know who I am. I know what I am here to do and I
know how to lead. Not only am I the chief executive offi-
cer of my company but I am indeed one of the Chief En-
ergy Officers as well. But several years ago this was not
the case. Several years ago, just like you, I was on this
bus and Joy, dear Joy, truly an angel sent from heaven,
saved my job, my company, and my life. Do you want to
know how?” George nodded as his eyes were fixed on
this confident leader.
“I was running a major division in my company.
They had handpicked me out of business school years
before and many of the higher ups called me the Chosen
One. I had all the knowledge in the world. I had the re-
sume, the pedigree, and the work ethic. Man, I worked
hard. For 25 years I walked, no, I ran up the corporate
ladder of success.
“But looking back, what I see I didn’t have was heart.
I wasn’t a real leader. I kicked people off my bus all the
time without thinking about it and I led by fear, and fear
doesn’t last. It had worked early in my career but over
time we had a severe retention and morale problem in
my division and productivity had dropped significantly.
Performance plunged. Negativity grew and sales dropped
so low we almost caused the company to go into bank-
ruptcy. The board wanted to fire me but one guy, my
mentor, who was the president of the company, believed
in me and said he would give me a chance to turn the sit-
uation around. But I didn’t have any hope. I had failed
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Chief Energy Officer