Author: Andrew Embry

If you mixed diet mountain dew, funk music, dragons, hip hop, superheroes, and lightning in a blender you’d end up with Andrew Embry. He is part wordsmith and part alchemist, able to use his Batman utility belt to turn anything and everything into a story worth telling that is equal parts insightful, memorable, inspiring, humorous, and entertaining. Andrew is comfortably creative in almost any setting, but especially when he is performing spoken word poetry. His enthusiasm for words comes from the way he loves people and the little nuances of life that make it worth living.

Think bold. Be bold. (7-8-15)

Recently I had a conversation with a colleague about bold leadership.  What is bold leadership?  What does it take to be a bold leader?  These are big questions that I’m going to tackle over the next few weeks.

Last week we celebrated Independence Day.  It made me wonder what those initial conversations about starting a country were like.  Imagine for a minute.  It is the 1770s.  We are living in the colonies.  Then this guy comes up and says, “We are going to establish a new country free from the king!”  That’s a bold statement.  That requires bold leadership to make it happen.

We could get all philosophical on what makes something bold, but I think there is a pretty simple test.  All leadership starts with vision, so take your vision and say it out loud to someone.  If it is truly a bold vision/idea then their response will be one of two extremes.  They will either become really enthusiastic and ready to work toward that vision or they will have a high degree of doubt and skepticism.  If they are luke warm to the vision/idea, then it’s not bold.  People have extreme responses to bold ideas, because bold ideas create ripples of change and people either get excited by change or they are doubtful.

Are your ideas bold?  Bold ideas challenge the status quo.  If your ideas aren’t bold, then YOU can’t be.  You can’t be a bold leader when you are trying to lead from a world of vanilla.  Bold ideas don’t necessarily have to be large earth shattering concepts like creating a new country.  Bold ideas just need to challenge the status quo.

Here are some small bold ideas.  I believe I can make people smile and help them think differently by sending emails on Wednesdays 😉  I believe we can lead through love and that we can be influential leaders without an official team.  I believe there’s room for beauty and poetry in all of the work we do.  I believe we get stronger by lifting others up to be seen.  I believe that we all create and own the culture and that we shouldn’t have to wait for a person in authority to define the culture for us.  Are these crazy earth shattering concepts?  No.  Do these go against the status quo?  Yes.  Are they bold? I’d say so.

What are some of your bold ideas?  Send them my way and we’ll keep an anonymous list going to keep us thinking differently.  Think bold.  Be bold.

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Lessons from Being a Dad Part 4 Feel love. Show love. (7-1-15)

This is going to be the final installment in the lessons I’ve learned since becoming a dad and it’s about love.

I knew pretty early on in our relationship that I loved my wife in a way that I had never loved another person.  This love continues to grow to this day.  I remember when I found out she was pregnant with our first child that I kept wondering how would I ever love another person with as much heart as I put into loving my wife.  When Alice was born I quickly learned my heart, that I already thought was full of love, had even more room to share love with this new incredible person in my life.

Time goes by and my wife becomes pregnant with Violet, our second daughter.  I kept thinking to myself, “How can I ever love Violet the way I love Alice?  How can I have room for that much love in my heart?”  I can’t tell you how it happened, but I can tell you that when Violet was born I once again found that I had more capacity for love.  Through these experiences I’ve found that love defies physical laws and many things that we have been taught to believe is true.  Normally, if you want to have something you need to acquire it.  However, love is different.  The more love I give away, the more love that comes back to me.

So what does love have to do with work?  I try to live each day sharing love.  Every high five, compliment, hug, handshake, conversation, etc. is one way of me saying that I love and care about that person.  Every transparent bit of honesty, every suggestion I make, any criticism or feedback, I try to do out of love, and I feel that’s the difference between when things go well and they don’t.  When that other person knows I care about them and what’s best for them, I can say/do anything that might help them be better.  When they don’t know this, even the best of intentions go awry.

 The challenge- Feel love.  Show love.  Spread love.

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Lessons from Being a Dad Part 3 Violet- Bubbles and Simple Things (6-24-15)

I hope that you enjoyed your weekend.  This week I want to continue with lessons I’ve learned since becoming a dad by looking at couch cushions, chalk, and bubbles.

