In a Forest Full of Energy Leaders, How Do You Stand Out?

Most meetings? Unremarkable.

Most resumes? Forgettable.

Most leaders? Replaceable.

Most LinkedIn posts? Unbearable.

Agree?

Then check out this Arbor Day episode of The Energy Detox that challenges you to follow the path of differentiated energy leaders who stand out in a forest of mediocre managers by continually asking:

"How can we make this the best ____________ ever?"

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Did you know that you would haveto burn over 1 million trees to

(00:04):
equal the same amount of energyproduced by a single Marcellus
well over the course of itslife?
Well, whether you did or did notknow that, fun fact, there is no
better day than today, ArborDay, to share it with somebody
else. Because, well, as we standhere on Arbor Day at the end of
Earth Week, in the midst ofEarth Month, well, there's

(00:24):
plenty of excuses to remindourselves of how impactful
natural gas has been for theplanet, and in particular, for
trees. And so again today,remind yourself and remind
others of how many trees havebeen saved essentially by the
development of natural gas.
But as you might expect here onThe Energy Detox, we're not just

(00:47):
going to stop with a fun fact.
Instead, we're going to weavethat into a brief energy
leadership conversation that youcan use to be a more impactful
leader in this industry. Butthat tie in does have something
to do with trees, because we'regoing to remind you that there
is one simple tool out therethat is underutilized, even
though we've talked about it anumber of times here on The
Energy Detox, but it's that onetool that can truly help you

(01:09):
stand out among a forest ofother leaders. And that simple
tool is to ask yourself, Hey,how can I be one IN a million
instead of one OF a million?
How can I stand out and truly bethe best at what I do? And that
simple superlative question, ifyou will, is one that is often

(01:31):
not asked by others for a numberof reasons, at least reasons
that I observe, the first ofwhich is mere humility. It takes
some effort for a lot of people,including myself, to say, all
right, Am I really that special?
Which, again, the point of thisquestion is not to determine
whether you are or aren'tspecial. It's to ask that
question, well, what can I do?
What actions can I take to standout among a forest of others?

(01:55):
And so today, the simple requestfor you is to do that, not just
for yourself, although if youhappen to be in career
transition, that is very muchthe exercise that I encourage
you to do. But even if you'rejust going through your normal
day with your normal job or yournormal personal activities, ask
yourself, well, how can I makethis the best day ever? How can
I make this the day that istruly one IN a million? How can

(02:17):
I make this meeting that'scoming up the best meeting ever?
How can I make this jobinterview the best one ever? How
can I make this dinner the bestone ever? Or, if you're like me,
you got a baseball game thatyou're attending for one of your
children tonight. How can thatbaseball game be the best one
ever for that child? All ofthose questions all come back to
the same individual premise,which is, there are activities

(02:38):
you could do to at least getcloser to being one IN a million
and not one OF a million.
So that's it today in terms ofthe message and the leadership
lesson and most importantly, theaction that I'm encouraging you
to take. But it's not it interms of at least hammering home
this advocacy theme, if youwill, around that fun fact of
having to burn a million treesto equal the same amount of

(02:59):
energy of one Marcellus well,because this episode that I'm
recording is right here inAllegheny County, at a county
park called Deer Lakes. Andunderneath this park, almost 10
years ago, Range Resourcesdrilled several wells, and the
significance of that is wellmulti fold, the first of which
is if you were asking yourself10 years ago, well, how can we
make this park the best Parkever, one in a million Park.

(03:22):
Well, if you ask my kids, you'dsay, well, we put in a splash
pad, we'd have new playgroundequipment, and you'd have a
slush fund available to helpupkeep all of that equipment.
And Well, lo and behold, whenRange drilled those wells, it
led to millions of dollars beingdedicated to this park and to
other Allegheny County Parks,but millions of dollars
earmarked for this park to putin new equipment, to put in that
splash pad that's over myshoulder there. And again, a

(03:46):
direct answer to the questionof, well, you know, how could
you make this park the best Parkever? Well, natural gas helped
deliver that. And the secondreason I chose to come here
today to record this Arbor Dayepisode is because this park is
almost 1200 acres, which meansthere's several 100,000 trees
here that, again, even if youburned them all, you would still

(04:06):
not generate the same amount ofenergy as one of the Marcellus
wells that is running underneaththis park.
So with those fun facts in mind,with the idea of you yourself
standing out as one tree, if youwill, among a forest of a
million other trees, askyourself, what can you do today
to make this the best day ever?
What activities are youundertaking today that you can

(04:29):
make the best ever? Whatconversations are you having
throughout the day that you canmake the best ever? And as I
sign off from this podcast, thatas always, I try to make the
best ever, remind you thatyou're not always going to heck
whatever activity you have bethe best ever. But that isn't an
excuse to not try.

(04:50):
The difference betweensustainable leaders, inspiring
leaders, effective leaders isthe ones who continually ask
that question, hey, what actionscan we take to make this end?
Ever. This company, this event,the best ever. What can we do to
make this operation the safestever? What can we do to make
this investment the mostsuccessful transition or merger

(05:12):
or acquisition ever? Thatsuperlative question to get
people thinking in a way thatmoves beyond complacency, beyond
mediocrity is a prime example ofthe conscious leadership that we
bring to you each and everyepisode here on the energy
detox. So with that, whether ornot this was indeed the best
episode ever, I appreciate youtuning in, and I look forward to

(05:34):
you joining right here next timeon The Energy Detox.