Scarecrows and Challenges (10-31-18)

This is going to be the last in our series inspired by spooking things. We began by reflecting on being haunted by self-doubt and ghosts. From there, we thought about vampires who drain our willpower. This week is about scarecrows and scary situations.

In case you aren’t from the corn belt of the United States, a scarecrow is a fake person/creature that farmers make and put in their fields. Its entire purpose is to be spooky and ominous in order to scare the crows away. Supposedly, what happens is that a crow goes flying around ready to land on the field to eat the corn, and then they see the scarecrow and say, “That looks pretty scary. I’m going to leave that field alone.” The interesting thing about all of this is that scarecrows are stationary objects, who are just there to LOOK scary. They can’t actually do anything. They just stand there. If the crows pay attention they could quickly see that the scarecrow isn’t actually worth being afraid of, because it doesn’t really pose a danger to them.

You’re probably wondering what scarecrows have to do with anything. I don’t know about you, but sometimes I find myself afraid of scarecrows in my life. Sometimes, I find myself looking down a path filled with looming obstacles. From a far these challenges look scary and cause me to feel anxious/nervous. Do you ever feel yourself feeling this way? Do you ever feel yourself looking at challenges you’ll face and saying, “I wonder how I’ll ever find a way through that.”? When I’m in this state of mind, I find myself paralyzed. I find myself tempted to avoid the situation, in the same way that crows are tempted to avoid a field guarded by a scarecrow.

While I might be afraid, the truth is that so many of the problems we face in our lives are actually scarecrows. What I mean is that so many of the problems we have are things that loom off in the distance and appear to be intimidating/daunting/scary/impossible. However, if we would take a moment to observe, we could quickly realize that thing we are afraid of isn’t all that intimidating and it’s rarely as bad as we think it will be. Often, as we get closer to these daunting problems, we realize that we’ve always had the strength to conquer them, even though we lost sight of this while we were scared.

In short, many times the problems in our life are only as strong as we allow them to be. Just as crows can see that a scarecrow is nothing more than something a farmer made, we have the power to look at our problems and realize that often they aren’t anything too large for us to handle.

The challenge: Do you see the challenges you face for the scarecrows they are?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Cooking on Instinct vs. Following a Reciple (9-26-18)

Last week was about flavor combinations and belonging. This week is about cooking from instinct vs. following a recipe.

Imagine for a moment that you are at Sam’s house. They have made you dinner. You think it tastes delicious. On a different day you go to Pat’s house for dinner. You think that meal is equally delicious. Here is the big reveal. Sam cooks on instinct. Everything Sam does is impromptu. Sam is one of those people who doesn’t need to measure anything, never looks at a recipe, etc. They just know exactly what they need to do in order to create great food. Cooking is natural and organic for Sam. Pat on the other hand isn’t as naturally gifted, so they intentionally follow recipes and guidance they’ve learned from other chefs. Does any of this matter? Does it matter that Sam cooked you a fabulous meal without following a recipe and that Pat had to follow a recipe to create great food? For me, it doesn’t matter one bit as long as the food is spectacular.

You might be wondering what this has to do with work. When it comes to the people side of leadership, I’d argue that there are a few people like Sam. There are some leaders who make magic purely based on instinct. They do things organically and naturally, and they are amazing at doing this. I’d argue that there are also people like Pat. In fact, I’d say that most people are like Pat. The people side of leadership doesn’t come as naturally and instinctually to them as it does to Sam. This doesn’t make Pat bad. It just means Pat needs to be a little more intentional about engaging with people and building a culture.

Here’s where things get interesting. Over the years I’ve had a lot of conversations about leadership, building a culture, and being intentional. Often, there is a fear from people that if they are more intentional about engagement (i.e. acting like a Pat) that it will seem fake or inauthentic. Essentially, they are saying that if they are intentional vs. doing everything naturally/organically/impromptu the food will be bad, because they don’t make it on instinct alone. I think these people are wrong. At the end of the day, I don’t think it matters if leaders have to make a concentrated effort to build a better culture vs. if leaders are the ones who create amazing cultures purely on instinct. Authenticity is NOT linked to whether or not you are impromptu or intentional about engaging with people. Authenticity is linked to whether or not you actually care. In fact, I think we would all benefit if we ALL acted a little more like Pat and were more deliberate and intentional about what we are doing. If we all acted like Pat, I’m willing to bet the food would be even better.