As we grow older we often lose the ability to see the beauty in things.  Things that were once novel to us become commonplace and lose their luster.  For example, before having kids I couldn’t tell you the last time I blew bubbles, drew with sidewalk chalk, or thought of couch cushions as anything other than where to sit.

Having the girls has helped me slow down and see the beauty in those things again.  It’s helped me see the magic in bubbles, the spirit in a chalk drawing, and the appreciation of how quickly couch cushions can transform into a fort or “Pillowland”.

Think about work for a moment.  How often do we get lost in the grind?  How often do we lose the ability to see the beauty in things?  Have you noticed any of these things lately?

  • The person who has been working hard and developing right before your eyes into a better leader.
  • The smile from an individual when you give them a pat on the back for a job well done.
  • The challenging question that someone asks that spurs the group to arrive at a much better place.
  • The joke that reminds us that we don’t have to be so dang serious all the time.
  • A simple high five just because.
  • The phrase, “This made me think of you…”
  • Someone wearing bright colors to fight the negative energy of a rainy day.

All of those things and many more are worth noticing.  Are you seeing them?  Are you showing them to others?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Lessons from Being a Dad Part 2 Violet- My girl and my demon (6-17-15)

Last week we started with some lessons I have learned since becoming a dad and we talked about Alice (3 year old) and Eye Patch the Octopus.  This week we will talk about Violet (1 year 5 months), my angel and my demon.

I know that I am biased, but I think my daughter is one of the sweetest little girls ever.  With a smile like that you can’t help but imagine that when she speaks she sounds like angel trumpets and gentle winds.  You can’t help but think about how her hugs are so warm and consuming that it melts your heart and turns your legs into jello.  Those things are true.

While Violet is sweet, she also has a bad sad.  I call her Legion, for her tantrums are many.  You can see the wild eyed craziness and almost feel the demon rushing out of her mouth to consume you in anger, pain, and misery.  You can imagine that her screams make banshees shudder.  Her cries are the sound the horsemen make to call in the apocalypse.  Those things are also true.

I love Violet, but I’ll also tell you there are times when she is a raving lunatic that I don’t like that much.  However, there are a lot of parents in my life who like to pretend that their kids aren’t ever demons.  It makes me wonder, if they can’t admit that their kids (especially little toddlers) aren’t perfect, how can I trust them to understand they aren’t perfect either?

What about you?  I know that Violet is a small developing human who isn’t always perfect, and I’m just a bigger developing human who isn’t always perfect.  Do you know this?  Are you strong enough to show this?  Throughout my career I’ve worked with and around too many people who didn’t know they were human.  I’ve worked with too many people who couldn’t admit their mistakes, shortcomings, or failures.  When that happens you can’t have honesty.  You can’t have a relationship.  You can’t have love.

Here’s to my little demon and my little angel.  Here’s to being strong enough to be human.

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Lessons from Being a Dad Part 1 Alice, Eye Patch, and Creativity (6-10-15)

Over the next few weeks, I want to share a few more lessons I have learned since becoming a dad.  This week’s story is about letting your imagination run a little wild.  It’s a typical Sunday morning at the Embry house.  I’m playing tag with Alice (3) and Eye Patch (her stuffed pirate octopus).  I get close to tagging Alice, who is carrying Eye Patch, and Alice yells, “Ink!  Eye Patch is squirting ink!  You can’t see us!  We are getting away!”  I think to myself, “She’s pretty clever.  Where did she learn that an octopus can squirt ink?”  I wipe the ink from my eyes and keep chasing her.  There are a couple of more ink blasts and then out of nowhere Alice yells, “Honey.  Eye Patch is squirting honey!  Now you’re all sticky and stuck!”

Now, I’m laughing.  I stop the game and say, “Eye Patch can squirt honey?”  With a straight face Alice responds, “Eye Patch can squirt ink, honey, and books for you to read!”  At this point I just lose it laughing.  I love the imagination and creativity.  I’m glad that she hasn’t been taught to limit herself, and if I do my job her imagination will continue to run wild.

What does this have to do with us?  As I mentioned, Alice had these ideas, because she hasn’t been taught to limit herself yet.  When we are young kids we all have pretty active imaginations, but over time the world tells us to limit ourselves until dreaming big becomes difficult.  As leaders, how are we helping people unlearn these limits?  What are we doing to help them dream big?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Unplugged and being Present on Vacation (6-3-15)

If you remember, last week I was on vacation with my family and in-laws.  It was a total of 10 of us all together, and we had a blast.  This week’s blog is about one of my favorite things about vacation.  The picture on the right is the view from our cabin in the mountains of Gatlinburg, TN.  It’s awesome, but not my favorite thing.

My favorite thing about vacation was actually two things that we didn’t have: cell phone reception and internet.  It was nice to be able to unplug.  Two things that should have been annoying were actually two of my favorite things about the entire trip, because this made everyone be present with each other.  Last year, we all went on vacation to Florida and at night everyone would be on their phones or iPads absorbed in their own little world.  This year we couldn’t do those things, so instead we talked and more importantly we bonded.  During vacation we saw some beautiful scenery, came within a few feet of a small bear, and did all kinds of other fun things, but what will stick with me is how we bonded when we were all together in that cabin.

Being present in a connected world is not easy.  Whether you are a manager riding in a car or a person at HQ having 1 on 1 meetings, are you present or are you distracted somewhere in cyberspace?    Being present is one of the most powerful ways to show that you care for someone.  When I am present I am giving you two of my most valuable resources, my time and my attention.  When I think of my favorite people to speak with, all of them are fully present when they are with me.  That time and attention makes me feel valuable, and that does wonders for me throughout the rest of my day.

My challenge for all of us is, “Are you present when you are with people or are you trapped in distracting digital webs?”

Have a jolly good day, 

Andrew Embry

Translating Experiences into Lessons (5-6-15)

The past few entries have been focused on translating the messages we are sending.  We are going to end this series thinking about translating the experiences we are absorbing every day as a way to learn and make us better.

There is an old adage that experience is the greatest teacher.  While it is true that experience is a great teacher, it’s not very efficient on its own.  Just because you experience something doesn’t mean you learn anything.  This is why we have to translate these experiences we have on a daily basis in order to learn and grow.  When I think about translating experiences there are two areas that come to mind.

Translating failure into knowledge that can make you better.

At a recent coaching forum a colleague made a comment along the lines of “We don’t do a good job connecting failure to learnings.”  This struck me like a freight train.  As I mentioned a few blogs ago, there have been times where I have made the same mistake over and over again, and it wasn’t until I translated that failure into a new way of acting that I was able to grow.  Sound familiar to anyone?  As a leader, am I setting up the right context and helping people translate their mistakes into something that can make them better?  Am I translating my own mistakes into something that helps me grow?

Are you actively translating experiences into something that makes you better?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Translating, Building Context, and Pokémon (4-29-15)

Last week we talked about the need to translate initiatives and ideas for the individuals that you are leading and influencing.  This week, we will dig a little deeper into that concept by looking at how translation is difficult because everyone is always building their own context.

A few years ago I performed a poem called “Who Protects the Pocket Monsters?”  The phrase “pocket monster” is kind of an English translation of the word Pokémon.  Pokémon are those creatures that you catch with the pokeballs and then you make them battle each other.  The poem talks about capturing Pokémon and having them fight against each other.  If you want to hear the poem, take 2 minutes and listen to the attachment.

You might be wondering why I’m sharing a story about a Pokémon poem.  It’s because something really interesting happened after I performed the poem.  People kept coming up to me after the poem to tell what they thought the poem meant.  No one had the same answer, and no one mentioned Pokémon.  Some people told me the poem was about protecting endangered animals.  One guy told me it was about the cruelty of the whaling industry.  Some folks told me it was a poem that exposed the horrors of war.  Others told me it was a social commentary about Mike Vick and dog fighting.  Some talked about how the poem was about reflecting the violence we broadcast in our society.  The emcee of the event actually told the crowd that he thought the poem was about people’s souls being crushed by corporate America.

The thing is that they were all right in some degree.  Everyone in that room had been building context their entire lives, so when they all heard the same poem they heard different messages.  In this case, the fact that they all took away different messages didn’t matter, because I just wanted them all to connect to the poem.  However, imagine how bad it would have been if I would have needed the crowd to take away the same message.

This made me think of translating as a leader.  One of the biggest barriers to leading and keeping people on the same page is that everyone is always creating their own context.  Their context causes them to view messages in ways unique to them.  For example, Sue believes that change is a good thing and Darlene thinks change is scary.  These attitudes will color anything a leader says about change.  The challenge then becomes not only translating the message you want to communicate, but always restating and reframing the context to keep everyone on the same page.

When you communicate how often are you building context before you have a dialogue or share your message?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Leadership Lost in Translation (4-22-15)

Espero que lo estás haciendo bien . (I hope that you’re doing well).  Esta semana vamos a pensar en la traducción de los mensajes e ideas (This week we are going to think about translating messages and ideas).  Depending on your comfort with Spanish, you may or may not have needed me to translate the above sentences.  Without my help some of you may have missed all of it, got some of it, or completely understood it.  For the record, I used the Google translator to help me this week.

This idea of translating got me thinking about the role of a leader.  Similar to decoding messages, a leader must be able to translate messages and concepts to others around them.  In the example above I used Spanish to English.  In the work we do every day it could be any initiative such as the culture, vision, practical application of Strategic Account Management, etc. and translating those concepts into things we can apply on a daily basis.  The bottom line is that if you are a leader, then you also need to be a good translator.  You need to be able to translate high level concepts all the way down to a tactical level.

In a perfect world, you’d be able to type the concept into the Google translator just like I did and it would tell you exactly what you had to say and do to make the concepts resonate with your team.  Too bad it doesn’t work that way.  It’s not that simple.  In order to be a good translator you need to put in the time and effort to internalize the message yourself and figure out how to communicate that through your words and actions.  This requires more skill and focus than we ever acknowledge.  Take culture as an example.  As a leader I have to understand what kind of culture we are trying to drive, figure out what behaviors we need to create this culture, communicate what behaviors we need to embrace to the team, and explain why we are going in this direction.  I have to do this in a way that resonates with every individual.  That’s tough!

If usted no have ese esfuerzo focus y energía, entonces el message se lost en la traducción.  (If you don’t have that focused effort and energy then the message is lost in translation.)   Are you putting in the effort to figure things out and translate for your teams?

陽気な良い一日を過ごす, (“Have a jolly good day,” in Japanese characters),

Andrew Embry

Decoder Rings and Communication (4-15-15)

Last week we finished thoughts on self-reflection, and this week we are going to look at decoding messages.  When I was younger I remember opening cereal boxes and getting cool toys.  One toy was the decoder ring.  You used this to crack a code that was somewhere on the cereal box.  Each number corresponded to a letter, and once you set up the ring it was easy to decode the message to see what it really said.

Sometimes I wish I had a decoder ring at work.  At this point I’m sure you’re probably smiling or chuckling while saying, “Yeah, we could use that decoder ring to translate all of these crazy corporate acronyms.”  That’s true.  However, I would want to use the decoder ring on the buzzword phrases we use to help us understand what we actually mean.  For example, we could use it on phrases like, “We need to be more creative,” “We need to put the customer at the center of all we do,” “We need to make faster decisions,” etc.  We say these things, but do we really understand what we are saying?

When people say they want creativity, what they usually mean is that they want the output of creativity without any of the messiness.  In actuality, when you say you want creativity, what you are really saying is that you want change.  You want to disrupt the normal way of doing things.  You are saying that you are okay with ideas that are muddy for a while until they are finally polished and revealed to be worth something.  You want to do things that make people at least a little bit uncomfortable.  That is what you are saying when you say you want creativity.  If you don’t want those things, then you don’t want creativity.

Similarly, if you say you want to make faster decisions, what you are actually saying is that you are okay with taking on more risk.  You are okay with making mistakes.  It means that you are willing to give folks more power, which comes with responsibility and accountability.  It means that you are willing to invest the time, effort, and resources to ensure the right people are capable of making the right decisions.  If you don’t want those things, then you don’t want to make faster decisions.

Decode what you’re saying and ask yourself if that’s what you really want.

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry