Trade Offs and Burn Out (7-7-26)

This week I want us to pause for a moment to think about the rest of the year, trade-offs, and burn out.

I was off last week, enjoying our summer shutdown. During this time, I made a few decisions about things that would be non-negotiable for the week. For example, I decided that I would get 7k-10k steps in every day. Nothing was going to get in the way of this. Maybe I would trade off sleeping in, so I could wake up and walk first thing. Maybe I’d trade off sitting on the coach relaxing for walking. I was intentional about my decision, and I was intentional about making trade-offs to reach that goal.

Then, work started up again. We are basically 1 week into the back half of the year. Over the past few days I’ve heard people say things like, “We’re already back to the races,” “Back on the treadmill,” “It’s already so busy.” Do you feel this way? I know I do. All of a sudden, achieving those goals became more complicated, because a lot more was on my plate.

Let’s connect some dots. In my time away, I was able and willing to do things for the house, my family, and myself. This filled my cup and made me a better human. As we start up the second half of the year, I can already see that there is more work than I’ll ever be able to do. If I try to do it all, I know I’ll burn myself out. When I burn myself out, I won’t be good for my family, myself, or my work colleagues.

I’m realizing that if I’m not intentional about my goals and the trade-offs I’m willing to make I won’t be successful. If I’m not intentional, I might spend too much time on X project and not enough on Y, when Y is what really counts. If I’m not intentional, I might trade-off my health or my time with my family for getting lost in the daily grind.

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Taking Steps Forward Through Ambiguity (6-10-26)

We are now on week 3 of lessons I’ve learned from working in a central role. Last week was about leadership and power. This week is about the importance of taking steps forward when you’re mired in ambiguity.

I’ve been in a few central roles in my career. Generally, these roles are pretty ambiguous. For example, in my career role I’m supposed to lead innovation and lead us to the future. Let’s be honest. I have no idea what that means. I can’t say with certainty what will happen. Recently, I’ve been sharing thoughts on what a future agentic insights ecosystem could look like. If more than 40% of that ends up being true, I’ll consider that a miracle. All of this complexity and ambiguity can feel overwhelming. It can stop me from taking action.

Let’s make some connections. Have you ever felt paralyzed by ambiguity? It’s easy to get stuck thinking and thinking and overthinking every possible angle and every possible contingency. While that thinking might make us feel like we are doing something, the truth is that thinking isn’t always the same thing as taking action.

I don’t with certainty the exact coordinates of where we need to go in the future. I do have a north star though. I do have things I believe will likely continue to be true. The value of data will continue to increase in a world of AI. Getting data AI ready will continue to grow in importance. Having tools to help get the most of the data will be critical. As there are more and more tools, being clear on the tool and the problem they solve will be more important than ever.

I know that if I take action toward solving those problems, I’ll likely be walking in the right direction. I’m humble enough to know I can always redirect along the way. Instead of being paralyzed, I’ll keep taking steps and keep taking steps and keep taking steps until we finally get to that future.

The challenge- How will you keep taking steps forward through ambiguity?

By the way, the picture is from a Tough Mudder last year. I crawl through mud as a hobby, which explains a lot about how weird I am 😉

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Leadership and Power (6-3-26)

Last week we kicked off a series based on reflections I’ve had from working in a central role. This week we will look at leadership and power.

In my previous role in the business, I was a HCP marketer on a brand team. I had explicit and formalized power in that role. I had a dedicated budget that I was responsible for. I had the ability to make decisions. In some ways, this made things easy, because if push came to shove, I could just make a call.

I don’t have formalized power in my current centralized role. I don’t really have a budget that’s truly mine. I’m working across business units and functions, and I have no explicit power or control. Let’s be real, no one actually has to listen to me. I can’t just make a call the way I could in my former job. Instead, I have to be more thoughtful and intentional about creating a compelling vision, building trust, bringing others along, and giving people reasons to actually want to come along on this journey.

Let’s make some connections. Think about your favorite leaders you’ve ever worked with. Think about the people you would be willing to follow. How many of them would you follow primarily because they have official power? I’m guessing that number is low. How many of them would you follow because they did things like care for you, had a vision, brought you along, etc. regardless of them having official power? I’m guessing that number is a lot higher. I’d also argue these people are the true leaders.

While having official power can be nice, it is easy for it to be a crutch or a cheat code. If we overuse it, then we risk people feeling like they aren’t heard or valued. Being forced to influence without authority is the true test of leadership. All of this has led to some reflection questions like, “What does my leadership look like? How can I lead in a way that will make others want to come along? Where do I need to lean on power vs influence?”

