that claim,
and I'll also offer somepractical ways to take advantage

(00:28):
of feedback, to proactivelyincrease your access to feedback
so that you can flourish as aleader, much as societies that
have access to energy are ableto flourish and realize their
full potential. But first again,why am I standing here along
Route 50 in Avella,Pennsylvania?
Well, first reason is becauseI'm a mere three miles away from

(00:49):
the Meadowcroft rock shelterthat is a historical site that
you can visit. Well, not rightnow. You got to wait till May,
but when it opens back up inMay, you can go ahead and visit
and get a sense of what life waslike for human beings here in
Washington County, 19,000 yearsago. Because on that site you
have access to the archeologicalfind that is the first find, and

(01:13):
the first evidence of humanbeings living here in North
America, again, 19,000 yearsago. And also on that site, they
have a historical village whichis set up to showcase what life
was like for the Monongahelatribe four or 500 years ago in
this part of the world, and thenin the 17th and 18th and even
19th century, as human beingssettled here and eventually got

(01:34):
closer and closer to theIndustrial Revolution. Again,
you can get a sense of what lifewas like. And of course, the
reality is, life was not alwayseasy. In some cases, it was
probably downright miserable, inpart because those human beings
did not have access toplentiful, easy, available
energy, and so too with you as aleader, if you are not making

(01:57):
yourself available and takingadvantage of feedback, both the
giving of feedback and thereceiving of feedback. Again,
life for you and yourstakeholders may very well be
miserable. You may find yourselfsurviving as, again, human
beings survived in this area forthe last 19,000 years. But it
might not always be pretty. Youmight find yourself in a bit of

(02:19):
a, I don't know, primitivestage, if you will, of
leadership, because survival isnot the goal. Thriving is the
goal. Flourishing is the goal.
Lifting people up is the goal.
Which brings us to anotherreason that I'm standing here
along Route 50 in novella,Pennsylvania, because there was
an initiative announced about amonth ago by eqts Toby rice and

(02:39):
Dr Scott Tinker of switch EnergyAlliance, called energy core.
And the whole idea there was tolift people out of energy
poverty so that they can thrive.
And their mechanism for doingthat is a very simple,
straightforward, clear plan thatrevolves around the number 50,
much like the number 50 that'sover my shoulder and their 50
5050. Plan is essentiallygetting every human being access

(03:03):
to 50 megawatt hours ofelectricity per capita per year,
and 50,000 US dollars in GDP percapita per year, both of which
represent the average amount ofenergy and GDP for the developed
world. And that 50, 50, 50,plan, again, set out over the

(03:28):
next 50 years, is a nice, simplething that I'm going to steal
here on this episode of theenergy detox to help make it
easier for you to lift yourselfand others out of feedback
poverty, if you will. That istaking the concept of 50, 50,
50, and encouraging, if notchallenging you over the next 50
days to consciously provide onepiece of feedback to somebody

(03:54):
else that you might nototherwise give each day for the
next 50 years, and toconsciously request feedback
from somebody else each day overthe next 50 days. And I say
consciously, because I am sureif you're listening to this or
watching this, you're saying,Well, I give and receive
feedback all the time. In fact,I think I'm pretty good at it.

(04:14):
But the question is, are youdoing it consciously? Sure you
might go throughout your day,and again, you might offer
feedback and observations, andagain, ingest feedback and
observations, you might even askfor it, but are you slowing down
to do it in the most effectivemanner possible? And that's the
idea behind this challenge. Andof course, I'll share that this
challenge, this idea, thisfeedback, 50, if you will, is
not unique. There's no shortageof other approaches out there to

(04:37):
help kind of work that feedbackmuscle that you can find in
various leadership books andresources and programs.
But again, on the heels of thatannouncement of energy core, why
not take this and tie it intoyour role as a leader in the
energy industry to again, liftyourself and others out of what
is so often a figurative uh.
Feedback, poverty state, if youwill. And so to make this just a

(05:02):
little bit easier, over the next50 days, you can go to feedback,
fifty.com that's feedback andthe number fifty.com and you can
download a very simple Excelsheet to make tracking this
initiative very easy. Becauseagain, feedback shouldn't be
complicated. It shouldn't be abig burden, but it should also

(05:22):
be done in a very conscious way.
Heck, that's the name of mycompany, winning partners,
right? The whole idea of being aconscious partner to other
people, and that's a two waystreet. You want to be aware of
when you're giving feedback. Youwant to be aware and slow down
when you're receiving feedbackso that you can make the most
out of it, because just givingpeople aid, just giving people

(05:44):
information, and then hopingthat they run with it often
isn't enough. Again, going backto the energy core, that's very
much their philosophy. It's notjust a matter of distributing
aid, but helping lift Entiresocieties out of the state that
they're in so that they canthrive, so that they can
flourish, so that being said,this is an opportunity for you,
over the next 50 days, toreceive 50 pieces of feedback

(06:06):
that you might not otherwisereceive, or at least be aware
of, and to give 50 pieces offeedback that you might not
otherwise give.
And so with that, the lastcouple minutes here, I'm going
to share a couple additionalthoughts on feedback, in fact, a
couple of additional items ofpushback that I often receive
when the topic of feedback comesup in my one on one

(06:27):
conversations and group coachingconversations, starting with
this idea that there needs to besome magic ratio of positive
feedback to negative feedback.
Again, you might be familiarwith the cliched feedback
sandwich, whereby if you have todeliver some tough constructive
feedback, you give some positivefeedback first, and then you
slip in the harsh, toughnegative feedback in the middle,
and then you finish withsomething positive. And again,

(06:48):
the intention there is sound,but often it's not done in a
very genuine way, and it canleave a bad taste in people's
mouth. No pun intended, giventhe sandwich metaphor and so to
that, I say, don't think offeedback as positive or
negative. Think of it asneutral. Thinking of it as
observation. You know, think ofthose scientists for the last

(07:11):
couple decades at Meadow Croft,right? You know, they're not
worried about, you know, goodfines, bad fines, whatever.
They're just there to findstuff, to uncover answers, to
uncover facts and to share thatwith the world. From a
scientific standpoint, in fact,I think it's on the order of 2
million artifacts and eco factsthat have been found at that
site over the last couple ofdecades. Again, it's all kinds

(07:33):
of data that scientists, orreally anybody in the general
public, can use to either formopinions about, you know, how
humans have adapted here inwestern Pennsylvania and not
North American general over thelast several 1000 years? Or to
make silly videos like this tohelp you be a more effective
leader in the energy industry,either way, we're talking about
facts, neutral facts. So too,should you look at your feedback

(07:56):
if I'm observing something thatyou're doing doesn't matter if
it's positive or negative, it'sinformation that you can use to
make your own decision. Think offeedback that way to make it a
little bit easier, so thatyou're not worried about
pointing out something thatmight put people on the
defensive. And again, let'sbuild on sports analogies here,
where the day after the Masters,where Rory McIlroy pulled out a
thrilling playoff victory overJustin Rose, well, think about

(08:17):
somebody like Rory, one of thebest golfers in the world. You
think he wants feedback? Yes, hewants feedback. Every piece of
information that he can ingestis going to be valuable for him
to be the best at what he does.
And if somebody just happens tonotice that, hey, his ball is,
you know, different spot in hisstance or or maybe he developed

(08:38):
this slight lean one way or theother, he's going to want to
want to know that, and it's nota positive thing or a negative
thing. Maybe he already knowsabout it, but simply pointing it
out and saying, Hey, look, hey,here's what I observed worry do
without what you may that's yourphilosophy. That can be your
approach to feedback,observations neutral
observations that you don't haveto worry about upsetting
somebody or being overlypositive and patting them on the

(09:02):
back. No, see what you can andshare that information with the
other person.
That being said, another commonarea of pushback is, well, you
know, I don't have anything elseto offer. This person's a rock
star. Or conversely, if youknow, you think of yourself as a
rock star, and you go aroundasking for people to give you
feedback, you know, what isholding them back? What is
preventing them from giving yousomething valuable? Well, in

(09:24):
some cases, the reality is, youknow what you might be very
strong at what you do, or theperson that you're working with
might be very strong at whatthey do. And so the antidote to
that, in many cases, is one ofmy favorite questions, which is,
okay, well, what am I alreadystrong at? Or what are you
already strong at? That can youknow, maybe see more of the
light of day. What strengths doyou have that are maybe somewhat

(09:44):
suppressed because of theenvironment or the projects
you're working on, that we canleverage a little bit more? What
are some things that you're goodat, that you really enjoy, that
again, you don't have anopportunity to do that's a great
way to give constructivefeedback. And again, if you see
some strengths in people that.
You can share to say, hey, forwhat it's worth, I've noticed
that you're effective atspeaking or delivering a message
or really diving into thesetechnical problems. What are

(10:06):
some ways to take more advantageof it? It's a great, excellent
again, I would argue positivepiece of feedback. That is a
great way to overcome this sensethat people get into of yeah,
there's really not much moreroom for development. So why
would I go through and try toforce myself to engage in this
silly feedback 50 exercise?

(10:28):
And the third observation, ifnot again, push back item that I
receive is, well, you know, I'mbusy. How am I really going to
slow down, especially if you'rein the energy industry, to
consciously give and receivethat feedback. Joe, you know,
it's hard enough to schedulethose quarterly or annual
performance sit downs withpeople. How am I going to really

(10:50):
find the time to do this?
There's all kinds of otherinitiatives and daily things I
can do, whether it's from aphysical standpoint and working
out, or maybe it's spiritualgrowth, whatever. Joe, the last
thing I'm going to do is add onsome other initiative that is
inevitably going to fade afterthree or four days, to which I
say, Well, look for thoseexcuses to make it easy, right?
Look for those excuses in themoment to ask for feedback. And

(11:10):
again, we've talked about thison many episodes of the energy
detox. But one of the easiestthings you can do is, as soon as
you leave a meeting, as you'rewalking down the hallway, hey,
ask the person for someimmediate, timely feedback on
how you performed, what youshared. And hey, ask them if you
could say, Hey, I made a coupleobservations. Can I share again?
This doesn't have to be extratime that's set aside. What

(11:32):
excuses Do you already have inyour day to make it as seamless
and easy as possible? And thenagain, go ahead and track it to
build that feedback muscle, totake advantage of it, so that,
again, you can, in essence,strengthen your leadership core,
which, again, I would argue,starts with feedback.

(11:52):
So that being said, I'd beremiss not to end this episode
of the energy detox by askingfor your feedback. 110 episodes
into this series. What are yourobservations? Again, doesn't
have to be positive or negative,although I will happily accept
both. What would you like to seemore of? What have you found
most useful? What episodes haveyou found to be meh, a waste of

(12:13):
your time. Let me know,privately, publicly, it doesn't
matter. It's what I need to helpgrow. It's what I need the
energy detox. What I need forthe energy detox to keep growing
and providing value. And again,I'd be remiss not to go through
this feedback 50 challenge, ifyou will, at the same time as
you.
So that being said, you can headon over, as I said before, to

(12:33):
feedback, fifty.com that'sfeedback. The number fifty.com
you can download that simpleExcel sheet. And again, before
we close out, the last thingI'll remind you of is that
consciousness piece that wetalked about about 10 minutes
ago. It's not enough to just gothrough the motions and give and
receive feedback. You need toask yourself, Am I doing it in a
conscious manner? Am I seeingeverything that's there that I

(12:56):
can convey to this other person,and is that other person that
I'm requesting feedback from Arethey really taking the time to
say? What else? What else isthere? What else is this
individual doing that maybe heor she doesn't realize it's that
consciousness piece that's goingto take you to the next level.
It's that consciousness piecethat's going to lift you out of
a state of again, feedbackpoverty, and it's that

(13:17):
consciousness piece that's goingto help differentiate you from
the 1000s of other leaders outthere that you know might have a
similar background, but don'tnecessarily act in that
conscious, intentional wittingmanner that I am challenging you
to do so with that as always.
Thank you for tuning in to thisepisode of the energy detox from
beautiful Avella Pennsylvania,here in Washington County and

(13:38):
again here in a couple weeks,when Meadowcroft, rock shelter
and historic village opens, Iencourage you to head on over
check it out and again, use thatas a reminder of not just what
human life was like before,abundant, affordable, accessible
energy like that that's producedbelow my feet here in Washington
County, but also how deprivedyou and the world around you

(14:01):
might be from a leadershipstandpoint, if you are not
tapping into sound, solid,regular feedback. So with that,
take care. Thanks again, andhave a great rest of the week.
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