How to Avoid the Hidden Costs of Self-Serve Leadership Fueling
BP's CEO Resigns. Gas Prices Skyrocket. And New Jersey Drivers Still Don't Pump Their Own Gas.
What's the connection among those headlines?
Well, they're all fuel for thought on the hidden costs of self-serve leadership.
And they provide a perfect excuse to ask yourself these four questions:
1 - Am I unwittingly signaling that I've got it all figured out?
2 - What's the true ROI of the time and energy I spend on self-help resources?
3 - Are my company's internal L&D efforts actually hindering leadership sustainability?
4 - Are "full-service" third-party coaching resources merely filling me up with nice-sounding — but impractical — tools?
To help answer these questions, join NJ native Joe Sinnott as he pumps gas at a BP in PA — a state with some of the highest hidden fuel costs.
related content
“BOOMerang Leadership Lessons From a BUSTed Succession Plan” (The Energy Detox, Episode 74)
Oil & gas companies can't avoid industry-wide booms and busts, but they CAN avoid costly BOOMerang leadership changes due to BUSTed succession planning practices.
Tapping into some lessons from Disney's boomeranging of Bob Iger—who replaced his successor—episode 74 of The Energy Detox will help you answer these 3 succession-related questions:
1) In what ways are you settling for a warm body or the "next-in-line" instead of proactively fighting for the best talent possible?
2) How has the narrative about the difficulty "everyone is facing" when it comes to attracting talent (true as it may be) caused you to lower the bar, to stop thinking outside the box, and to change your definition of the "ideal candidate?"
3) What are all the ways that the time, energy, and money wasted on rectifying failed succession planning have caused you and your team to deviate from your company's core mission?
Transcript
(AI training in progress; please excuse any errors)
Hello and welcome to the energy detox coming to you today from outside of a BP gas station here in western Pennsylvania. And if you're wondering why your host Joe Sinnott chose today's location, well it comes down to three recent headlines. The first headline is related to BP's CEO--or former CEO--Bernard Looney, who stepped down last week following the revelation that he did not reveal some relationships that he had or the extent of certain relationships he had with fellow BP employees. The second headline that drove me here this morning to this gas station is that gas prices are high. In fact, right now, it's the highest that gas prices have been throughout the United States in the year 2023. And it's actually some of the highest they've been for this time of the year that of course, being pre fall following the heavy driving season of summer. So it's rare to see gas prices continuing to climb, and it's rare to see gas prices as high as they are right now. And the third recent set of headlines that have driven me here today is related to the state that I grew up in New Jersey, which recently became the only state in America where it is completely against the law to pump your own gas. Now let's there be any confusion. It has sort of been that way for a while. But Oregon has had some pockets of that state where it was against the law to pump gas to have self serve fueling stations. But following the stroke of the governor's pen recently, now, full service gas stations are not required anywhere in the state of Oregon and New Jersey stands alone as the only full service state. And so taking those three recent headlines, I thought, You know what, today on the energy detox, let's weave those together and come up with some questions that you can ask as a leader to identify the hidden costs of self service leadership fueling. And, again, it's important to note that I'm coming to you from Western Pennsylvania, because here in Pennsylvania, we have some of the biggest hidden costs of self serve fuel, because across the cross the border and New Jersey gas prices are lower, you might think, again, full service, they should be higher, but no, no, no. Here in Pennsylvania, we have lots of hidden costs. In fact, at over 60 cents per gallon Pennsylvania is the third highest state when it comes to fuel taxes. So again, what better location what better place than here in Pennsylvania and here to BP station to talk about the hidden costs of self serve gas stations and more figuratively, of self serve leadership development. And so today, the approach we're going to take is to talk about four different levels of self serve leadership. And we're going to talk about them in increasing order of their subtlety, the, again, those hidden costs. And we're going to start with something I don't see all that much overtly, but definitely has some hidden costs. And those are leaders who give the appearance of seeking to be better leaders and to grow and develop, but are actually either one, unwittingly ignoring any sort of resources or fuel that can help them be better leaders, or to unwittingly giving the impression to their audience, to their stakeholders to their employees, that this individual really doesn't need any help, even if he or she is out there talking to big game about growth and development. Now, again, I say that because I don't see this too often, blatantly. Because 2023, who's gonna go out there and say, I know it, all right, I've been around for 30 years like Bernard Looney, and, you know, I really don't need any help, you know, you just listen to me, I'm going to tell you what you need to do, and, and we're good, we're gonna be able to sustain momentum. Obviously, there's no leaders out there that are doing that, or at least vocalizing that. But where this really comes into play, is leaders who allow themselves to be seen either one as as the object of a cult of personality, where people again, are dismissive of any sort of, of humility, or any sort of words that come out of that leaders mouth that suggest that again, he or she don't really know anything, you know, those leaders tend to focus heavily on mentorship, which is great, but keep in mind, mentorship is largely a pushing down of best practices and how to get things done. Not challenging the status quo, not asking questions, which kind of moves into what true leadership should be, if not coaching, right? Letting your stakeholders know, especially again, at a company like BP, where you have 10s of 1000s of employees that you don't have all the answers, you want people to continually challenge you. But again, what happens is and very often this is done unconsciously, is that leaders allow themselves to be in a position where can their stakeholders aren't questioning them? And so the question for you today is, in what ways are you allowing that to happen within your organization? In what ways are you actually a closed off leader who might be standing with your hand on the pump, if you will, making it seem like you're you're filling your vehicle, but everybody's rushing to say, Well, again, you don't need to be doing that. What Why is he or she doing that? That That doesn't make any sense. They don't need that. Even though you might know you need it, even though I as a coach certainly know that. Yeah, any resource can be helpful. Any extra tool that you have in your pocket can be helpful. But it's up to you to hammer home the message that No, you need that support. And even if it looks like your tank is full, it's not gonna stay full for long. So that's on you to ask that question. The second area that I see were self serve leadership, fueling, if you will, has some hidden costs is when leaders really are all in on leadership development, and growth. And you might be one of those people that ingest all kinds of leadership books, and blogs and podcasts, or goes to seminars, or webinars or sits on panels, you might have joined some third party groups to, you know, to have different cohorts, if you will, you're all in on leadership, you talk about it all the time. People listen to you, they see how excited you are. And maybe some of that translates into results. And that's all good, of course. But what are we talking about today, we're talking about the hidden costs. And those hidden costs, often, especially if you are a leader who is busy. And again, if you're an oil and gas mom to assume you're you're pretty busy. those hidden costs are, of course, the time and the energy that you're investing, as it relates to the results that you're generating. Because if you and a leader is you are spending all kinds of time again, filling your own tank. While that is good. If you can't quantify how much time that is, and whether or not some of that time might be better spent on other activities. Maybe it's again, helping fuel the tanks of others instead of just ingesting it yourself? Well, again, if you can't answer that question, I challenge you today to stop this podcast, stop listening, stop watching, and try to answer that question, quantify it, again, especially if you're in that position where you're doing all of the things that I would hope you would want to do. And that is to better yourself, again, to fuel yourself. But if you can't identify the hidden costs there, the hidden tax, if you will, that is directly or indirectly impacting your stakeholders, then your approach might not be as as effective or sustainable as you'd like it to be.
07:27
The third way in which I see hidden costs of self serve leadership, is when companies invest all kinds of money and time and energy on internal resources. And of course, companies like BP have large learning and development teams, right. Lots of people, lots of resources, lots of money spent on growing and developing their talent at every level of the organization. And that's a good thing. Clearly, again, we're not knocking any approach any attempts to fuel your own tank, if you will. And companies that do it internally, in many cases do a pretty good job of it. But what are the hidden costs? Well, the number one hidden cost that I see as an independent coach that works with lots of different companies in the oil and gas industry, is that lack of independence, is that lack of third party perspective. And that doesn't mean that they don't bring in third party experts and resources, of course, but when you have a large learning and development team, it's sort of human nature, if you will, that you're going to start to establish your own culture, if you will write your own norms, your own rules. And once that's starts to happen, you stop challenging some of the existing norms and rules. And again, I turn things back to BP where a lot of the coverage for following Bernard loonies departure is around the fact that, you know, BP has a unique culture, and perhaps things weren't being challenged as much as they could have been. And sometimes, as internal teams, internal learning and development teams grow bigger and bigger. The question is, what is it costing you if you don't have an appropriate level of independence, to poke and prod and challenge? If instead, everything seems like, Hey, you're investing that time you're investing that energy and investing that money? We're in a good spot here, we're checking the box might be checking multiple boxes. But the question I have for you and your organization is, are you seeing signs of a lack of independence? When it comes to your growth and development? Are you seeing enough challenging from the outside or at least using outside tools and resources to make sure that you're not growing complacent, and you're not again incurring extra costs that you might not need to incur as you self serve and sell fuel your organization? And the third, sorry, the fourth now and final and I would say the most subtle of all of these examples of hidden costs of self serve leadership is when you are heavily employing external resources, external leadership development resources to fuel your organization, because clearly if you have external resources, you might argue that by design, they're not self serve, right? If you're paying a third party to come in and challenge and ask questions or to at least infuse your organization and your leaders with new thoughts, new ways of doing things, of trends that are occurring, maybe even outside your industry clear that sounds like a good thing. And again, you're checking out all the boxes, right? How could you possibly can be complacent when you're signed up for all of these, these items? Well, I'll tell you how. And I'll tell you where the hidden cost comes in. And I'll tell you why it might not be as full serve as it might appear. And that's because many of those resources get you real close to the goal line, they give you all the tools you need all the plays you need to run, but then when you need it most, they're not there. And leaders again might have a false sense of security that they are well armed to do these things but in the heat of the moment, again, when they need to push the ball across the goal line, they're not able to tap into those resources as effectively. So all that being said, those are the four items here I'm being told to hang up my phone here and and move on from the gas station attendant via via the pump, which is pretty cool. So I'm going to sign off here and make one final note and that is if you're interested in exploring how any of these resources again can be improved and how you can reduce those hidden costs or how again you can value the different octane if you will of the fuel that you're putting in your your vehicle if you will, your company vehicle your figurative vehicle, then reach out ask questions and and we're gonna hang up now. So with that, hope you have a great rest of the day and thanks again.