Human Resources
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How Jim Davis built an empowered work force at Chevron Energy Solutions that allows him to focus on key initiatives
By Kristy J. O’Hara
Smart Business Northern California | October 2008
Page 1 of 4
Every day, there are millions of possibilities as to how Jim Davis could spend
his time. As president of Chevron Energy
Solutions Co., a wholly owned subsidiary of the $221 billion Chevron Corp.,
he recognizes time is limited and that he
has to make choices each day.
“There’s an endless list of things I could
be working on, but the challenge is
determining what are the critical few
that are going to be the most impactful
to the organization to drive it forward
and to achieve its goals,” he says.
Davis says that as the leader of your
organization, you have to choose three
to five initiatives to focus on. Everything
else needs to be delegated.
“One of the good asset tests is saying,
‘What would keep me up at night if it
went really poorly?’” he says. “That’s a
real good indication that you’re on the
right track to determining what your
key metrics are.”
But once you determine what keeps you
up, you have to actually stick to focusing
on those few things and not get caught up
in all the other possibilities. To do that,
Davis relies on his 400 people to carry out
the rest of the tasks.
“Getting the right people in the right roles
and then empowering them to perform in
those roles goes a long way to meeting that
challenge,” he says.
