I had the privilege and honor of interviewing  Tom Moroney, the former Vice President of Deepwater & Wells Technology at Shell. Shell is the fifth-largest company in the world measured by 2018 revenues. Tom had a quite successful career in the company for 33 years and handled numerous projects and departments, most notably the BG Group acquisition and being at the helm of Deepwater & Wells Technology. 

Tom was the keynote speaker at the Project Controls Symposium, which was held in Houston, Texas – November 2, and 3, 2018. Although his career does not lean to Project Controls, his insights on leadership, management, and professional growth are key takeaways towards success in the field. His humility and attribution to the people and the company – Shell, as parts of the driving force that propelled him to his own success are admirable and inspiring.  

As a fresh graduate out of Stanford University, majored in Petroleum Engineering, Tom Moroney immediately entered the Oil & Gas industry through Shell as a Reservoir Engineer Subsurface. Starting out, he did not have an inkling to what’s in store for him or his impact in Shell’s Research & Development business. In his words; “It has been, quite frankly the realization of an impossible dream! The opportunities I have been presented and the successes I have enjoyed are the results of the incredibly gifted people both inside and outside the company who supported me, assisted me, coached me, led me, worked for me, and cheered for me.”    

Given this attribution to the people in and outside his company and field of expertise, and his evident passion for the industry – the positive effect to the world in general, let’s look at the 5 keys to his success and how you can embark on having a successful career of your dreams. 

1. Applying The 5 P’s Of Leadership To Make A Lasting Impact 

When I asked Tom about the lessons he learned throughout his successful career in Shell, his answer was simple – “What I think about in terms of my legacy is the people that I work with and what I learned about leadership, what I learned about inspiring and motivating people to deliver in spite of the company. “  

He continued by saying that “Leadership is all about the people you serve at the end of the day and the impact that you leave behind. Genuine leaders should always be in search of how they show up to affect positive impact, to be and remain a force for good for their people and their organizations.”    

Tom’s leadership recipe involves threading together the 5 P’s of ‘purpose’, ‘perseverance’, ‘passion’, ‘practice’ and ‘people’.  

• Purpose is innate in every person, that inner mission that drives a person every single day to work hard.  
• Perseverance is knowing the worthwhile goal that gives a person the dogged determination to actualize it.  
• Passion is fortitude, the energy or drive that comes from the heart that’s tapped into on the continuous ups and downs of practicing or doing the work. It also allows for reinvention and continuous learning. An important skillset to inspire people to do transformative work.  

• Practice or Process allows for people’s skillsets to be refined and improved over the different challenges being faced in each project in accordance with the process of the job or the organization.  
• People are managing the interrelationships in doing the work and in reaching goals. The sense of giving attribution to all the people within the team, and lateral progressions of relationships within the team.  

These 5 P’s are interwoven by a leader and team members alike to bring in the results. But what’s truly amazing is for the leader to identify opportunities set by the problems or challenges, move in the resources including people and go for that transformation from a challenge or problem into a result that will impact and create value for the company. 

2. Aligning Personal Purpose With The Company And The People 

In Tom’s own words, “…  I got lucky. And what I mean is that when I decided to join the Shell Company, very quickly I discovered that I was in a company that really tapped into my own personal mission; who I was, and what I wanted to achieve.”   

In starting out with Shell, he was able to connect his personal purpose with the company’s values including its mission and the pervading people culture. In this interview, he has emphasized the value of the people around him as one of the driving factors to his success; the collaboration, work relationship with others in and outside the company. Tapping into the resources of people including their own personal purposes and aligning these with his own to make creative transformation happened within Shell’s R&D.   

The alignment of the company’s mission and the people with their own personal purpose or objectives makes a significant effect in how the work is done and the succeeding results including the pivoting that may happen along the way. To work in a mindset that every job or task, the company, and the people are all extensions of one’s personal purpose or mission. 

3. Becoming Fully Engaged Into The Roles Of The Job (Being In The Arena)

On the subjects of climbing the ladder to success and the lessons learned along the way, Tom referred to one his favorite American presidents, Teddy Roosevelt. Teddy has a speech often referred to as a ‘Man In The Arena’ speech. In this speech, he said ” It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs; who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”  

Becoming fully engaged in the roles of the job gave Tom the enjoyment and the drive to do good work, knowing the work was for worthwhile causes and problems – solving the glitches, whilst able to integrate the key element of interpersonal relationships and teamwork into the whole picture.   

Being in the arena of the company is working front and center of the job and experiencing the good and the gritty at the same time. The good and the gritty equally stoke the (flames of) passion and perseverance in any field of interest or path. 

4. Knowing And Cultivating Your Personal Brand

By knowing one’s purpose, passion and mission in life, the personal brand can be created and nurtured geared towards success in one’s chosen profession, no matter what field or industry. For Tom, it was simple. Don’t think of it as a career but as a life mission and creating the personal brand in and around it. Because at the end of the day: this will be the push or the lever to propel the person towards goals and achieving success.   

Many people with a successful career know the importance of cultivating personal brand with their purpose. That’s what moves them to wake up, go to work and be in the arena. As Tom says, “… my message to people is your career should be viewed as one part of your life’s mission. If you can’t feel the passion in your work, if you don’t want to get out of bed every morning in pursuit of your life’s work, then you’re not doing the right thing or in the right field. If you can’t feel the passion in your work, you should rethink your career, rethink your brand, and rethink your mission.” 

5. Being Passionate About What You Do 

I think this is self-explanatory given the messages Tom imparts all throughout the interview. Within his 33 years in Shell, he was able to define and discover his place in the company, where he best made a difference by aligning his personal purpose, mission, and passion that enabled him to bring in more value for the company in terms of R&D, technology and innovation. The technological innovations Shell was able to develop and provide under his leadership are making a world of difference in harnessing energy resources that trickles down to improving the quality of life of people around the world.

Tom was so passionate about his work. His message is ” If you love your work and create a deep connection between what you’re doing and who you believe you are, and what you believe your mission to be, your job will be quite enjoyable.   

Talking and interviewing Tom, I can’t help but be moved by his passion and zest for life; knowing his own personal purpose early on and through his work able to make a big difference in the Oil and Gas industry.  

I would like to end this post by a great quote from Tom Moroney, “By maximizing the opportunities that come your way, you will, open up and create new avenues to consider. Whichever doors you step through or paths you pursue make sure you commit your full self to the journey” 

About the Author, Shohreh Ghorbani

Shohreh is the founder and director of Project Control Academy, the leading provider of comprehensive online training programs in Project Controls. Shohreh has served tens of thousands of professionals and several international corporations build their technical Project Controls knowledge and shave off years of trial and error in learning the vital skills in controlling their projects.

Shohreh is a licensed project management professional (PMP) recognized by Project Management Institute (PMI) and holds a Master of Science in Industrial Engineering.

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