Being intentional and deliberate could take many forms. For example, let’s say you naturally and organically don’t do great with recognition. Since you aren’t great at doing this organically, you probably don’t provide your team with the recognition they deserve. In order to do better you’d need to become more intentional. There are a lot of different things you could do to address this issue. For instance, you could put a reminder on your calendar telling you to reach out to people to let them know you value them. Nobody would care about or notice the fact that it took you putting a reminder on your calendar to send them recognition. All they would notice is that you were recognizing them more for their work. They would taste great food, and not care about the fact you had to follow a recipe and make an effort to be more intentional. #Confession->I do this. When I see someone who needs to be recognized, I save time on my calendar with a note reminding me to reach out to them. Recognizing people officially goes on my to do list.

The challenge- I think we’d all be a little better off if we assumed that we were more like Pat and needed to be more intentional about engaging with others. How can you be more intentional about building an engaging culture/vibe with the people you work with?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Food Combinations and Belonging (9-19-18)

Last week was about leadership style vs. leadership competencies. This week is about food combinations and belonging. What are some of your favorite food pairings/combinations? There are classic combinations like peanut butter and jelly or steak and potatoes. There are dipping combinations like chips and salsa or pitas and hummus. There are dessert combinations like oreos and cold milk or a scoop of ice cream with apple pie. There are more experimental combinations you could try like a fried egg on a hamburger, bbq brisket on a pizza (my brother makes this and it’s amazing!), or cheese puffs on vanilla ice cream (my mom eats this sometimes. Yes, uniqueness runs in my family…)

You might be wondering what this has to do with anything. What I’ve often found about food combinations is that the foods do not have to necessarily be similar for the combination to be delicious. Peanut butter and jelly are two entirely different substances with very different tastes and textures. Oreos are a solid and milk is a liquid. Ice cream is cold while apple pie is usually served warm. Having a delicious food combination is not just about similarities. Instead, it’s about finding flavors that BELONG together, flavors that fit together and work with each other to create something amazing. Much like tasty food combinations, I believe inclusion is about belonging. It’s about helping different people feel they belong as part of the team, so they can create something amazing.

With all this said, I feel that when we talk about building positive cultures and inclusion we focus on finding similarities instead of creating belonging. For example, we might look at two different people and say, “At their core, they are both similar in many ways. They are both people. Both of them are dads. Both of them are marketers. Both of them like sports. Both of them like some of the same foods. Both of them have similar concerns and self-doubts, because they are both human. Etc.” While these things are true and it’s important to find common ground, I feel we often overemphasize finding similarities as a way to solve any inclusion problems. In reality, finding similarities is a small part of inclusion. Just because you have similarities doesn’t mean you have belonging or inclusion. I’d take it a step further to say, if you can’t find a way to create a sense of belonging, then the similarities don’t matter.

What exactly is belonging? I think belonging is about understanding the big picture and how you MEANINGFULLY fit into that picture. If people can demonstrate those things to you on a consistent basis, I believe that you will feel like you belong somewhere. Think about yourself for a moment. Do you feel like you belong on your current team? Do you feel like you belong in your broader organization? Have you had teams where you felt like you belonged and teams where you felt like an outsider? What was the difference? I’ve been in all of those situations. I’ve been in places where I felt I belonged, where it was evident I was part of something and that people cared about me, valued me, and wanted me to be there. I’ve also been on groups, where I felt like an outsider, where I was just another person. I know I always do my most magical work when I belong somewhere.

Challenge: What are you doing to help create a sense of belonging on your team and beyond? What are you doing to help people see what they are part of? What are you doing to show people how they meaningfully fit into the broader picture?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Cooking and Leadership- Style vs. Competence (9-12-18)

Last week was about a cooking competition and playing you role. This week is about cooking and leadership as it relates to style vs. competencies. Pretend Sam, Bob, and Susie invite you over for a cookout. They say that they can make hamburgers or hot dogs for you. You say that sounds great, but there’s a small catch. You are allergic to hot dogs. It’s nothing life threatening, but eating hot dogs kind of upsets your stomach, so it would be better if we ate hamburgers. They say that’s fine and they all agree to make hamburgers.

Bob serves you a classic burger with steak fries. Susie serves you a BBQ burger with onion rings You like both meals, but you give the edge to Susie, because you like that style better. Sam serve you hot dogs. You eat them out of politeness and eventually ask Sam why they didn’t serve burgers. Sam explains to you they are more comfortable making hot dogs, and can’t really make burgers. You go home and your stomach is a little upset. In this example, the expectation is that you will be served hamburgers. Which kind of hamburger you like best is a style preference. Either hamburger you choose fulfills your needs. Sam’s inability to cook hamburgers is a competency issue, which leads to Sam making hot dogs. Eating the hot dogs causes you to feel ill. In this situation, Sam needs to enhance their cooking skills.

So you’re probably wondering what this has to do with work. When it comes to leadership everyone has a different style. At the same time I’d argue that the best leaders I’ve seen demonstrate the same competencies. In the grand scheme of things, style isn’t as important as having the right skills, which is true for all roles. The reason why I bring up this point is that when it comes to leadership I believe that we are quick to label shortcomings as differences in styles as opposed to competencies that a leader needs to improve upon.

For example, creating an engaging team culture is a core part of being a leader. With that said, how many times have you heard something like, “Sam is really smart, talented, and gets stuff done. The people side of things just is not his style.”? I don’t know about you, but I’ve heard several kinds of variations of this about leaders who “don’t get the people side”. The thing is, this is NOT a style issue. It’s a competency issue. A style difference is saying, “Susie is high energy and builds team culture with infectious enthusiasm. Bob is quieter than Susie, so he builds teams through 1 on 1s and small meetings where he focuses on authenticity and sincerity.”

I’ve had both Susies and Bobs as bosses, and both create great cultures. They just happen to be doing it in different ways. You might have a style preference, but either way an engaging culture is being created. On the other hand, Sam isn’t creating a positive team culture. This is a lack of competency in a specific area. Sam either lacks the ability and/or the desire to build an engaging culture. Building an engaging culture is a big part of Sam’s job, so if they can’t do it then there is a problem because this will hinder team performance. If Sam can’t do it, they need to improve in this competency. At a cookout you could at least choose not to eat the food. At work, there’s no way to completely avoid leadership that isn’t up to snuff.

The challenge: We often believe we are better than we actually are, so the challenge is taking a second to honestly reflect on yourself as a leader. Where do you need to leverage your style? Where do you need to improve your competencies?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

A Cooking Competition and Playing Your Role (9-5-18)

This week we are going to start a series inspired by food and cooking. We’ll start with me sharing some reflections from a cooking competition I was part of last week at a team builder. I’ll dedicate this week’s entry to my cooking challenge team aka The Maniacs: Kelly Frankel, Tori Brown, Ericka Hooper, and Charity Williams.

The competition was pretty straight forward. There were four teams given the same ingredients and whoever made the best food would win. If you know the ladies on my team you know 2 things. First, they wanted to win. Second, they knew their stuff. Before the cooking began, we had a few minutes to plan the meal. My teammates were discussing all kinds of flavor combos and drizzling sauces. Finally, Kelly looks at me and says, “You haven’t said anything.” This is quite the miracle, because rarely am I at a loss for words or ideas. I’m usually one of the first to jump in and volunteer, but not the case that day because I know I’m a hot mess when it comes to cooking (pun intended). There are many things in life I’m good at, but cooking is not one of them. I’m self-conscious about cooking and always worried that I’ll ruin the food. So after pausing for a moment I replied by saying, “Cooking isn’t my thing. I’ll do whatever you want me to do, but don’t expect me to have any good ideas.” The team says okay and continues on with their plan and who will do what.

The cooking contest begins. During each round I’m essentially the “go for” and an extra set of hands. I grab stuff for people and give it to them, clean work spaces, knead dough, and do anything else I’m asked to do. Meanwhile, the rest of the team is unlocking their culinary genius, blending spices and sauces, creating beautiful presentations, and perfectly grilling all of the food. My team made some delicious food and we won the competition.

You’re probably wondering how all of this connects to work. After the competition our team talked about the experience, and one of the things we discussed is how we all stepped into and embraced different roles on the team based on our strengths and abilities. Kelly became our head chef, guiding us the entire way. Ericka stepped up and crushed it as the grill master. Tori was the flavor combiner. Charity was the food finisher and plater. I knew cooking wasn’t my thing, so I stepped into the background doing small things that didn’t require me to be a good cook or flavor expert. If I would have tried to play a larger role, I know I would have burnt something or ruined it somehow.

As I reflected further, I began to realize what a cool experience this was. We had an entire team of people dedicated to a purpose larger than ourselves (creating great food). In order to accomplish this we all had to find and embrace our roles to make this happen. All of the roles on the team each played their part, and it’s okay that my part was small because I gave what I could give to help us reach our goal. Finally, I loved watching my teammates in their elements absolutely crushing it.

While everything I’ve said so far has been about a team and a cooking competition, it’s the exact same thing at work. In order to achieve greatness, every team needs to have all of their teammates working toward the same purpose. Each of these teammates fills a unique role, and people need to be willing to step into their role based on their abilities. Finally, all roles on the team are valuable, even if all of the roles aren’t as high flying and visible.

Challenge 1: What role(s) do you play on the teams you are on?

Challenge 2: Are you willing to play your role, even if it’s a smaller one?

Challenge 3: Thank someone today for the role they play on your team.

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Preparing to Achieve Excellence (8-29-18)

This will be the last in the series focused on excellence. We began by focusing on setting the high bar for ourselves. From there, we thought about how you can unleash your own awesomeness to achieve excellence. We then revisited high jumping with a focus on the fundamentals. Last week, we reflected on taking the time to pause to appreciate how far you’ve come and to see how close you are to your mountain top. This week I want us to think about preparing for excellence.

Imagine for a moment that you’re watching some sporting event. You go to the stadium excited about watching a good game between the Red team and the Blue team. Very quickly you begin to realize something. The Blue team hasn’t practiced. They are on the field and they don’t know their plays. They are on the field, and you can tell they haven’t been training. They are on the field, and they are not performing. The Blue team has a few really great athletes, so every now and then they make a good play, but overall the Blue team isn’t effective. Meanwhile, you can tell the Red team has put in the time and effort to prepare, so when it comes game time they kick butt.

You might be wondering where this is going. In the above analogy I talk about preparing for games. Essentially, life is really just a series of games. It’s a series of challenges that you are either prepared for or not prepared for. If you look at work, being a leader is a game. Meetings are games. Making tough decisions is a game. Giving presentations is games. Having hard conversations is a game.

If life is a game would you rather be the Red team or the Blue team? Obviously, we’d all want to be the Red team. However, how often do we have Blue team behavior, where we show up for something that we haven’t really prepared for? For example, have you ever been in a meeting where people didn’t come in prepared, so it was a waste of time? Have you ever led one of those meetings? Have you ever been in a meeting where people read slides at you, and you thought, “If they would have sent this to me as a pre-read, we could have a better discussion”? Have you ever been so busy that you weren’t able to prepare for something, and the work suffered as a result? Have you ever had a deadline approaching and realized that you didn’t spell out the right milestones to hit your deadline? Have you ever went into a presentation saying, “I’ll just wing it” and then watched as it didn’t go over well causing confusion and problems you had to address later? Have you ever tried to have a challenging conversation with the team, and realized that you all have not built up enough trust to have this conversation? I answer a resounding, “Yes!” to all of those questions. I’d imagine you do too.

In the world we live in, it’s way too easy to get lost sprinting around and never really prepare for the challenge ahead. When we don’t prepare, we will be just like the Blue team, lost without strategy. Lost without knowing which actions to take. Sure, we might get lucky from time to time and have some success, but preparation has a way of often beating out luck. As an individual, it’s up to us to not only make the time to prepare, but to figure out how to best prepare. As leaders, it’s our job to help others prepare for challenge ahead.

The challenge: Are you preparing, so you can achieve excellence?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Surrounding yourself with people who bring the excellence out in you (8-22-18)

Last week was about excellence, mountain tops, and pausing to appreciate how far you’ve come. This post is about surrounding yourself with people who bring out the excellence in you.

Last week was the National Poetry Slam competition. While I wasn’t able to go, seeing the news on my Facebook feed brought back memories of going to Nationals with my team years ago. To this day that was one of my favorite experiences. It was so awesome to be on a team that was focused on creating art that moved people. It was amazing to be on a team where the members had talents far and above my own. It was incredible to be on a team that cared about each other and the art so much that we pushed ourselves to be better than we’ve ever been. Every draft of a poem, every practice, every performance, became an opportunity for us to help each other and encourage each other to hone our crafts so we could create something that connected with people. I can honestly say that being on that team completely changed my trajectory as a poet/writer/communicator. I’m the poet/writer/communicator I am because of that team and the way we brought out the best in each other. During our time together, I learned things about myself and pushed my writing and my imagination to go places where I had never gone before.

You might be wondering what this has to do with work. Last week I had lunch with a colleague and the conversation began with her saying something like, “I love it when I’m the dumbest one in the room.” Initially this sounds like a pretty weird thing to say, but as she continued she explained that there is something about looking around and saying, “I’m surrounded by the A-team” and knowing you’re going to need to have your stuff together to hang with them and contribute. There’s something about being around people with high expectations, where you know you’ll become better just by being around them.

As I reflect on that conversation, I realize it’s the exact same way I felt about being on my poetry slam team. There is something special when a group is collectively driven by a mission and cares enough about each other to hold high standards and to raise those standards to push for excellence. As I reflect on the various jobs and roles I’ve had throughout my life I can say that there were times when I was surrounded by great people who pushed each other to be better, and being on those teams has had a lingering impact that influences me today. With that said, there have been other times when I wasn’t surrounded by people who raised the bar and brought out the best in each other. Often, the groups that didn’t push each other to be better were the ones focused on themselves vs. on the greater mission and striving to reach that mission.

What about you? Have you experienced teams that have brought out the best in you? Have you experienced teams that haven’t? What about the team you are currently on? Do you bring out the best in each other? Do you challenge each other to keep rising to the next challenge?

The challenges: Are you choosing to spend time with people who bring out the excellence in you? How are you raising the game of the people around you?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Excellence, Progress, and Peaks (8-15-18)

Last week was about excellence and fundamentals. This week will be about excellence, progress, and peaks. Let’s say that you and I are climbing a mountain. How would you know when we were getting close to the top? Maybe you’d use a map or you could see that the peak was in reach. How would you know we arrived at the top? Pretty dumb question, right? We know we’d be at the top, because there wouldn’t be anything higher. We’d easily be able to look out and say, “We did it!” See corny mountain top picture to the right.

You’re probably wondering what the above examples have to do with anything. In the examples above, you’d have markers to show your progress. In life you don’t always have obvious markers. You don’t always have a map that says, “You are here. You only have 3 miles to go.” In life you don’t always have a moment where the clouds part and the world announces, “You have arrived!”

I don’t know about you, but I feel lost sometimes. I get lost in the grind of the day to day work, and while I know I’m working hard and doing my best I lose track of where I am in relation to the top of the mountain I’m climbing. If you’re anything like me, when you get this way and you don’t know where you are relative to the high bar you’ve set you automatically assume that the high bar must be miles away. A friend brilliantly summarized this feeling one day when they said, “If I make mistakes, those are pretty visible. If I’m doing good things, it’s like I’m just doing my job.” Have you ever felt that way? I have. I often feel that the mistakes I make tell me when I’ve fallen, but I often don’t see or overlook indicators that I’m soaring, so it becomes easy to feel discouraged. Does that make sense? (this is the part in my blog when my anxious negative inner voice says, “These people will think you’re crazy, because they never feel this.” Then the confident voice says, “Negative voice. Shut up.”)

What I’ve learned about myself is that when I’m feeling lost and that I don’t know where the mountain top is I need to do two things. First, I need to pause and look back. Sometimes, it takes looking back to see how far you’ve come. If I look back over the past year, I can see how I’ve grown as a husband, dad, employee, etc. Second, after I’ve looked back, I can look up to see how much further I need to go, because now I have perspective and appreciation for what I’ve been through and where I’m going. While I’m far from perfect, I can confidently say I’m closer to where I want to be than I was a year ago.

Two challenges for you. 1. Can you pause to appreciate how far you’ve come and how much closer you are to your mountaintop? 2. Can you let others know that you see they are close to the top of the mountain they have been climbing?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

High Jump Revisited- Excellence and Fundamentals (8-8-18)

Last week was about excellence and leveraging your awesomeness to reach rock star status. This week we will revisit high jumping with a focus on excellence and fundamentals. This entry is partially inspired by some comments Belinda Mulhern made on the first high jumping blog.

Let’s revisit high jumping. You and I are going to compete in a high jumping competition, and we’ve set the bar 😉 If we had to high jump right now, how do you think you’d do? I would be horrible, because I don’t have the fundamentals down. How you approach, the steps you take, your leap, the way you arch your back, everything matters in the high jump. I was talking to a colleague (Joseph Robele) who used to be a high jumper and he described the approach by saying, “At the very end you have to take a violent step that shifts your running momentum into a jump that goes straight up in the air while having enough forward momentum to carry you over the bar. As you go over the bar you have to constantly adjust your body, raising and lowering parts in the right sequence, to clear the bar.” I barely understand what those sentences mean. There’s no way I could physically do that.

