NORTH AMERICA
was so competent and qualified, but then hated to work for me, which was not exactly what I wanted my reputation to be.”
USA
people who wanted to follow me.” Stice said he put his new knowledge to work in a very practical way.
We often tend to look for comfortable areas where we can apply past experience to the next phase of our lives, but the
reality is that extraordinary results come from embracing the uncomfortable. That’s where lasting growth happens.
Stice said that changed when he pursued his Master of Business Administration at Stanford University in the mid-1990s.
“Stanford has an amazing gift at teaching soft skills,” he said. “I took a course called Post-Heroic Leadership and it was a changing moment in my life.
“I realized that I had become a heroic leader. Heroic leaders are like General Patton. They swing a big stick and bark a lot of orders. Post-heroic leaders are like (World War II Army General) Omar Bradley. He was known as the G.I.’s General because he looked to inspire, get feedback and make decisions with information that came from the bottom up.
“So that was the beginning of establishing my leadership style. I learned that what I had been – a very competent, capable individual contributor – was not going to take me where I wanted to go, which was to lead large organizations and have influence, as well as develop a group of
“I came out of that experience and became President of Conoco Australia and had my first real life experiment, where I had my own team thousands of miles from headquarters and I was able to do whatever I wanted to make the organization great,” he said. “It was wonderful and we had an extraordinary experience. I proved that post-heroic leadership, later defined as servant leadership, was effective. It worked.”
Stice later became Vice President of Conoco Asia and President of Conoco Gas and Power Marketing. After Conoco and Phillips merged, Stice became Vice President of ConocoPhillips Global Gas and then President of ConocoPhillips Qatar, where he oversaw development, management and construction of natural gas liquefaction and regasification (LNG) projects.
In 2011 – three years after joining Chesapeake – Stice earned his Doctorate of Education at The George Washington
University. As part of his studies, he evaluated the change in leadership at ConocoPhillips and documented his conclusions in an article titled, “The Cultural Impact of a CEO Transition.” The article was well received in the academic community and resulted in a request for a presentation at Cambridge University.
He said the paper explored the value of diverse types of leadership and how a mix of both execution and servant leadership cultures are needed to achieve organizational success. Those attributes now are part of the Access Midstream Vision and Mission statements.
“Access is the benefactor of my leadership journey,” he said. “Although the culture at Access remains a work in progress, we have made great strides in creating an organization that relies on servant leadership as the cornerstone of our values.”
WHAT’S NEXT Generally speaking, Stice doesn’t think CEOs should stick around for decades. At age 54, he’s years away from retirement but is looking forward to the next challenge in life – possibly teaching at the collegiate level. Stice says he hopes he’s known as a CEO that is authentic, truthful and unafraid.
“I hope they say that I never lost touch with my humility,” he said. “Strength comes from humility. If humility doesn’t exist, there is a weakness.”
What does he hope for in an eventual successor?
“What most people don’t appreciate is that the CEO job is mostly perspiration. It’s about hard work and staying engaged. You should hold people accountable and have lots and lots of conversations. What I’d look for in a successor is that same energy level, that same commitment but frankly somebody who is different than I am, to bring a fresh perspective.”
The outlook for Access Midstream couldn’t be brighter, Stice said.
Compressor units at Access’ Augusta Compression Facility in the Utica Shale.
“Natural gas is the future of American energy,” he said. “We work with some of the largest energy companies in the United States so we are in the best position to capitalize on this tremendous success story.”
42 Finance Monthly CeO AwArdS 2013
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83