Leadership Questions
Cody Balzen, Field Support Team Lead 1594
2026-05-21
It’s another week and another attempt to harness all the good leadership from the organization around me! I set up a meeting with Cody Balzen, 1594 FSE Team Lead. I worked with him for a bit while he was the OE at 1594 and I was in maintenance. He was always a decisive OE who cared about solving problems and getting this working so I was really curious how being “detached” from the unit in a support role and also as a team lead now was suiting him.
I sent him the following meeting invite, and he also took the time beforehand to write out responses to each question. I’ll try to include that somewhere as well
Cody,
I’m trying to pick people’s brain about leadership and how they think/go about it.
I’d love to sit down with you and find out what you’ve learned. As a relatively newer boss, I’m curious what those initial road bumps were + how you are growing.
Here’s some of the questions I’ve brainstormed, but the conversation can be free-flowing and go wherever. This is just to have some guiderails and give you some initial things to consider.
What’s something that’s underestimated by others that you think is important?
What’s something you learned working at other sites/roles that you are using in your current spot?
Which leadership skills were the most difficult to develop?
How would you define your leadership style, and how has it evolved?
What makes “a good leader”?
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?
How do you motivate/make people feel a part of something bigger than themselves?
How do you identify talent?
How do you balance holding onto good people vs helping them advance their careers in other roles?
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I wanted to pick his brain about being a newer leader and how he’s approaching the role. As an IC he had that “I’m a decision maker” energy that made folks respect his direction. Started with his background.
Cody started at Calumet in San Antonio (a little refinery) for a couple years. Then he moved to TotalEnergies in Port Arthur, working Utilities OE for a bit until jumping on the ethylene cracker project for design and start up. After 3-4 years he came over the Cedar as a cold side OE for the ethylene unit then got the FSE Team Lead after the Cedar Turnaround. At both of his previous stints, after a while he felt they were holding him from his next pay raise/job opportunity.
##I asked about the small refinery in SA, and he commented about how sometimes it’s better to be a big fish in a small pond. Yes, the “opportunities” are less available, but you build such a body of work and become an expert that you are easily prepared to take the manager role, it’s just the timeline for progress might be slower. The move to PA was a lateral one. It might’ve stunted his overall upward movement in the grand scheme of things.
Cody quite liked my questions, “I can tell these aren’t AI” and really enjoyed the first one about something underestimated. He highlighted three items: Transparency, Ownership/Decision Making, and Advocating. For transparency he used the example of the MEA (manufacturing engineering analysis) that we have been (are still) going through for the past year, how it’s been dangled but never definitely stated one way or the other for a while. He clarified there’s ~3 types of conversations; Confidential, Alluding, and Open. Some stuff you just can’t say, some stuff you can give a little reassurance, and have it trickle out to the team and some stuff you just say in front of everyone. Cody mentioned the MIB quote “a person is smart, people are dumb.” Sometimes you need to be open/honest and give them enough to make an educated decision on their own. Cody mentioned at Total where they floated the lead role for him after being an OE for a while but then he wasn’t allowed to apply because it was going to be a managed move for his other team member.
##To clarify about transparency in leadership roles, he did reiterate “it’s easy to say, but harder to do” so this isn’t some enlightened preaching.
In a nod to being transparent, Cody shared his goals as a leader for himself are Deliver Company Objectives, Develop People, Retain Talent. The first is just “do you job well”, but the next two he’s trying to help grow the people reporting to him and keep them from feeling unappreciated to the extent they see the only option as leaving. He genuinely wants to help his people get that next role. The quote “No one advocates for you but yourself” is really true but he never wants his team to feel like he’s not advocating for them.
For Ownership, he really struck home how you need to give clear direction and make THE decision. I really appreciated his story about deciding a path forward while an OE. There was water in the suction drums, and they could either try to start up and shut down to “pump” the water through or shutdown completely and vacuum out the liquid. He chose the former and after a couple of tries it didn’t work and they still had to shut down and address the problem. BUT besides him, no one in the unit has brought it back up or held it over his head. Sometimes action is more important that “correct” (obviously not impacting safety or equipment health).
##This really reiterated one of the greatest strengths I saw of him as an OE. He can grab a problem and say, “Go this way”. Regardless of whether he’s 100% confident, at least we are making progress. It reminded me about 1-way vs 2-way decisions and how sometimes going is more important than certainty. The waffling or hesitancy can be just as painful as not having the perfect solution.
With Advocating for your employees, you need to start from a basis of connecting/knowing them. Cody discussed how you gotta recognize and hear their concerns, actual sit down and listen. You then write them down to remember/document them and go about at least looking into them. It builds the circle of trust because you are seeing them and acknowledging their issues along with showing a willingness to work with them about getting them resolved. This also applies to “managing up” to your boss. He brought up an old boss, James Kelly who would butt heads with the plant manager. He got really good about how to balance pushing back and protecting his team while also working to achieve what the plant manager wanted. Cody’s wife called it “blocking and tackling”, keeping some of the unnecessary initiatives and drama from the top leaders from impacting how the people on the ground do their job. I also really appreciated his story about the ethylene commissioning manager (I forgot his name) who would start every morning by walking through the BRM and shake everyone’s hand + ask about their weekend. Cody started doing something similar in 1on1s with “Personal Check-In” where the first 15 minutes is just “how are you, how’s your girlfriend, did you get your car fixed over the weekend, etc.”. Showing that you care about them goes a long way in getting the best out of them.
##One of the best lines Cody said was along the lines of “I have loyalty to the company’s people, not the company”. He cares about the individuals.
Asking about the skill he’s still developing, he really felt it was accountability. Not in the “I’m not accountable as a person” way but in the sense of documenting and tracking everything. It’s a challenge for every person and every role, and a lot of it requires paperwork. Setting milestones/objectives for every employee, doing EOY write ups, remembering the status of ever project for the team members below him, “it’s easy to speak, it’s hard to do.” Some of the accountability is meeting people how they work best, if that’s bullet points or just giving them the overall mission. You try to manage evenly but everyone is different. It gets even harder with HiPo employees (high potential), they can tend to get extra slack because they get everything completed but how does that impact others on the team (say they are leaving early every day).
##I loved how he said some people are cool with no 1on1. “You don’t need 1on1s? that’s fine but I need 1on1s”, even as a boss you can’t completely roll over. You need to set the bar, the standard, then manage everyone from there.
For Great Leaders, Cody highlighted Bryan Canfield and Steve Prusak (EVP Manufacturing and CEO respectively) as ones he looks to. He liked how Bryan has a directness and candor that strips a lot of the excess down to “what’s the decision needing to be made? Great let’s go execute” while Steve has more the compassion, where you feel he actually cares when talking at town halls.
##I did notice how he mentioned “well they got to the position” as kinda a justification for if they were leaders worth admiring. I understand they’ve been promoted a ton, so people all along the chain have said they would do well in leadership position. Maybe I’m just less disposed to anoint greatness because of the role/title.
One topic I was not expecting such a stellar answer from a newer leader was the how to motivate others question! His answer of “you gotta be a little cocky” was genuine, shrewd and extremely insightful. You need to have almost a level of bravado to the role. He pointed out his old the ethylene cracker stickers about how they were “Cream of the Crop” even though every day they were fighting and struggling in getting the unit built/commissioned.
A second part is showing your own level of commitment. When there’s problems going out there to solve them, stepping up or staying late. Your team sees all that and start to follow. You need to lead from the front, not from behind your desk.
Lastly, you gotta highlight successes. Praising the amazing work someone does, both in staff and in bigger meetings is crucial. Getting accolades motivates people. Even if someone is not a public praise and prefers to be in the background, seeing that success gets highlighted can motivate the rest of the team to strive that little be harder on their own efforts.
##This really resonated with me; it’s something I’ve thought a ton about. Craig Lemons (one of my leader heroes) would always want the Orange site to be BDSITN “Best Dang Ship In The Navy”. Jesus Loera started calling Plant 8 at Pasadena “the Great Plant 8” when he took the OE role there. These “meaningless” sayings genuinely alter the way people feel about themselves and the work they are doing. A leader is not just someone who comes up with a catchy saying but someone who champions it. You are creating the “myths” for the units, site, company. Write the myths you want to follow (think about the stories of George Washington, Betsy Ross, Johnny Appleseed, Davy Crockett, or Teddy Roosevelt from American history). Humans are story creatures; if you write a better story, it can have a different ending.
How to identify talent – it’s hard but you need to as the right questions. Cody highlighted if you have contacts to ask, “how do they work with the team” and “what’s the best quality about them”. It’s all good if they can do the tasks assigned but if they can’t work with others you’re only adding to future headaches.
Finally, we ended on finding the balance between always relying on your strong performer and giving more junior folks shots. The key is to understand the customer’s needs. If this truly is CRITICAL, the strong performer is needed. But if there’s the opportunity for someone else to take charge, you should be trying to develop the whole of the team. Another option is to have the strong performer be there “for support” and someone else take lead. That way they can stumble/grow while having a resource to help ensure it gets done.
end of convo————