There have definitely been tougher economic times in our country’s history, but the recession we are in now calls for effective leadership. A very important characteristic of managing in hard times is true leadership. A leader’s role changes drastically when business is not booming and there is more down time than usual. Leaders have to make tough, maybe even controversial, decisions. A leader has to be assertive and lead more directly than in good times where delegating responsibilities might be more effective. Mark Cook wrote in the Fort Worth Business Press that leaders have to assert different skills in tough times.

Honesty and Authenticity- communications with employees should show your understanding of the current events and seek input from talented people. Being honest about your concerns and opening communications will help employees see the reality and help them take ownership of the solutions.

Day-to-day Operational Presence- this is not to be confused with micromanagement. This process is more about understanding the impact of the current times at a lower level in order to dissect problems and continue high-level strategy. Top employees will respond to this involvement if it is seen as high-level investigation to make their processes easier and more efficient. These hard times require leadership focus in all facets of the organization.

Optimistic Realism- being either too optimistic or too pessimistic create doubt in employees. Focus on the solutions to the problems and do not dwell in the problems as they appear. Be realistic about performance measures and reward smart solutions and outcomes. Do not give employees a false sense of security or a false sense of insecurity due to business slow downs. You can lose talented employees if they feel uncertainty.

Smart People Decisions- leaders have to make tough personnel decisions in hard times. Be certain changes are made based upon performance and contribution to the company. Develop or better implement performance guidelines to grade your employee group. Hard times are not forgiving to decisions made based on loyalty or politics. Your company cannot afford to keep or hire a liability in this market. You may be able to replace low performers with talented individuals who are currently in an uncertain job or have been laid off due to the current economic climate.

Future Watch- build with the future in mind knowing that the economy will turn around at some point. Can you make key acquisitions now and exploit these when the economy recovers? Use this time to innovate processes, learn new techniques for operations, and look for gaps in your current processes. You can come out on the other side of this economic chasm in much stronger position operationally.

Being a strong leader includes being willing to change current practices. The skills Mark Cook focuses on could help you improve your company for the long term.

Having that “bad apple” in your workplace can be very distracting if not destructive.  So in response, candidates are run through an exhaustive process of evaluation.  This process may not be the most productive method for measuring an employee’s emotional intelligence.  Many people in the oil and gas industry have the luxury of hiring people they have worked with in the past.  This cuts out a lot of the guess work involved in determining how your employees will interact.  If you don’t have this familiarity with prospective employees, consider the following:

• Is the candidate self-aware and self regulated – you cannot have a loose cannon who does not understand how to control anger or anxiety.
• Is the candidate able to read others and see others’ reactions to their behavior – this can be defined as a social “radar”.
• Can the candidate learn from mistakes made – this is the best way to judge how a person responds to adversity.

Here is a short list of effective questions to detect the prospect’s emotional intelligence:

• Tell me about a conflict you had with a peer or supervisor, and how it started and became resolved?
• Tell me about a time you said or did something that had a negative impact on a peer, supervisor, or customer. How did you know the impact was negative?
• Tell me about a situation when you discovered that you were on the wrong track.  How did you recognize this, what did you do, and what did you learn?

If this approach interests you, see Adele Lynn’s book The EQ Interview: Finding Employees with High Emotional Intelligence.

Oil and gas companies operate in a high risk environment to say the least.  But one risk you may have overlooked is the challenge created by a rapidly changing workforce, and specifically the shortage of skilled engineers. 

According to a report by the National Petroleum Council, a majority of the energy workforce in the United States is eligible to retire over the next 10 years.  Did you catch that. . . a majority.

The void left as the skilled workforce retires could limit the number of projects a company can effectively manage.  In addition, the resulting talent shortage may lead to a significant increase in labor costs as competition intensifies to fill those positions.

Have you started planning for the workforce transition in your company?  The time to start is now – before it’s too late.