Leadership Questions
Alex Rubin, NGL Superintendent
2026-07-01
I met Alex through a chance encounter, and we’ve stayed somewhat in touch through different career changes at Chevron Phillips. If I’m going through leaders and how they think/act; I had to include an individual who takes the time to reach out to folks outside of his responsibility just to say congrats.
Good morning Alex,
This summer, I’m trying to interview different leaders about how they think about/show leadership and what lessons I can gleam.
I’d love to set up a call with you and discuss your career/what you’ve learned.
Here’s a list of some questions I’ve thought about but we can go wherever you want
What’s something you wish you knew early in your career?
How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Is there a favorite failure you’re willing to share?
What’s something that’s underestimated by others that you think is important?
How do you approach and handle difficult conversations with a team member?
Who do you look to as a great leader (inside or outside of the company)? What about them do you admire/want to imitate? Is there a mentor you really grew under?
What is an unusual habit or an absurd thing that you love?
If this time doesn’t work for you, please let me know and I’ll reschedule.
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We started off with Alex’s career path just to provide background and dive into different roles.
Starting as a process engineer at PA, then moved into Operations. He moved to work on the GTP initial design as the Operations Engineer rep. When that was put on ice for a period, he moved to CB Controls group. That role was one where he didn’t have the expertise but approached it by ask stakeholders at the unit “what are your problems, what are you working on”. He then got his first “people leadership” role as the Operations Manager at Pascagoula. That role was unique in only having 1 direct report but still being responsible to the business folks for how the site performs. It really taught Alex how to lead by influence or when you don’t “control their paychecks”. He’s now in the NGL superintendent position at Sweeny for the last two-ish years, which is another technology/facility changeover.
##He has this good line “one of the things that galvanizes me is getting to impact people and teams”. I just really like that word, it’s evocative but also an engineering term. He also emphasized the importance of following up, and how that makes the team better aligned.
I wanted to ask about something that he learned early in his career and would pass along to newer folks. He highlighted the importance of “being forward facing”. If you are going to own an initiative or project, you must ensure that you feel confident in the pre-work you are attaching your name to. He highlighted how “your signature matters”. Alex shared the story of a burner upgrade project where he focused on his little part and trusting others to knock out their part, but the project didn’t go well.
The importance of ensuring things are correct, because your name is going to be on it! The other insight is how deflecting blame when it does go wrong doesn’t look good. You can avoid that by verifying and standing behind y’all’s earlier work. Another key input is if we are going to put the time, money, and effort into X, it should be the right decision. This led to a discussion of ICs and how to empower them to speak up on new initiatives/projects. Instead of doing something just because you were told, getting them to speak up and say, “this is a bad idea”.
##Early questions can make everyone more confident because we’ve prepared for anything that might come up or pushback from other folks.
I wanted to know how you build that feedback from your team and not shut folks down from speaking their perspective. Alex talked about how he started this role by being extremely clear at the beginning that he views constructive conflict as a good thing. Another point was how his career has been diverse with technologies and sites so he’s upfront about not having The Answer but will use his team to do the analysis and he’ll ask questions to ensure we get a good result. Setting that expectation of “I look for everyone to provide input” during discussions helps ensure even the softer-spoken folks get involved. And if not, he’ll directly ask them. Alex admitted this might not be “the best approach” but after you do it once or twice people learn to expect it and have something to say. He’s not paying them to sit around.
#He mentioned “we can argue on the shore but once we are in the boat we need to be rowing in the same direction”
The “what’s underestimated by others” question always trips people up, but Alex gave a rather profound response. He highlighted communication styles, and understanding how to best communicate with different individuals. The higher you go; the more varied people you will interact with and you need to be more flexible in your approach. Alex highlighted the personality color blocks and how you might want to go about it one way but someone else needs it another way.
##Don’t be fake or phony and try to be an over-extraverted person if that ain’t you. That’s going to drain you of a lot of your energy. But you can try to meet them where they are while still being true to yourself.
This led into a conversation about giving feedback to folks and how Alex goes about it. Alex tends to use “micro-redirections”, small corrections he’ll share a little after the meeting. In the moment, he’ll recognize and jot it down. Then he’ll try to deliver within 24hrs. Sometimes if you do it immediately after a meeting it can come across as just looking for something to nitpick. Alex quoted “feedback is a gift; you can choose what to do with it.”
You also need to recognize that what you say and how you’re interpreted are not the same. You may think you’re being super clear, but it’s not always taken that way. Understanding how someone best takes/received information can help somewhat with this. The other portion is following up with them and getting feedback. Ask “what are you thinking from that” or in the future if things haven’t altered asking “where was I not clear” to better understand their side of the exchange.
##One thing mentioned was possibly having a OneNote or email file on every employee. It can serve as a little CYA, "if you need it, it's there". After 1on1s, EOYs, or discipline discussions you should do an email follow up to yourself. This creates a written documentation of the event, time-stamped and fresh so you don’t have to try remembering every little detail.
I asked about who’s some impactful mentors or leaders he tries to learn from. Alex had an extremely long list, and I tried to jot everything down but definitely missed one or two. Justin Blazek – sets high expectations but does it in a down-to-earth manner. He also provides a lot of autonomy for his reports to succeed in how they perform best and that’s something Alex is trying to emulate. Jacob McAlistar – puts an onus on accountability and good resource allocation. “We need people to contribute; we can’t have dead weight”. Robert Ricker – a mentor to Alex. He is always looking from an organization wide viewpoint on how to integrate operations, maintenance, and technical. Casey Cook – someone super detailed and really good at questions that pry good answers from folks.
##Alex also had a mentor Kevin (forgot his last name) who would always ask “where’s the value proposition?” it’s not just the ROI but the impact, safety, people, etc. knowing this and speaking to it are what can set you apart.
I ran a little overtime, but I wanted to ask about something he loves that’s less serious/work related. He talked about starting to coach his kids in their sports/activities. It’ can be extremely stressful and annoying but he derives a lot of enjoyment from that time.
##Alex also acknowledged how we’re all put on earth to live, not to work. Don’t let work superimpose on the life side.
end of convo————