This week, squirrels in my neighborhood are running all over. Our neighborhood has a lot of hickory trees. What’s unusual, they all have nuts in their mouth and aren’t eating them now. Instead they are carrying them up to their tree nests preparing for winter. Preparing for tomorrow is something people can do, like cutting firewood for winter. Having regular health checkups today can avoid more serious problems in the future. Young people attend college, technical school or join a skilled trade as an apprentice to prepare for a career tomorrow. Some people prepare for the challenges of tomorrow by having health care coverage, home owners insurance, retirement savings, a will and so forth.
My friend, Hall of Fame Speaker and author, Willie Jolley had a high school teacher who told him, “Leaders don’t just make decisions for today, they make decisions for tomorrow.” A message that made a big difference in Willie’s life. We should all be making decisions for tomorrow like saving for retirement, eating healthy, not smoking, staying fit and being a person of integrity.
We all probably know people who smoked or took drugs starting in high school and shortened their lives. What made them “cool” or part of the “in crowd” in high school cost them their health later in life. My father smoked starting in his late teens. In the 1930s and 1940s all they dangers of smoking weren’t known. Movie stars smoked. They set an example. Smoking was a distraction that may have helped Dad relax when he was in the Marines during WWII. He tried to play semi-pro football after the war. Smoking negatively impacted his performance and he gave up football. He was hooked on tobacco. Dad was a strong swimmer. He went to Boy Scout camp with us and barely had the lung capacity to pass the swimmers test. He was in his early 40s then. The example he set and what Dad told us about smoking made it easy for me to decide not to smoke. The decisions we make today impact our future tomorrows. My Dad’s decision as a teenager impacted our entire family.
True leaders don’t just make decisions for today. They make decisions for tomorrow. A leader’s decisions today impact not just their tomorrow. They impact the tomorrow of their people. Leaders have the responsibility to consider the impact of their decisions on others, especially their followers. As parents we are the leaders of our children and grandchildren. Our children are grown. Most of our grandchildren are now teens. They all live out of state. We can’t manage or command them. We can lead them. Leaders influence and development people. We can influence through our example of how we live our lives and how we treat our family and others. Leaders need to have integrity. They need to be worthy of people’s trust. The example of a leader speaks louder than anything they say. Leaders can encourage, praise, listen, care, teach and coach. As a high school coach, a large part of what we do is getting young people to believe in themselves. It starts us with believing in the player. For people to succeed, they must first believe they can succeed. Our stories can inspire others.
Leaders have a high vision they believe they can achieve. Young people are looking for leaders they can trust who have a positive view of the future. They are looking for leaders who appreciate and care about them. Are you a manager or a leader? We all make people happy. Sometimes it is when we enter a room. Sometimes it is when we leave a room. We choose. Are people leaving your organization? If people don’t like being around you why would they stay? Being an effective leader is a choice. Leadership can be learned. We can decide to learn to be a better leader for tomorrow.
Shale Crescent USA has been working with companies all over the world. This week we had our first Zoom call with a Ukrainian company. The CEO was in Kiev, the capitol. I asked if he was in a bomb shelter. He said, “No” but it is close by. They have done a lot of business from the bomb shelter. The CEO has a young family with three kids all still in Ukraine. I can’t imagine living with the constant threat of a bomb dropping on your home or business. What they are going through dwarfs most of our daily challenges. We are blessed as a nation and individuals. The CEO didn’t expect sympathy. The rest of the call was all business.
They have U.S. customers they are serving from their Ukraine manufacturing facility. They want to open a plant in the USA to serve their U.S. customers and expand while keeping their plant in Ukraine. They are interested in the Shale Crescent USA region because of its dependable economic energy from natural gas, local feedstock and location in the middle of customers. Serving U.S. customers from a USA facility fueled by U.S. energy will lower cost and carbon footprint. The Ukrainian CEO is making a long-term decision for tomorrow by locating in the SCUSA. He is a leader.
Some people in leadership positions in the U.S. government are making regulatory decisions that will shut down baseload coal, nuclear and even some natural gas power plants replacing them with intermittent renewables. Power demand is increasing from EVs, data centers and other sources. In Europe and California power costs increased when baseload was replaced with renewables. Rolling blackouts can be expected. Their poor leadership disregards people’s health, safety and economic well-being. It can drive U.S. industry back to places like China increasing global emissions.
Our country needs business, community, national and family LEADERS who have integrity and can make sound decisions for today and tomorrow based facts, sound engineering principals and love of people. All things are possible.
Greg Kozera, [email protected] is Director of Marketing and Sales for Shale Crescent USA. www.shalecrescentusa.com (You can follow SCUSA on Facebook) He is a professional engineer with a Masters in Environmental Engineering and over 40 years’ experience in the energy industry. Greg is a leadership expert, high school soccer coach, professional speaker, author of four books and numerous published articles.
