NOV's David Reid Talks Survival at Oil, Gas Conference
David Reid, chief marketing officer for National Oilwell Varco (NOV), encouraged oil and gas leaders to “survive and strive” during the industry downturn at the 2015 Best Practices for Oil and Gas Conference Thursday morning.
While delivering his keynote, Reid said he personally loves downturns.
“I love them because we get serious about what we’re doing. We get focused. And people hear great ideas and have great ideas,” he said.
During downturns, companies go into survival mode, but striving takes a little bit more.
“The problem with thinking ‘let’s just work really hard and develop our skills and we’ll do better,’ is that if you truly want to make a difference in work, it starts with inside you,” Reid said. “Controlling others is nothing; the hard work is controlling yourself – how you tackle problems, how you behave is the hard work. That’s where you strive. You have to choose that you’re going to push through all the hard obstacles.”
Reid also shared characteristics of good leaders.
“If you want to do great things in life, do not use people to get things done. If you’re in the people-growing business, use the job to grow the person,” he said. “Give [employees] experiences they need, not because they’re going to be great starting off, but because they’re going to become great.”
Bosses who are interested in personal growth of their employees will earn the employees’ loyalty, said Reid.
Downturns can also reveal good (or bad) leaders.
Reid said he’s heard leaders say layoffs allowed their companies to get rid of employees who aren’t great performers.
“That’s just wrong,” he said. “That means you’re a bad manager because you should have dealt with the non-performers some other time. Layoffs is not the time for that.”
Rather the culture of layoffs should involve leaders telling all employees how good they are, but unfortunately the layoffs are part of the company’s survival.
“The best scenario I’ve ever been in was when I saw a cycle of layoffs where almost everyone who was laid off came back,” he said. “That’s healthy. Now you’re growing people. But you have to feel that pain. It should hurt. If it doesn’t hurt, something is wrong with you.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Generated by readers, the comments included herein do not reflect the views and opinions of Rigzone. All comments are subject to editorial review. Off-topic, inappropriate or insulting comments will be removed.
- Falcon Oil Declares Commercial Flow Test Results for Shenandoah Well
- Japan Failing to Meet Corporate Demand for Clean Power: Amazon
- Macquarie Strategists Expect Brent Oil Price to Grind Higher
- UK Oil Regulator Publishes New Emissions Reduction Plan
- PetroChina Posts Higher Annual Profit on Higher Production
- Pennsylvania County Joins List of Local Govts Suing Big Oil over Climate
- McDermott Settles Reficar Dispute
- US, SKorea Launch Task Force to Stop Illicit Refined Oil Flows into NKorea
- Russian Navy Enters Warship-Crowded Red Sea Amid Houthi Attacks
- USA Commercial Crude Oil Inventories Increase
- New China Climate Chief Says Fossil Fuels Must Keep a Role
- Equinor Makes Discovery in North Sea
- Standard Chartered Reiterates $94 Brent Call
- India Halts Russia Oil Supplies From Sanctioned Tanker Giant
- DOI Announces Proposal for Second GOM Offshore Wind Auction
- Centcom, Dryad Outline Recent Moves Around Red Sea Region
- PetroChina Set to Receive Venezuelan Oil
- Czech Conglomerate to Buy Major Stake in Gasnet for $917MM
- US DOE Offers $44MM in Funding to Boost Clean Power Distribution
- Oil Settles Lower as Stronger Dollar Offsets Tighter Market
- Chinese Mega Company Makes Major Oilfield Discovery
- VIDEO: Missile Attack Kills Crew Transiting Gulf of Aden
- Norway Regulator Blasts Proposal to Halt New Oil and Gas Permits
- Chinese Mega Company Makes Another Major Oilfield Discovery
- New China Climate Chief Says Fossil Fuels Must Keep a Role
- What Is the Biggest Risk to Offshore Oil and Gas Personnel in 2024?
- Vessel Sinks in Red Sea After Missile Strike
- Exxon Rights in Stabroek Do Not Apply to Hess Merger with Chevron: Hess
- Analysts Reveal Latest Oil Price Outlook Following OPEC+ Cut Extension
- Equinor Makes Discovery in North Sea