The challenge- Will you take the time to reflect on how you are leading?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Embracing a Broader View of Leadership and Support (5-27-26)

Recently, I had a conversation with someone who is working in a central function for the first time when they have spent the rest of their career “in the business”. This led me to reflecting on what I’ve learned from working in a central role. This week is about embracing a broader view of leadership and support.

Let’s start by talking a bit about what it means to be in a central role vs working in the business. If we oversimplify things, central roles are there to support and enable other roles to deliver for the business. If you work in the business, you generally are accountable for making the decisions that drive results and revenue. Another difference is that typically central roles are more focused on driving a capability and thus support a wider variety of stakeholders across business units. For example, in my role, I’m responsible for leading AI efforts across the entire market research function.

If I’m being honest, it’s sometimes hard to navigate this idea of leading efforts and supporting so many different groups of people. What exactly does leading look like in this space? My inner critic whispers, “Andrew, if you’re leading AI efforts and supporting these people then you should be able to lead from the front and be all things to all people.” The other day someone was sharing something awesome they were doing in the AI space, and I hadn’t really been involved in it. I was excited for them, and I felt guilty that I wasn’t doing enough for them at the same time. Ultimately, I shared the work with some other folks to spotlight how great it was and spotlight how we might be able to adopt this as best practices. However, my inner critic was like, “You should have been there to help shape that or you should have been more involved to provide value.”

Let’s make some connections. Even if you don’t currently work in a central role, I’m assuming you have an inner critic. I’m also assuming that your inner critic has probably whispered similar things to you. My inner critic still whispers. However, this role has done a great job of broadening my view of what leadership and support looks like.

I’m becoming more comfortable that I don’t have to be all things to all people, because I’ve expanded my beliefs on what leadership and support can mean. I’ve learned that leadership doesn’t always mean being out in the front. I’ve learned that being supportive doesn’t always mean being hands on. Sometimes, leadership and support are working behind the scenes to remove barriers. Sometimes, leadership and support are creating space, so other people can step into it and embrace their awesomeness. Sometimes, leadership and support are shining the light on others, so they are seen.

The challenge: How will you embrace a broader view of leadership and support?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Legos, Change Management, and Fitting Into a New Vision (5-20-26)

Our last entry was about Legos, change management, and making the next step easy to take. This week is about helping Lego pieces and people fit into a new and different vision.

I first heard about Brad Barber about a year ago. He is a Lego builder with a knack of being able to turn any set he gets his hands on into a Millenium Falcon, the famous ship from Star Wars. He does this by creatively rearranging the pieces from that set only. No outside pieces are allowed. Simba becomes the Millenium Falcon. Cinderella’s dress becomes the Millenium Falcon. Dinosaurs become the Millenium Falcon.

Let’s connect things. In the world of work, there are a lot of pieces including employees, processes, and tech. Often, they are configured in a specific way, so people assume they can only be that thing, much like many people would assume a Simba Lion King set could only be Simba. The truth is, we all have the ability to grow, change, and become part of new things if we are guided in the right direction.

This all makes me think of Brad’s work. The beauty of his work is that he can see the pieces for what they are, understand their value, and also how they might exist in a new design and system. He doesn’t break the pieces. He doesn’t twist and pull them into new shapes. He understands their strengths and leverages them differently. He designs something, so he can leverage all their strengths to achieve a new goals. One of the most important parts of change management is connecting with people to help them understand how they are valued AND how they could fit into the new system. This shifts change from something to be afraid of to being something we can be part of.

The challenge: As you lead change, how will you help others see where they fit?

Bonus thought: AI is one of the forces changing our vision for how work gets done. I can’t speak for all areas, but I can speak a bit for market research. It’s true that AI is changing and will continue to change the way do research and gather insights. At the same time, the value and the core of what makes market researchers great will always be there and will always be important. Things like curiosity, the ability to define business questions, understanding decisions in context, and influencing without authority will be constants even as we evolve.

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Legos, Change Management, and Making Next Steps Clear and Easy to Take (4-29-26)

Last week was about Legos, change management, and breaking builds down into achievable milestones. This week is about Lego instruction manuals and making it easy to take the next step.

This is going to sound weird. One of my favorite things about Lego sets are their instructions. Lego does a fabulous job of making the next steps clear and easy to execute. This enables me to spend more time on building vs being confused by what is going on (which is how I feel about non-Lego brands).

Lego does a few specific things to make it easy to take the next step. First, they break the build down into sections, which we discussed last week. Second, each step is small and manageable. They don’t ask you to do too much in one step. You just put together a few pieces and then move to the next step. Third, each step clearly outlines what you need, so you can make sure you’re ready. Last, they will do special callouts if something is particularly tricky or might be missed.

How does this all stack together? Think about work for a moment. Have you ever been part of an initiative and said something like, “I understand why we are trying to go there. I just don’t know HOW.” This is something I hear a lot, and something I’ve experienced quite a few times throughout my career. When this happens, it is because the immediate next step is unclear. Imagine if we had Lego directions to guide us. Imagine if we had plans in place that helped make it easier to take the next step. No matter where you were in the process you’d be able to say, “Here is the action I’m supposed to take.” That would enable us to spend less time lost in swirl and more time executing. As leaders, it’s on us to help drive this level of clarity.

The challenge: How will you make the next steps clear and easier to execute?

Bonus: I recognize that things are always evolving, so the directions may not be as simple and straight forward as Lego instructions. However, we can all make sure we are clear about what is moving in the right direction. We can all make sure that we make it easy to take the next step. For example, it’s really easy to say, “Just use AI to go faster,” but that’s not helpful to anyone, because it lacks so much clarity that it becomes overwhelming and paralyzing. Even if people would randomly use AI, it doesn’t mean it would be good. A better approach would be, “We can use AI to make this specific part of this process better. To get started, use X AI tool to solve Y problem. Here is the first step to take to get you going…”

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Legos, Change Management, and Knowing What You are Building (4-15-26)

This week we are going to kick off a series focused on Legos and change management. By the end of this, we will build concepts that you can leverage to lead change management efforts. The first entry in this series will be about the importance of knowing what you are building.

Imagine for a minute that I dump a bunch of Legos in front of you and ask you to build something that is faster. I then tell you that it’s important you get this right. If you miss there will be negative consequences. From here, I don’t give you any additional clarity. How would you feel? What kind of a thing would you build?

Now, assume I go back to you and I show you this picture of a rocket house, and say this is what we are trying to create. Would you have naturally built something like this? How much rework would you need to do to create something like this rocket house?

Let’s make some connections. If you were in our Lego situation above, I bet you would have felt frustrated. You also likely would have wasted a lot of effort creating something that looks nothing like the rocket house. At the end of the day, one of the most important steps in change management is being able to articulate where you’re going. If we are unclear on where we are going, we can’t build something to get us there.

Think about your experiences at work. How often has there been an organizational effort that was unable to paint a clear picture of where the company is trying to go? The company might use all the right buzzwords. They might say, “We are transforming. We are trying to move faster. We are trying to deliver better experiences. We are becoming more agile.” The buzzwords are not the same as clear direction. As leaders, we need to be able to articulate a clear vision if we want to lead people to new destination.

The challenge- How will you paint a clear picture of where we are trying to go?

Bonus thought

For the record, I’m not claiming I’m perfect at change management. The reflections from this series are reminders for me as much as they are for anyone else. This stuff is hard and requires intentionality to do it well.
If you recognized the rocket house as Emmet’s dream house from The Lego Movies, then you get 579 bonus points.

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

How will you support and instill confidence in others? (1-26-26)

If you’re in the Midwest, I hope you are surviving the snow. This is a bonus blog. The question for us to reflect on is, “How will I support and instill confidence in others?”

Last week I was invited to speak at and attend the Insights Association CEO Summit. It was a conference filled with insight leaders across various functions and industries. There were companies of all sizes and focus areas. If I’m being honest, I was a bit nervous about speaking there. I’m not a deep technical market research expert. I’m not a CEO level leader. I’m not someone who knows all of the technical ins and outs of every last AI model and offering.

I call my parents the night before I’m supposed to give my talk. I’m on speaker phone with both of them talking about the flight down, the nice weather, etc. I mention that my talk is tomorrow. I start to say that I’m nervous, and before I can fully finish the sentence my mom says, “You were invited for a reason.” It wasn’t some over the top rah-rah moment. It wasn’t overly emotional or mushy. It was a strong direct statement of factual support. My mom repeated herself, “You were invited for a reason.” She was saying, “They wouldn’t invite you if you weren’t good. Whoever invited you felt that you had something worthy to say or they wouldn’t put their neck out. You’ve done good work. You’re more than capable. Just do the thing.” It was a nice confidence boost, and things went well the next day.

What does this have to do with work? I have a memory from early in my career that will always be burned into my memory. I was a young associate, relatively new to my role. Bryan Lapel, who led the function at the time, brought me into a room and said something like, “This is a complicated mess. I’m 100% confident that you will deliver.” He said it in a tone that the outcome was inevitable. It was probably a 30 second conversation. I stepped out of that enclave like, “Get ready world! I’m going to run through some walls now!” Have you ever had a moment like that where a leader instilled that level of confidence in you? Have you ever been able to deliver a moment like that for someone else?

The challenge: How will you support and instill confidence in others?

Andrew Embry

How are you communicating your priorities and workload to others? (1-21-26)

Happy Wednesday,

Last week was asked ourselves the challenging question, “How broken am I willing to be to achieve my goals?” This week I want us to explore a question that should help us avoid being broken, and that question is, “How am I communicating my priorities and workload to others?”

I like my boss. He’s a cool dude and pretty smart. However, he can’t read minds. #bebetter Since I know he can’t read minds, this shapes how I talk to him about priorities and workload. Here was our conversation last week as we discussed goals for the year. I started by explaining the major workstreams and the ones I felt would provide the most value. I explained that in our current state I couldn’t do all of them justice. My boss asked me what my top 3 were. I explained, “Project A and B provide the most value and will take the most effort for X, Y, and Z reasons. I need high quality deliverables for A and B. That basically eats up my Q1. I won’t be able to do Project C justice unless I give up sleep and run myself into the ground, or I get some help. Help looks like this…” My boss tells me he agrees with my rankings and that if we can’t get help in that way we will have to push C until later in the year. We established priorities, trade-offs, and now I have the air support to not burn myself out. It was a 5 minute convo, but all we needed to ensure alignment.

Let’s connect dots. As good as my boss is, I can’t expect him to know everything on my plate. #slacker I can’t expect him to understand how long and how much effort everything takes. If my boss would play in radioactive waste, he might develop mind reading powers, but since that likely won’t happen I need to verbalize these things to him. Once I talk about these things, we can shift into problem solving mode where we can make actual trade-offs where we focus on some things and let others go.

Gut check. How often do you give an HONEST assessment of your workload and capacity? For many years in my career I just sucked it up and ran myself into the ground. I was scared to ask for help. I was scared to say that I had too much. I paid the price for this with my health, and it’s not a price I want to pay anytime soon. We can only address a problem if we know it exists.

The challenge: How will you communicate your priorities and workload to others?

Bonus for the leaders: Are you creating the environment to have these conversations? If your people come to you and discuss legitimate constraints and your default response as a leader is “Just figure it out” you’re likely doing more harm than you realize. I hope as leaders we are creating the environment to have these conversations where we can acknowledge legitimate barriers AND be problem solvers.

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Lesson 1- Leadership Matters (10-29-25)

I listened to a podcast once and the interviewer asked, “What lessons does life keep putting in front of you?” This series is inspired by the lessons that continued to show up in front of me this year. This week is an analogy about baking and how leadership matters.

I have many skills, but baking is not one of them. If you give me eggs, salt, butter, flour, milk, a pan, and an oven I will give you a disaster. If you give those exact same things to my wife, she will make you an amazing dessert. It’s the same challenge. It’s the same ingredients. However, it is totally different outcomes, based on the knowledge and skills of the people involved.

What does this have to do with leadership? In the above example, it’s not about the ingredients, it’s about the baker and their knowledge and skills that lead to different outcomes. In a similar way, it’s not the ingredients, it’s the leader. Think about when times have been tough and you’ve had a good leader vs a not so good leader. Under good leadership my vibe is, “Bring the challenges. I’ll just run through those walls or jump over them.” My vibe under not so great leaders is, “Dude, why am I always running uphill with hundreds of pounds on my back while people throw rocks at me?” Any of those vibes feel familiar to you?

Right now, the world is giving us a lot of ingredients, and they aren’t all easy ones to deal with. There is chaos, burnout, turmoil, stress, competitive pressure, AI (totally a fad by the way, just like the internet 😉), shifting priorities, lack of stability, and more. This is why leadership matters now more than ever. While people are handed the same ingredients, there are VERY DIFFERENT outcomes. Good leaders are finding ways to take these ingredients and turn them into opportunities and paths forward. Other leaders are overwhelmed by these ingredients, creating lost teams filled with doubt, uncertainty, and low engagement.

The challenge: How can you continue to grow as a leader to be ready to bake with any ingredients sent your way?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry