90 Billion Reasons You Should Start an Energy Leadership ‘Shop Class’

Mike Rowe proposed that "somebody somewhere carves out just a little sliver" from the $90B of announced investments "and allocates it for better storytelling" so that kids, parents, and guidance counselors can SEE the prosperity that flows from learning and using in-demand skills.

While the insights and solutions Mike shared during yesterday's Energy & Innovation Summit were focused on BIG PICTURE, WIDE-RANGING workforce challenges, his comments equally apply to leaders like you who unwittingly miss opportunities to carve out "just a little sliver" of time to better showcase the work you and your team do and, in turn, significantly boost engagement and understanding among your INTERNAL stakeholders.

As discussed in Episode 116 of The Energy Detox (appropriately recorded amidst the noise of hard-working construction workers performing "dirty jobs" outside of PPG Paints Arena), the reason that you—and many of the leaders who took part in the CMU summit—miss those opportunities is because you're busy taking the ACTIONS and busy generating RESULTS that are expected of you.

However, sometimes actions do NOT speak louder than words; and sometimes results do NOT speak for themselves.

So, take a moment to ask yourself:

"How can I use the idea of a 'shop class' to more effectively expose internal stakeholders to the work that my team and I do?"

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hello and welcome to The EnergyDetox coming to you today from

(00:03):
outside the EQT gate at PPGPaints Arena, a couple miles
away from the big Energy andInnovation Summit that occurred
yesterday on the campus ofCarnegie Mellon University. And
during that summit, there was awhole list of all stars or heavy
hitters, or whatever analogy youwant to use to last night's MLB

(00:23):
All Star game who talked.
There's a lot of panels or hoursof talking, all of which is
publicly available for you towatch or listen to, if you're so
inclined. But throughout all ofthat talking, there's one
speaker, there's one set ofinsights that stood out to me,
and that speaker was Mike Roweof Dirty Jobs fame, a show that
has been on air for 22 years.

(00:47):
And Mike Rowe was addressingsomething critical to the macro
conversation, that is, ifcompanies are going to invest 90
plus billion dollars into theCommonwealth of Pennsylvania,
well, they're going to needpeople. They're going to need
workers to actually put thatmoney to use. You're actually
going to need people employeddoing the things that need to
get done, especially as itrelates to the trades,

(01:09):
construction and electricalworkers, anything that's
involved in manufacturing andthe putting up of new buildings
and infrastructure that is goingto fuel the future here in
Pennsylvania and, in turn,throughout the United States.
But Mike's comments, in my mind,at least we're not limited to
again, that macro. He wasn'tthus there my mind, addressing

(01:31):
the big needs of thesecompanies, the big needs of our
nation. To me, he was touchingon something that a lot of
leaders that I work with fail todo, and that is to showcase
exactly what it is that theyaccomplish. Because there's so
many leaders, you may very wellbe one of them who is
unwittingly resting on yourlaurels, but unwittingly

(01:53):
allowing the results to speakfor themselves, when in many
cases they don't. There's manyleaders, again, including
yourself, who are missing out onopportunities to better
showcase, to betterstorytelling, and that was the
point of Mike yesterday. Hesaid, we need to do a better job
of storytelling. We need to do abetter job of showing what it is
these jobs entail. And we'll getinto more details exactly about

(02:17):
what Mike said.
But for those of you who'vealready had enough of this
episode. I least want to leaveyou with that question, which
is, what opportunities do youhave to better showcase, to
better tell your story? To notstop when these nice, pretty,
sexy results, if you will, areshared with your stakeholders,
we're in the midst of Q2earnings season, when companies
are pulling together all oftheir results to show to

(02:41):
investors and anybody else that,hey, you know what? We're not
just a bunch of words. We're notjust a bunch of empty promises.
You know, here are the actionsthat we take, and here are the
results that we're taking. Andthat's good, but what I'm saying
today is that it's not enough.
It's not enough to say, hey, youknow, actions speak louder than
words. And, you know, here arethe results that we've
generated. Sometimes youactually need to showcase those
results show how the sausage ismade, if you will, to a greater

(03:01):
extent than you currently are.
And while this certainly appliesto current and future labor and
showcasing, again, what weldersdo, what electricians do, what
the construction workers who I'msurrounded by here, your PPG
paints arena are doing rightnow, it's equally important for
you, especially if you're in awhite collar role, to also

(03:24):
showcase how you actuallyachieve those results, to shed
some light into what it is youdo on a day to day basis, so
that your audience doesn't justhear what you have to say and
then dismiss those results andkind of move on to the next
thing without actually findingopportunities to better connect,
to better engage with you andyour team. It's a huge mess

(03:44):
that, again, I see all the time,and it's one that over the next
couple of minutes, I want tooffer some tools, some practical
approaches that I deployed withleaders like you to overcome
this lack of showcasing, thislack of storytelling, if you
will, that is so critical forleaders to actually sustain the
momentum that they may very wellbe building.
So that being said, let's goback to what exactly Mike Rowe

(04:08):
said yesterday. And here's hisquote, word for word. He said,
what I would propose, with allhumility, is that somebody
somewhere carves out just alittle sliver out of that, and
by that he means the $90 billionin investments that were
announced yesterday a fractionof a percent and allocates it
for better storytelling. Ourcountry needs a national

(04:29):
resource. Pennsylvania can leadthis charge where any parent,
any guidance counselor, any kidwho is curious enough to explore
the opportunities we are talkingabout can go to a destination
and see people who look likethem and talk like them and
remind them of them prosperingas a result of mastering a skill
that's in demand. He continues.
If we just dismiss that as PR,then we're just going to keep

(04:53):
pushing the same rock up thesame hill and now and listen to.
Talking to Mike talk again, notin person. I was not there in
person at Carnegie MellonUniversity yesterday, but in
hearing that, and then havingthe luxury of going back and re
listening to it, I obviouslyunderstood what he was talking
about from a workforcestandpoint. And that's not an
uncommon theme here in westernPennsylvania and around the

(05:14):
country. That is the lack ofworkers, lack of current
workers, and certainly the lackof future labor that will be
required to again, put all ofthose billions of dollars to
good use.
But I didn't just hear himtalking about the macro. What I
heard was, hey, there'sopportunities internally for
companies to actually showcasewhat individual workers are

(05:36):
doing to other workers, toactually share what it is
they're doing on a day to daybasis. And you know some of that
you might think of as you knowlunch and learns and the you
know, the occasionalpresentation. And sure, there's
a piece of that. But moreimportantly, what are you doing?
And how are you missing out onsmall opportunities to grab
somebody by the hand and say,Hey, are you curious about what

(05:57):
I do, taking your computerscreen, if you're in an office
setting, and turning it aroundand saying, Hey, look, this is
what I'm looking at today.
Looking at today. Have you seenthis before, engaging again with
other departments in a way thatyou've never done before, that's
not scripted, to actually showthem, not just tell them, but
show them what it is you do.
Yeah, this is cliche, somethingthat's talked about all the

(06:18):
time, but it's so often missed.
Why? Because individual leaderslike you, individual teams like
the one that you might be a partof, are so busy generating
results and taking action, whichis a good thing, that they miss
the opportunity to again, takethat small sliver of resources,
which might not be money, inyour case, it might just be
time, but that small sliver ofresources that Mike Rowe is

(06:38):
talking about and invest thatinto better storytelling and
showcasing.
So again, the question for youtoday is, what can you do to
enhance the visibility to whatit is that you and your team do
internally, not just in themacro, because on the macro, you

(06:59):
know what I would imagine, therewas a lot of industry leaders
there yesterday who heard MikeRowe talk and immediately said
to themselves, at leastinternally, oh, we're doing that
already. We are showcasing whatwe're doing. We're taking people
from the community, we're takinghigh schoolers, we're showing
them what we do. And it's true,right? There's all kinds of rig
tours, there's all kinds ofintern type programs. There's

(07:19):
great program that CNX runscalled the mentorship Academy,
where, again, they embed highschool students into real jobs,
not just energy jobs, but realvocal, hard working, good
paying, sustainable jobs. Andthey're doing a lot of what Mike
Rowe is talking about, which isagain why I quickly pivoted to
what is being missed inside ofcompanies to showcase what

(07:42):
individual departments do, tobuild those strengths, to break
down silos, if you will. Becauseagain, it's easy, it's free.
Just takes a little bit of time.
But the fruit that is born interms of the sustained momentum,
the sustained engagement ofcompany, is mind bogglingly
high, if you will, from an ROIstandpoint.

(08:05):
So again, same question I'veasked a couple times already,
what can you do to enhance thoseconnections with those around
you, so that you're notunwittingly hiding the real work
that you do? What can you do toshowcase, literally show, not
just tell, but show and tellwhat it is you do. And perhaps

(08:25):
the best analogy for that isagain, going back to Mike Rowe,
the high school shop class. Mikespent a couple moments lamenting
the loss of high school shopclasses, not just for those
individuals who might beinclined to enter a shop class
and work with their hands anddiscover some things that they
enjoy doing. But just as muchfor those who aren't going to go

(08:46):
into work that maybe involvestheir hands and not go into
trades and carpentry andconstruction and things of that
nature, Mike said no.
When you take shop classes outof high schools, you also miss
those opportunities for osmosis,if you will, for people who are
just walking down the hall topeek into a shop class and kind
of see what's going on, so thatthey can form a better sense, a

(09:07):
better awareness, of what it ispeople do again, not just kind
of hear these descriptions ofthese jobs and what they do and
then dismiss them of somethingthat's not applicable. Mike
laments lost his shop classesbecause it was what a showcase.
And I know I've said that word acouple different times,
showcase, in part because it'sfresh in my brain from an off

(09:27):
site, a two day off site for aleadership team that I helped
facilitate, and obviously in theoff site, you know, the team
talked about the actions thatthey can take as a result of
getting together and talking andoutlining different elements of
feedback from their teams, muchas what occurred yesterday at
that summit. Right? You couldtalk and talk and talk, but this

(09:49):
leadership team recognized theimportance of taking action. But
in that conversation where theyalso found themselves, was
talking about the importance ofshowcasing those actions. Demo.
Demonstrating those actions, notjust generating results, perhaps
bottom line results, in terms offinancial results and engagement
results and lower turnoverresults and all of the different

(10:09):
things that companies mighttout, but actually having real
one on one conversations again,grabbing somebody by the hand
and walking with them andtalking about what it is they
discussed behind closed doors atthis off site, that's the real
way to build engagement, to notjust stop at saying, Hey, we
took action. Here were theactions and go forth. Shed some

(10:31):
light into the thinking. Shedsome light into what's on your
mind as an individual leader, sothat you're controlling that
narrative, so that you'retelling the story, and so that
you're not relying on yourstakeholders to come up with
their own story, with their ownnarrative that may not be
complete. Might not be wrong,but it may not be complete, and
that's the point. Today, ifyou've already made a $90
billion commitment to something,much as all of those companies

(10:54):
yesterday made $90 billion incommitments to the Commonwealth
of Pennsylvania, why not do asMike Rowe said, and take a tiny
sliver of money, tiny sliver ofresources, to make sure that the
momentum that was discussedyesterday is sustained.
Why not take that same ideaapply to your own life, to your
own leadership, build upon,again, the huge investment that

(11:14):
you've made to this point inyour career, and take that tiny
sliver of time and energy andsay, Hey, how could I tell a
slightly better story. How couldI showcase a little bit more
what it is I do, and as I moveto conclusion here and again,
tying together this whole ideaof jobs and people who are
looking for new careers or maybepivoting in their own career,
I'd be remiss not to bring inone more example from the work

(11:36):
that I do as a coach, especiallywhen it relates to career
coaching, because so often Iencounter individuals who
already have this nice,beautiful resume, or maybe
they've outsourced the resumewriting, and somebody's
currently writing this resume,and you know, it all comes back
to them doing the right thingsthat is, putting in the results
right, putting in big eyepopping numbers, like the $90

(11:57):
billion number that was toutedyesterday. And that's great.
Clearly, I would suggest thatyou actually have real numbers,
real results, real proof,demonstrated proof of your
actions on your resume. But it'samazing how many individuals in
career transition, they fallshort of telling that story.
They fall short of actuallyshowcasing why those numbers

(12:18):
matter. Just as Mike Rowe saidyesterday, we can do all of
this, and this is good, and wecan create those jobs. And, you
know, we can have trade schoolsand and funnel people through
these, but if you're not tellinga good story, if you're not
connecting it to people'sindividual bottom lines, you're
going to fall short.
And that's true in careercoaching, and it's true again,

(12:39):
if you are a leader within anorganization, if you can't
connect those results, if youcan't connect those investments,
if you can't connect thefinancial metrics that, again,
your company might be talkingabout as Q2 closes here, and

(12:59):
numbers are released if youcan't connect those to the
individuals. And tell a story ofwhy it matters. Tell a story of
why success or lack of successmatters for an individual
contributor within your company.
Well, you failed. Even if youachieving great success, great

(13:20):
results, you are not in asustainable position. And I say
that as somebody who is on amission, if you will, to help
fuel sustainable leaders, notjust leaders who achieve
results, not just leaders whoIf you want to be a sustainable
leader, ask yourself againcan pat themselves on the back
after a long career, because oftoday, how can you build

(13:43):
stronger connections with theeverything that, again, can flow
into a resume or a bio, but it'speople right in front of you?
How can you take the resultsthat are right in front of you
and translate that into actionsleaders who are actually
building those engagements,that showcase what it is you do,
why it is you do what you do,those connections, those
channels with the future, likeand why it matters to your
stakeholders? So with that,the future workforce here in
western Pennsylvania and inthank you, as always for tuning
in here to the energy detox andturn, America, who are truly

(14:05):
sustainable leaders.
until next time, take care andhave a great rest of the day.