You might be wondering what this has to do with anything. I’m guessing that the majority of you wouldn’t be ready to participate in a high jump competition. Overall, you’re incapable of doing the correct foundational things that would enable to succeed. You probably don’t have the important techniques down to be successful, and you probably haven’t spent any time developing those skills. In order to be successful, you’d have to change, learn, and grow. You’d have to work on all of those fundamental small things that would enable you to get over the bar.

Whenever we step into a new role or experience, we show up as the person we currently are with the skillsets we currently have. This current version of ourselves isn’t immediately ready for the challenge ahead. The current version of ourselves very rarely has an understanding of and ability to execute all of the fundamental enablers that lead to success. While I don’t have to worry about my approach, footsteps, and arching my back like a high jumper, I have had to learn and adapt as a market researcher. In my world fundamental enablers are things like learning how to better understand the business, leveraging marketing frameworks, leveraging different market research methodologies to best answer a business question, synthesizing all kinds of information, defining problems, etc. Some of these are areas where I already had skills, and some of these areas are places where I had to start from scratch. I still don’t have all of these fundamental enablers down cold, so I’m always continuing to learn and work on mastering various enablers in order to reach success.

As I mentioned, this blog was inspired by Belinda’s comments. Here is what she said. “In high jump, they work on all of the little enablers – how you approach, your arch, your steps. Do, we as coaches, always work on those things? I can talk about the bar, which is the goal. But the bar is not what you do.” I think she lays out a really good challenge. As an individual, are you focused on developing the key enablers that will help you be successful? As a leader/coach are you focused on helping others develop the key enablers that will lead to their success?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Excellence, Delicious Food, and your Unique Awesomeness (8-1-18)

Last week was about excellence and setting the high bar. This week is about finding your own way to get to that high bar and will reflect on great food and your unique awesomeness.

Take a second and think about delicious food. Think about the meals you love. Here is a list of some of my favorite foods: my grandma’s homemade beef and noodles, bone-in ribeye steak, bacon cheeseburgers, my mom’s pork chops with homemade bbq sauce, Culver’s Concrete Mixers, Nancy Woolf cookies, waffle fries, Bello brownies, honey crisp apples, and anything that Emily Borders makes. (The picture to the right is me daydreaming of food. We even have a similar hairline.) Now that you have some delicious foods in your head, ask yourself what makes each one of those foods uniquely special and delicious. For me, Bello brownies are always perfectly gooey in the middle. Ribeyes always have the perfect balance of meat and fat, which leads to great flavor and I am convinced the bone makes it taste better. Honey crisp apples have the perfect amount of snap in each bite. A Culver’s Concrete Mixers with Oreo and cookie dough is a delightful blend of smooth custard and crunchy cookies.

You’re probably wondering what delicious food has to do with work. When you thought about food, you thought about great tasting food. I’m assuming that the foods you thought of weren’t all the same. For example, frozen custard is not the same as a bone-in ribeye, but both are delicious. You probably noticed that the foods you thought of each had their own unique awesomeness that propelled them to greatness. This reminds me of a conversation I had when I first joined my current team.

When I first took my role on my current team, I had a conversation with my boss about what excellence looks like as a market researcher (trying to find the high bar<-Look at that connection to last week). We talked about some of the core skills you need to have to be successful like the ability to synthesize knowledge and define the problems we are trying to solve. Consider these foundational competencies needed for success. I then asked him what it would take to reach legendary rock star status as a researcher. I asked him who were the legendary market researchers and why were they awesome. The thought behind my question is that I would need to copy and be just like them to be great. He responded along the lines of, “Sally was a rock star because of her capacity to handle a lot of work streams at one time. Susie was a rock star researcher, because of her vast knowledge of the disease and business. Bob is a rock star, because of his understanding of different market research methodologies.” He then paused and said, “You aren’t them though. You have to decide what’s special about you, and how you can use that to get to rock star status.”

That last bit of advice in bold has stuck with me ever since that conversation. Over time, I’ve come to appreciate and realize that if I’m going to be a legendary market researcher (or husband/dad/friend/etc.) one day, then I won’t get there by directly copying everyone else. It’s true that there are foundational things I will need to get good that everyone needs in order to reach success. However, I will also have to identify my awesomeness and how I can use that awesomeness in a way to reach the high bar that has been set. I’m assuming all of you are in a similar boat. Whatever legendary status is for you, you won’t get there by being a direct copy of anyone else. You’ll have to be and do you.

The challenge: What is your awesomeness and how will you use it to help you reach rock star status?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry