‘Too Nice to Get Ahead’?

What's the toughest part of being a boss?
Letting people go. That's the toughest thing you ever do in life. I try to tell people who are learning to do it that we're all going to be faced with it inevitably. Often it's because the business outgrows an employee, or their personal situation changes and makes them less motivated. You can justify why someone who's not performing ought to be moving on, that it's better for them. But more importantly, if you don't eliminate that one person, nine others will suffer … So you have to let them go without destroying their ego, but by actually telling them some of the reasons this is not working out, and try to help them financially as best you can.

When most people think of the oil and gas industry, they think of big profits. How does that affect you as CEO of a major company?
I think what's happened in this country with regard to energy is an absolute travesty. I go around the halls of Congress and find that we're viewed the same way as the tobacco industry is. Nothing could be more diametrically opposed to what the truth is. Other than clean air, clean water and abundant food, there's nothing more important to the physical existence of humanity than energy. It's always been that way, and it always will be … We'd prefer for oil to be in the $40 range. We don't like what [high prices] do to consumption [or] to the politics of the world … But I think our industry doesn't get enough credit. We've got a lot of voluntary programs going on that address greenhouse-gas emissions. We're committed to doing things right environmentally. But at the end of the day it is an extractive industry. You're not going to get away from the fact that you're drilling holes in the ground to get at energy resources. That's the only option we have in the world today.

© 2008