In this compelling episode of the Sweet on Leadership Podcast, industry leader Teresa Waddington joins host Tim Sweet on a mission to revolutionize the energy landscape. Teresa's diverse background, spanning from engineering to corporate relations, reflects her passionate commitment to converting her father's oil patch into a sustainable energy garden for future generations. The conversation explores multifaceted leadership, emphasizing the significance of authenticity and vulnerability in fostering cohesive teams. Teresa shares profound insights into the intricacies of the energy industry, addressing the delicate balance between profitability and sustainability. 

The episode underscores the transformative potential of leadership grounded in connection, creativity, and a shared vision for the future of energy. Teresa's advocacy for bold thinking and collaboration resonates, offering listeners valuable perspectives on navigating the complexities of the global energy crisis and the importance of continuous self-improvement in leadership. The episode underscores the power of diverse perspectives in driving transformative change within the energy sector.

About Teresa Waddington

Teresa is on a mission to turn her dad’s oil patch into her daughter’s energy garden. This has driven her contribution to shaping the global energy garden, helping to plant and nurture the molecules, electrons, technologies, policies, and workforce that will drive our energy transition. Teresa believes in thinking big, having fun, and that the intersection of creativity and technology will be the ultimate transformational force in our society. 

This mission – informed by her engineering education and diverse work experiences (from corporate relations to running a gas plant to leading a maintenance crew), along with a cheeky nature and a love of drawing - has driven her to create a YouTube channel where she animates a variety of industry-relevant topics. She’s been published numerous times in the Globe and Mail, typically from work inspired by her three kids and husband. She is always seeking to connect and communicate around energy.

Resources discussed in this episode:

• LNG Canada: lngcanada.ca
• SAGA Wisdom: sagawisdom.com

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Contact Tim Sweet | Team Work Excellence:

• Website
• LinkedIn: Tim Sweet
• Instagram
• Linkedin: Team Work Excellence

Contact Teresa Waddington:

• Website: Teresa Waddington
• YouTube: @teresawaddington
• Linkedin: Teresa Waddington

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Transcript

Teresa 00:01

Be yourself. And I mean that in the way of, do the hard work to know who you are. Take the time to constantly strip away all the outside influences and muddy up who we think we should be, what we think success looks like, and who we're performing for our parents or our children, or somebody else. Take the time to constantly strip that away into reground. So, that you can truly be yourself in every aspect of your life.

Tim 00:32

I'd like to ask you some questions. Do you consider yourself the kind of person that gets things done? Are you able to take a vision and transform that into action? Are you able to align others towards that vision and get them moving to create something truly remarkable? If any of these describe you, then you my friend, are a leader, and this show is all about and all for you. Welcome to the Sweet on Leadership Podcast, episode 28. 

Tim 01:05

I am really happy that I've got Teresa Waddington joining me. So, hello, Teresa.

Teresa 01:11

Hello, I'm excited to be here.

Tim 01:14

We're just saying off-camera, this feels like we've known each other for a couple of years, but it feels like a lot longer. And every once in a while, you meet people that I don't know, maybe we remind each other of other people in our life or just feels like we're we're in sync. So, I'm really excited for today. And let's see if that translates into a podcast. I think it will, as I mentioned that you and I've been connected for a couple of years now. And I remember the first time that we met was because I had run across one of your articles in my feed. And I remember looking at your profile bio, which you still have, which I would really encourage everybody to go look at. And the line that stuck out in my mind, as both of us were involved in the energy industry was turning my dad's oil patch into my daughter's energy garden, which just hit me like a ton of bricks. And that was something that always stuck with me. And then I think I reached out and we had a few conversations and it was good. But I really appreciate and cherish the opportunity, I have to talk to you and every time that you make time for me. So, thank you so much for that. And I can't wait to introduce others to you. So, with that in mind, why don't you tell everybody who's listening a little bit about yourself?

Teresa 02:23

You nailed it. My Profile bio, which I've spent a lot of time thinking about over years and years and years, is that I'm on a mission to turn my dad's oil patch into my daughter's energy garden. And when I think about who I am, and how I've come to my journey, it does feature a lot about my family and my family that I came from and my family that I've created with my husband, in terms of my parents and my kids. So, I come from a family of five engineers, it was a genetic requirement. My parents and my siblings are all engineers, there was a genetic requirement that I would graduate with an engineering degree. And after I did that, I joined Shell where I've held jobs in all kinds of different functions from Project Engineering to Commercial to Operations and Maintenance, to HSSE, and now I'm in Corporate Relations. So, a big kind of span across the energy industry. And really, throughout all of it, I've had a huge amount of mentorship and support from my dad, and my mom. My mom was also an engineer in the early days of the Calgary oil patch, although I wouldn't say it was her her oil patch, it was definitely something that she struggled with as she kind of came through her career. And now I'm building on kind of the legacy, they've left me to try and create transformation and change, not just in the molecules, electrons, policies, but also in the people that are going to build that future for our children. And when I think about that future energy garden, I really do think it is a whole host of things. It's a whole host of technologies, and couplings of those technologies between kind of old and new, that will really drive us forward. And we're going to talk about leadership today. A huge piece of what I believe my role in many of our roles is now is really, how do we lead and create a fertile ground for that transition, to enable other people to contribute in their kind of super specialized creative ways to lead and to create and to build that energy garden of the future.

Tim 04:18

I think it's really interesting. I mean, myself, I'm involved in oil and gas and a bunch of other industries as well. But having been brought up in Calgary, it's been such a part of our identity to be the oil patch or the energy center of Canada, and in many ways of the Western world. And there's no end right now to the controversy that we find ourselves in because of the world's relation with hydrocarbons. And it's really interesting to me, that from the outside, there's a general assumption that the bulk of people that work in energy are very focused on profit and simply, you know, producing this fuel or whatnot, and they don't really give a mind to, you know what else is going on. And I find that that's just not true. The you know, the people that are here are in service of society by and large, they know that at the state that the world is in this is required. I mean, we require hydrocarbons for fuels and advanced fuels, we require it for plastics, we require it for clothing, we require it for all sorts of petroleum-derived chemicals and whatnot. But nobody is feeling like it needs to stay the way it is. I think there's a wide recognition that if we're going to be part of the future, it has to move. And so Canada has always been at the forefront of ethical production, it's always been at the forefront of thinking about how do we transition this into something that is sustainable. Because even if we get away from combustibles when it comes to fuel, we still require petrochemicals to engage in environmental technologies. And so it's such a huge issue. And when we think about changing, as you say, when you think about changing the people along with that, I think that there's such a visionary component. And today, when we're going to talk about this, it's not just changing that garden from within, I see it is changing how people appreciate the role that this industry plays in modern life, and sustainable life and health care and everything else, all the things that work right now, not to dismiss the things that need to change. But you know. 

Teresa 06:38

It’s interesting because my dad's oil patch was in a bad place, in a lot of ways. There's a lot of values and ways of doing things that I think absolutely are going to be required as we move into that next iteration. But he said something early on that I think was super interesting that the concept of profitability being a bad thing, that we should be doing things out of altruism, and charity. And every dollar we spend is a vote for something. It's something we believe in or something that we value or something that we need. And so the fact that, you know, petrochemicals and fossil fuels still attract such a high rate of return, and they still get so much investment, just points to the fact that people are continuing to vote for them. And so we need to lead change, we need to make that difference, and I completely agree with it's kind of both, but to cast profitability as a negative thing, I think really undermines our ability to understand how we contribute to the world in an incredibly tangible way. ESG investing is a great example, where it's really uncommon, that higher ESG metrics are ranking truly translates into better profitability. So, why is that? Like? What needs to change? When is that going to change? Who's going to change it? Yeah, absolutely. It all comes back to people at the end of the day,

Tim 07:55

It's not simply a mindless pursuit of profits, it is voting with those dollars, making sure that they are of use to many people. And I mean, the reason why it is so strong is because people vote in ways that they don't even realize. I mean, when they buy a certain good and that good is reliant on transport arts relying on manufacturing, or it's reliant on chemical inclusion, or whatever it is, they are part of the supply chain, they're part of the decision to continue to extract resources and the need to extract resource in the enjoyment of everything that comes as positive as oppose. And as you say, ESG, environmental social governance, the fact that that isn't a high rate of return area, I guess, would be a fair way of saying it. It's not returning on value. 

Teresa 08:47

Having high ESG rankings doesn't necessarily mean people will pay more, or wherever it doesn't translate to direct value for consumers.

Tim 08:57

That’s right. It's not represented necessarily in the footprint of what people are paying for. So, yeah, I think all of that really needs to change, which then brings us around to what we're talking about today. And so there is a very heavy issue that has a lot of different opinions floating around, and a lot of learning to happen on all sides. And also, it's one of those issues that does not function well in a polarized society, because it really requires that we have that Rational Middle, that ability to have good dialogue, and to educate and hear from all parties. It doesn't deal well as a polarized issue, because then nobody's listening to each other. But this takes us full around to the fact that if you stay in your box, inside a company, and you're dealing with this and you're part of it, well okay, you're going to fulfill a function. But there's such a larger opportunity. And that's what we're really here to talk about today. And that is that idea of multifaceted leadership, you're not just leading operationally within your position, within some company. There are other opportunities to lead. So, when you and I started talking about this, I was really excited by what you were saying. So, can you take us a little bit down that path? When you think of a leader having multiple avenues of influence? Why is that important? And what does that mean?

Teresa 10:23

I'm going to start with a piece of advice that I think we've all been told at some point, and then come bring that back to leadership and multifaceted leadership, which is just be yourself. Which is unbelievably difficult to do, which is why it's so often repeated and is so critical in creating the change and the multifaceted leadership in terms of showing up consistently in all kinds of avenues and really helping drive belief in that you really do mean what you're saying in whatever area you end up standing in. So, I'll start with when I was a junior engineer, leadership looks like, you know, doing flare stack calculations and designs and adding an extra layer of insulation to help reduce CO2 or whatever it was, but it was really for me, it was about how do you make things that are both efficient and sound technically? And getting into my first few leadership roles I learned a lot about having technical know-how is great, it is a foundational element to be incredible in a lot of different areas, but being able to listen, and to really hear what people are saying, the technical elements are really important and being able to evaluate how to balance those, but also, what scares them, what inspires them? What are they really looking to do in their work? Are they looking to send their child to school to have a better ability to provide than they did? Are they really excited about creating change in the renewable space, whatever it is that's fundamentally driving people helps understand where they're coming from, and then also how you can connect into their energy to make even more happen. And then the final element is kind of within your peer group. And I found that as I've gotten further into my career and working with a big company, it's really how do I connect the dots between what other people want to do so that we can get an inspired group of people who support each other, who drive change, who truly create in every sense of the word in a business environment, and creativity is essential, I think, to everything we do. Because if you really want to lead, it means going into places where others haven't been or going there in a different way. And to do that, you need to imagine things that don't exist. And to do that with a collaborative group of people who are representing different points of view, different bits of expertise, different understandings of how the world works, and how to make it move. If you get a big group of people who really complement each other driving that change, you can build incredible things and bring incredible things to life. And so when I think of truly multifaceted leadership, it's being part of teams like that, with the urge to create, with the different skill sets that are required around it to do it, or they can go get those skill sets because they realize the gaps. Who really make things different in the world, who bring new things to life. And there's nothing better to me than being part of a team like that, that gets to drive something brand new into the world.

Tim 13:28

There is so much there to unpack, and I'm going to tell you what I heard. And we can see where it takes us. I thought it was really interesting when you talked about, you know, that drive to build belief in oneself. And I've been having some interesting thoughts about the word belief because the issue with the word belief is it requires untested faith. Like it requires things that, you know, we have to believe something on the surface. And I don't think we always use it that way. And when you were talking, I heard more about it's creating surety that we are who we say we are that we are thinking what we say we're thinking, and that is a huge component. In that, that's authenticity. That's I am what you see in front of you. And authenticity is one of those three key pillars of trust alongside logic and empathy. The other word there that's really important from leadership and team perspective, is that authenticity requires a certain measure of vulnerability to say, I'm going to be who I am, I'm going to tell you what I'm thinking, I'm going to tell you what my fears are. I'm going to tell you what my interests and inspirations are and I need you to deal with me on those levels. That doesn't mean they're not going to change, but you need to understand that this is who I am. And that I mean what I say when I say it, and I think that that's a huge part of this and it is a precursor to being able to go out and create with others. And what's really neat about teaching and making that the way in which energy professionals show up, is that then allows us to not only connect with people inside of organizations but to connect with people that are part of other interest groups, perhaps they’re Aboriginal groups or perhaps our environmental groups. And rather than ostracizing and isolating ourselves from them, we can talk with them at that level. And we can understand them at that level, what are your fears? What are your inspirations? What are your interests, what's driving you? What is your child's garden look like? But we're such a creature of fear. And the phrase that has been bouncing around, in my mind. And I don't know if I heard it somewhere, if I'm coming up with myself is that human beings are such children of fear, and they're such children of risk. I heard a great thing said the other day, and I've been sharing it where when we were primeval, or when we were developing, we could make an alpha or beta error. If there was a tiger in the grass, and we failed to see it, it would eat us. And that was a beta error, we deserve to be taken out of the gene pool, in a sense. But if we ran away, even if there was no tiger in the grass, we were right, we might have been wrong, but we were alive. Running away was the way to get into the risk and run away. So, I mean, from simulations, simulating being the way our brains are designed to create and to imagine the future and do all these things. If we imagine risk, there was a big payoff from staying in the gene pool perspective of running away, of stopping the conversation, and bolting. And so we're up against that, where we have to sort of stay facing the tiger in the grass, even when it's scary, and talk about our risks and talk about things that make us vulnerable, even if they're inspirations. The last thing that you said in there that I thought was great, was that it becomes this kind of skill set to be able to say, look, are we able to create here? Or do we need to get more opinions? Do we need to get other people involved? And so really teaching that ability to get over ourselves and then go out and gather more opinions, even if they are contradictory, and bring them into the fold, so that we can create and get into this chaotic space of developing something new that we didn't expect? How am I doing? 

Teresa 17:25

Yeah, no, I think that's absolutely right. And the whole diversity, you're kind of making me think of a conversation my sister and I had when we were mountain biking in Bread Creek a little while ago. Both her and I are female engineers, we have both been told by various people we've worked with at some point, oh, you're a diversity hire. And we were talking about in the teams that we've worked in, you know,

Tim 17:45

Can I say barf real quick?

Teresa 17:46

Trust me, don't worry, her and I covered that. We've covered that ground. But it was really interesting talking about what are the limits of diversity that you can handle in a team before everything busts apart? And so we weren't talking about gender diversity, per se, we're talking about like true thought diversity. And how do you ensure that your team of people who are about to go create something and she has a startup on the side, so we were talking about that, has enough value-based overlap, and yet difference of opinion that you will want to stay together? And it's a physics concept, right? It's how much kind of magnetic force do you have before you start to lose things off the edge? And the concept of having a limit to diversity feels like a really difficult thing to say, like, are you allowed to say that, is that trending into some politically, very unsavory territory? But I do think the concept that diversity brings value, but only if you have enough common ground to want to move together. Otherwise, you just lose.

Tim 18:54

I think it's a great point, when we think about how teams perform, they can perform instinctually, which is down on the task base, they can perform from a planning a project space when they're in that sort of tactical zone, they can get strategic, and they can be deciding where they want to go. So, you sort of have the strategic tactical, operational, but then up above that, you have this challenge zone, which is where the team may have to look periodically outside, be exposed to external forces. So, I think to be functional, you're right, you know, you have to have cohesion. And you have to have a team that faces very little resistance, the work should be hard, but working together shouldn't. And so the team has to be crafted in order to go and do things. And indeed, having constant authenticity and trust operating within that team is paramount. When we're facing these larger challenges, I would say, every once in a while, we open ourselves up to a different facet to a different form. And we go out we gather and maybe we have periodic exposure to really challenging thoughts that keep us on the knife edge, then we take that and we return and we say, okay, how do we turn that into something functional thinking in terms of those phases? So, not just that we have different phases to our leadership into our team. But there's a timing element. And there's a, there's a practicality element that we have to say, you know, you can't always be interfaced with somebody who's in an oppositional, right? But you can certainly go and listen, have a good conversation, take those back and work them and say, Okay, now what if we could? What if we could change it to be more aligned? What would it take and seek that sort of common ground, but it's, I love that. I love that notion that you're saying of having that molecular connection, that cohesion, that natural gravity towards each other, where it's like, this makes sense, why we're all together. It really involves being connected not just on a professional level, but also on a linguistic level, and on a cultural level, and on on a personal, you know, interest, like you and I. I mean, when we talked in the beginning about having a natural kind of clique? Well, at least I feel that way, I won't speak for you. But it's kind of the static between us that makes it easy, makes it easy to come in. And we don’t come from the same backgrounds. And so I may be saying things that are a little on the outside, and you're saying things that are on the outside, and here we are. With that in mind, then let's talk about if we can do that, if we can find that rhythm and that magnetism inside and still remain open to what scared to what scares us, to what inspires us. And every once in a while, open the door to other thought, what's possible? What is possible if we're able to do that? How does that enrich, and fertilize your daughter's energy garden?

Teresa 22:04

I mean, that's a huge question. First off.

Tim 22:08

You're right. What do you see as possible, that is impossible today?

Teresa 22:14

So, I can't even envision the different ways that the world is going to merge the geopolitical crisis, the energy crisis, and the climate crisis. But I firmly believe that the whole people, planet, profit Triple Bottom Line concept exists, and that it is absolutely possible. But it will take huge leaps of faith, creativity, and a desire for people to come together without yet knowing that the outcome is possible to create a possible pathway. And like one super minor, and this is just because we're talking about the D&I thing afterwards made me think about it. I had a conversation with a guy who was very upset about the concept of D&I and hiring practices and kind of some of the equity stuff that was going on. And I said, Well, why? And he goes, Well, because we've got a perfect meritocracy now, why wouldn't we be keeping the meritocracy in place? And I was blown away. I'm like, you believe that we actually have a meritocracy in our workplaces? Because like, just putting it out there, buddy, I don't think it's perfect. I don’t think it works, the way you think it works, and opening up that space to say, Why do you want to preserve this, for the people who are exceptional at preserving status quo? And by that, I mean, like, CEOs of certain companies, you know, the people who are saying, we're not going to change, I would love to say, where's that conversation to open up why? Why do you think this is perfect, and what is worth preserving? Because I also don't believe that we need to throw away everything. And I think sometimes that gets lost in some of the like, rhetoric and some of the more extremist views is–

Tim 23:53

–very dangerous. 

Teresa 23:54

Everything is broken. Yeah, throw everything away and we're gonna have to go down this 100% renewables from day one standpoint as an example. And I think in order to get to the point where things have really changed, we do need to do a portion of that a portion of, you know, like, If Ford had built, you know, what the people wanted, he would have tried to make faster horses and he had to completely re-envision what does transport look like to get to a car? I think we're going to need a piece of that. We're gonna need that revolution, we're also going to need the evolution and we're going to need them to come together to really step change us into what is completely new. So, when I think about like, from a leadership perspective, it's being open to change. It's looking for the holes in your argument. And I'll give you an example of my own leadership journey. I've always tried to say what am I blind to? So what are people saying about me that I should know in order to decide if I'm going to change anything about what I do, how I show up, how I build my skill sets, how I build my allegiances because if I don't know, it might feel comfortable, it might feel like I'm not, you know, exposed to negative opinions of myself. But if I do know then I can make a choice and be comfortable enough to ask for the bad feedback, it requires a measure of worthiness or belief in your own worthiness. And when I think about the people that I mentor and support, the ones that I want to see continue to drive forward and change the world. It's reinforcing their own core worthiness, while at the same time gathering feedback. And last example, my kids all got their report cards last week, I think a lot of kids did in Calgary, and we sat through and we looked at their marks. And one of the things that I'm always really keen with my kids to understand is that their marks are not a measure of their worth. They are a moment in time and you know, in some of the marks that weren't great, I asked my kids, are you happy with this? Is this where you want to be? And do you feel in control, because the only thing I want, if you're gonna get like, the Alberta has this four-point system, if you get two’s, which means barely pass or just passing, but it's something that you are not wanting to put more time and energy into and you feel like you do have control, you could get better marks if you wanted to get tutoring or put more time in, then my goal is that you feel that you have control, and can make a choice on what types of kind of threshold you're able to achieve. And to put reality on that too. My one son just doesn't like English. And it's never going to be his best subject. But he has to pass it in order to get into the high school that he wants and university, right? So, that's part of the conversation as well as how do you acknowledge who you are, and what you're exceptional at, and not letting your weaknesses draw you back? 

Tim 26:51

Yeah, there's so much there again. I'll hit on a couple of them. The idea of meritocracy. Oh, my gosh. Look in pure meritocracy, sure people should–

Teresa 27:02

What even is it? How do you even measure–

Tim 27:04

Judge it on the merit of your work, sure. But as a roadblock we put up to change, it's so funny. And it reminds me of, I was working with a board of executives. And, you know, everybody was in large agreement that things needed to change. No one was terribly happy. But inevitably, when I'd gone in and interviewed all of those executives, and this happened several times. So, if you're one of my clients, yeah, I might be talking about you. But you're probably not the only one. There's an assumption that people see it your way, it's natural for us to assume that our view of the world is somehow the chief paradigm. And you know, I remember that we were going through this disclosure of everything that I had heard from people and what people wanted to see this team become. To their credit, they stopped the conversation and said, I don't get it. What's happening right now is really working for me. Why do we need to change anything?

Teresa 28:06

That really working for me, it's the perfect, perfect descriptor, sorry.

Tim 28:11

But that's 100%. I mean, it's myopic on, it's really working for me. But like any good scientific method, we need to, we need to change certain variables and test what the reaction is right? And so, you know, the reason why when it comes to diversity, and inclusion, D&I or EDI, if you talk about it that way, Equity, Diversity Inclusion, why we need to test these things is because we don't fully understand the degree to which the systems that we currently have, are resistant to change, are so ingrained, we don't even realize what we're looking at. It just looks like the woodwork. But when we look at the individual brains, it's like, look, this is really exclusionary. So, we put in, we get away from a meritocracy for a moment, and we look at be a quota systems or different ways to test it. These are just tests to see when we stress it, to look at what does it look like when we strive for 50% female inclusion on the board, or multiple orientations on the board, or racially diverse board, or all of the above as it should be representative of the society or whatever way you want to put it. And what starts to break, what starts to buck, what starts to fight us? Well, then we know we have structural conflict, and we can go after those structures. Because when we look at all of these things that we have in society today, you know, often we think, Okay, well the energy industry is broken, or the way we structure boards is broken, or the political system is broken. It's not broken. It's doing exactly what it's designed to do, which is sub-optimal, 100%. If we're not happy with it, but we have to realize that from a perspective, it's the outcome of the way it's designed. And if we want to change it, we got to change the design. But we got to get away from that. Yeah, might be working for me, but who isn't it working for? And the other thing you were saying about, I just had the same conversation with my son and my daughter. She just graduated high school, she's taking a gap year, she's thinking about what she wants to do. And she keeps saying, you know, I think I might go into biology or whatnot. And she loves biology, but she doesn't like the learning and the lab work and all these things. She loves it as a concept of curiosity. Meanwhile, she's this amazing artist, she's started her own jewelry launch, and she’s been running it for four years. And you should, I can't believe how good she's doing over in this space. Sea and Stone Jewelry on Instagram, by the way, plug, but, you know, play to your strengths, because she just has such natural creativity in this space. I don't want to hold her back from anything she wants to do, as long as she is, she feels fulfilled, as long as she's bringing everything she's capable of. And maybe this is me, being that type of, I don't know, performance-minded person. But whatever you do, whatever path you pick in life, you know, does it feel like we're really putting your best stuff into the world? And so I think it's, yeah, anyway, I agree. Grades are not the measure of the worth. It's what are you gonna do with it? I talked to a former dean of my university last week. And I mentioned to her how in my last semester of business school, I went to the dean of the business and said, I didn't want to take any of these courses. They're just useless to me. Can I write a thesis instead? And she said, Sure, but that's a little bit of a heavy lift. And I said I'll take it because it was an expression of what I wanted to do and who I was. Anyway, am I on your wavelength? 

Teresa 31:58

Yeah, no, when I went to university, I took engineering because it was the easiest path to a degree for me, that's what I'm good at. And so to have done, oh, God, anything in social studies would have just absolutely murdered me. So, it's interesting how it depends on what you're good at. And for the longest time, I valued things that I wasn't good at, in a disproportionate way because they were hard for me. So, my husband's a naturally gifted athlete, I'm like, Okay, I'm always going to be involved in some kind of athletics because that's important to me. And I placed the middle of the pack on mountain bike racing, which I did at the university, and stuff like that. It was important to me that I did it, but I could not win. And I inordinately valued the win on a mountain bike race, versus getting, you know, the gold medal for my year in university, which to a lot of outsiders is like you're an idiot. You're doing academically, incredibly well, why isn't that as important to you? And it's like, well, because it comes easily. And so one thing that I've really taken for my kids is, don't undervalue what you're fundamentally gifted at, but continue to hone it. Like perform at the highest level possible, within the things that you love and are good at. And don't ever think that it makes it less important, because you're good at them.

Tim 33:13

Oh, man, and I think you're rounding us around to sort of a natural conclusion of where I think we saw this going. And that is, when you're in that exploratory phase when you're honing all those thoughts, when you're really sharpening all of your areas of impact, whether or not they're the ones that you're naturally gifted at, you don't rest on your laurels, you know, you still are active and inspired and going out and trying to influence things. You know, those are those opportunities to go out and lead either directly, or to create, what a friend of mine actually years ago from Shell, he brought up the term. How did he put it again? The forums for collision, right? That you're opening up these areas where people can come in, and they can bring all their best stuff together and all their passions together and see what truth emerges.

Teresa 34:18

Just to build on the collision thing, and we kind of touched about, I think in a previous conversation about what are the things you do? So, I'm really active in a whole variety of places. I'm on a committee for the UFC board. I do, you know, I have a YouTube channel where I animate little videos, I put stuff out into the Globe and Mail and other forms. I'm really active in a lot of places. And I really believe that if I get too strategic on what is really important, where are the places that really need to show up? I cut out this whole area of what do I want to do? What's interesting, yeah, play and it creates intersections of people you would never otherwise meet. When I go to work events, and those who meet me at these work events can attest, it's kind of like this group of us that go around to all these different things, we see each other every time. It's not a lot of net new. And so going out and being a volunteer with Scouts Canada, joining UFC committee, like all of these things have broad net new relationships and viewpoints and super interesting tangents that I don't know where they're gonna go. And maybe it's not important that every single thing is done with perfectly forward-dimensional movement, it really matters that you create this raft and this kind of 3d shape around everything that's important to you and what you're trying to do in the world. 

Tim 35:43

And that 3d shape allows other people to get a foothold, and realize when they can reach out and connect with you. It is that 3d shape is the shape of your molecule that can then attract others that can then you know, thinking of like form chemical bonds, right? With others. Man, I love this. Sorry, we're playing right now. Right? 

Teresa 36:05

Yeah, absolutely. 

Tim 36:07

Okay, well, so much here, the big message here that we're trying to convey, I believe, is you embrace that play, you embrace that vulnerability, you lean into all those things, and even, maybe define or at least open yourself up. And man, you can lead or you can contribute in so many different areas. And it really enriches our time on this planet.

Teresa 36:39

And maybe just building on that Tim, don't treat networking as a get-rich-quick, like there is no one relationship that's going to pull you up through to where you want to be or to get you access to what you need to build what you want to build. It's like brushing your teeth, you do it every day. And in the end, you have great teeth. And if you just treat relationships with the same kind of diligence and care and constant routine around it, I believe that it creates the molecules that then really do make a change in the world. 

Tim 37:10

Yeah, wow, you really are talking about farming different gardens. And those relationships are part of that, you know, nurturing them and watering them, and tending them. Man, okay. I think we're gonna have to have another conversation. I always say this with people. But I'm like, there's going to come a point where we're going to have to solidify on something else here. And it's, as I go through these podcasts, I don't only keep all the guests in mind, but it has these different as I’ve learned through these different conversations, it opens up new areas of intrigue, and then I know there's going to be a chance for us to bring this back together. And I'm already getting some little sparks. But let's leave that for the next time and for a side conversation, thinking of the future ahead. What has really, really excited in the world, what do you want people to know you're doing? What you're up to?

Teresa 37:58

I mean, for me, personally, the work I'm doing with LNG Canada right now, bringing Canada's first LNG export facility to life is super exciting. So, my day job is absolutely keeping me busy and driven, and motivated. And I'm working with an incredible team. And I really do believe that opening that up is part of the energy garden, it's part of reducing global climate impacts, while at the same time enabling power to developing nations. And that kind of brain trust that's coming out of developing nations as they get increasing access to the types of things that have enabled the developed world's populations to contribute in the ways that we have, it's going to be transformational for our world in a positive way, I really do believe that. So, that's a big piece of what I'm working on, trying to get in a few more days on what's been a bit of a skinny ski season. It's another side project–

Tim 38:47

A lot of rocks.

Teresa 38:49

A lot of rocks out there. And then I'm also, as you probably know, I'm quite active on LinkedIn, and I have a YouTube channel that I make little videos on. And I've also done a few courses for a company called SAGA Wisdom. One is an LNG Fundamental, which is going to be coming out shortly. And another one is called Oil Patch to Energy Garden, Energy and Transition, which is a much longer course about all kinds of things including molecules, electrons, people, policies, geopolitics, all kinds of aspects of what does that transformation look like? And in a lot of those kinds of side work projects that I've been doing, it's really about how do I channel my energy into helping drive groups of people to join our cause, to help move forward, to help create that energy garden.

Tim 39:38

Yeah and for those on the outside, I just want to I want to put in a plug for for LNG for those of you listening that don't understand the difference between liquid and gas, petrochemicals. It has the potential to be transitional from a technology perspective, because if you're just thinking about combustion, what is it? It's one-quarter, as pollutive as the–

Teresa 39:54

Half. Half is coal. 

Tim 39:56

Half as cool. And so I mean, while we're figuring things out, not to mention, I mean, LNG is so critical when it comes to developing fertilizers and everything a bunch of other things. Look at what that would mean for the planet. And for anybody that hasn't that has not looked into that, understand the difference, understand the difference of why that there is a transition within the energy sphere, around what chemicals become dominant, what forms become dominant. I just want to put that plug in.

Teresa 40:29

Absolutely. And just I sometimes get well, you know, you work for an LNG company, obviously, that that's what you think it's actually the other way around. I work for an LNG company because that's what I think.

Tim 40:41

Yeah, yeah. Also, we'll put links to all of that in the show notes. If people want to reach out to you directly, what's the best way for them to find you?

Teresa 40:48

Join me on LinkedIn, I'm pretty good about responding to messages there. But feel free to connect or follow. I am a little bit prolific on what I put out there. All again, in service of this concept of oil patch to energy garden, and how do we, how do we collectively make that happen?

Tim 41:04

And as I ask my guests, if you had one wish for the people listening today, coming from all different walks of life, coming from all different industries and whatnot, what would your wish for them be?

Teresa 41:16

I’m gonna go back to that first piece of advice. It's be yourself and I mean that in the way of, do the hard work to know who you are, take the time to constantly strip away all the outside influences that muddy up who we think we should be, what we think success looks like, who we're performing for our parents or our children or somebody else, take the time to constantly strip that away into reground. So, that you can truly be yourself in every aspect of your life.

Tim 41:45

I think that is timeless wisdom. And I think that it's something that if people can get into that, you know, my relationship with wanting to inspire fluency of self. If you can define that for yourself, and realize why you're worthy, realize why you're worth, you know, putting love into and getting yourself out there, man, it opens doors. So, thank you so much for this, Teresa. I really appreciate it.

Teresa 42:08

Thank you, Tim.

Tim 42:10

All right, we're gonna do it again.

Teresa 42:11

I can't wait. 

Tim 42:14

Talk to you later.

Tim 42:20

Thank you so much for listening to Sweet on Leadership. If you found today's podcast valuable, consider visiting our website and signing up for the companion newsletter. You can find the link in the show notes. If like us, you think it's important to bring new ideas and skills into the practice of leadership, please give us a positive rating and review on Apple Podcasts. This helps us spread the word to other committed leaders. And you can spread the word too by sharing this with your friends, teams, and colleagues. Thanks again for listening and be sure to tune in in two weeks time for another episode of Sweet On Leadership. In the meantime, I'm your host, Tim Sweet, encouraging you to keep on leading.