Obstacle Course Racing and Avoiding Injury

Happy Monday,

I have a bonus blog for you about obstacle course racing and avoiding injury.

Whenever I do a race, I have 3 goals: don’t get injured, enjoy myself, and finish. My safety and health always come first because not only do I want to be able to do more races, but I have a life outside of racing where I want to be a great husband, dad, and friend. When I began my race on Saturday, I started off running. Very quickly, I felt the pain in my leg, giving me a signal that something wasn’t quite right. I have a history of stress fractures and knew this could lead to an injury. At this point, I had a choice. I could keep running and risk injury or I could slow down and walk. The young and less wise Andrew would have kept running and likely hurt himself. I decided to slow down and walk. While I might have been slower than I had hoped, I enjoyed the trails, had fun tackling the obstacles, and overall had a great time. Best of all, my leg (and the rest of me) feels pretty good today!

What does this have to do with work? I don’t know about you, but I’ve seen and heard of a lot of people running themselves into the ground at work. It’s like they are running with leg pain and keep running until the bone eventually snaps. Have you seen this? Have you experienced this? I know I have.

In the story this week, I mention how there is more to my life than just races, which is why my health and safety is so important. In a similar way, while work is important, it’s not the only thing in our lives. We are more than just employees. When we push past exhaustion at work, not only are we less effective at work, but we’re not the spouse, partner, parent, friend, etc. that we’d like to be. At least that’s what I’ve found from first-hand experience.

The Challenge: How can we pay attention to the pain signals and adjust accordingly before we get injured?

The Leader Challenge: How are you creating an environment that protects people from being ran into the ground?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Finishing Strong, Resting, and Being Mindful of our Pace (11-20-24)

This week we are going to have a one-off entry about finishing the year strong and reflecting on running races, our pace, and finish lines.

Let’s say that I’m running a race. I just passed mile marker 12 and the next marker will be 13.1. Should I go all out and sprint until I hit 13.1 miles? It depends on how far the race is. If it’s a half marathon, then 13.1 miles is the finish line. I can go all out, because after that I’ll have days and weeks of recovery before I push myself that hard again. If it’s a marathon, then 13.1 miles is only halfway, and going all out will only exhaust me and decrease my chances of finishing strong without injuries.

What does this have to do with anything? How many times have you heard, “We need to finish the year strong!” during a staff meeting, a town hall, etc.? Per our race analogy, when we think about finishing strong, we need to understand where the finish line truly is. We need to adjust our pace and effort based on where the finish line is and our ability to rest and recover.

Earlier in my career, I felt like Q4 was a true a finish line. Finishing the year strong meant sprinting hard AND knowing that I’d have time to recover and would be able to ease into the next year before sprinting right away again. Over the past few years, I’ve come to feel like there really isn’t a clear finish line anymore. Just the other day someone was talking about how Q4 isn’t the end of the year but is really just the kick-off to having a strong Q1. It’s like everything blurs together into a frantic frenzy. I end up going all out in Q4 only to find myself spending the holidays sick, burned out, and exhausted both physically and mentally. By the time the new year rolls around, I’m still not recovered, and I’m being asked to start sprinting right away. Does that sound familiar? Somewhere there must be a happy medium, where we work hard without running ourselves into the ground and starting the next year burned out from the moment it starts. Somewhere, there has to be a happy medium where we take care of ourselves and each other.

Challenge 1: How can we all be more mindful of our pace and its sustainability as we close out the year?

Challenge 2: How can you lead and set a pace that is sustainable? (Ex: When is the last time you clearly told your team that you don’t want them to run themselves into the ground, and made trade-off decisions where you would be okay with some things not getting done?)

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Patios and Unplugging from Work (6-5-24)

This is the last in our series about patio furniture. This week will be about patios and unplugging from work.

Now that we have some comfy patio furniture and have created a better space, I’ve more or less made it a habit to spend a decent amount on my back patio every night. Sometimes, I sit back there and hang out with my family. We talk and catch up on the day together. Sometimes, I sit out there and read a book. Sometimes, I sit out there and just zone out, checking out the flowers, birds, and bunnies hopping along throughout the neighborhood. After a long day of handling work and family commitments, it’s nice to take a few moments to unplug and recenter.

What does this have to do with anything? Often when we talk about unplugging from work, we talk about unplugging over the weekend or during a long vacation. This implies that throughout the week we remain plugged into work. I know I’ve fallen into this cycle of feeling tethered to work all throughout the week and the pressure of always feeling on. Have you? I know that when I go through periods where I stay plugged into work around the clock I begin to burnout, which has a negative impact on all aspects of my life.

While it might not be as long as a weekend or as big of an adventure as vacation, I’ve found that my daily time hanging out on my patio has been incredibly valuable. Not only is it nice to unplug in the moment to enjoy time with family or appreciate the beauty around me, but it also has positive effects that last beyond that time on the patio. When I disconnect on a regular basis, even if it’s just for a few minutes, I feel more centered and capable of taking on what life throws my way. These little moments of unplugging are incredibly powerful, and I think we can all find moments like these in our daily life whether it’s chilling on a patio or engaging in another activity that makes you feel whole.

The challenge: How can you unplug and recenter on a more regular basis?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Electric Currents, Parenting, Leadership, and Burn Out (1-10-24)

As we start off the year and begin to dive back into the craziness, I think we can all agree that we want to make sure that throughout the year we are taking care of each other in order to avoid exhaustion and burn out. With this in mind, I want us to reflect on electrical current, parenting, leadership, and burn out. If you’re in an official leadership position, I hope you read this and seriously consider the themes and implications. Side note, I’m in an official leadership position, and I’m writing this as a reminder to myself more than anything.

Let’s pretend for a minute that I took a lot of heavy power using appliances and plugged all of them into the same surge protector. It might look something like this picture. I’d assume that you’re thinking, “Why would you do that? That is not smart at all. Even though it’s a surge protector, it is not designed to handle that amount of electrical current. You’re going to burn something down.”

Now let’s think of parenting. Imagine that I have an overwhelming list of demands for my kids, and I expect everything on my to-do list to be done perfectly, and this occurs over months. My kids struggle with this workload. When I notice them struggling, I tell them, “You just need to practice some self-care. Take a rest.” However, the workload and expectations stay the same. At this point, I’d assume/hope you’re thinking something like, “You’re being a bad dad. You’re giving them an impossible task that is beating them down, and instead of doing something that could help them you are telling them to fix it themselves. They don’t have the power to fix it themselves, because they don’t control the expectations you are putting on them. You need to do something.”

What does this have to do with anything? The overloaded surge protector that would start a fire was MY responsibility because I chose to route too much power through it. When my kids were struggling and couldn’t fix it by practicing self-care, it was MY responsibility, because I controlled the list of demands and expectations. Why don’t we more consistently apply this same thinking when we think about employee burn out? Most things I read and hear about burn out put the responsibility on the individual employee. We tell them to practice self-care, go for a walk, and get plenty of rest. Why don’t we more consistently look at the leader and hold them responsible for creating an environment that is a huge contributing factor to burnout? The fact is, even if the individual practices the best self-care ever, it doesn’t matter if their work environment is always crushing them into the ground. The individual can have some responsibility, but not all. Leaders have a large portion of responsibility with regards to burn out, because their actions or inactions are the ones that create environments where burn out has a higher or lower chance of being a negative force for employees.

Think about it for a minute. If a leader doesn’t have a clear vision, then all the additional energy trying to navigate the swirl is extra burden on the team. If the leader doesn’t have clear priorities about what work needs to be done, the quality it needs to be delivered in, and the effort it should require, then all of the extra work done on things that isn’t needed puts extra burden on the team. If the leader is not actively driving a culture where people feel heard and valued, then all the extra energy people put in to survive that culture is extra burden on the team. Have you ever been on the receiving ends of any of those situations? I have. I’ve found that once you add up all that extra burden ON TOP of already largely out of reach goals and expectations, you have the perfect recipe for burnout. Have you ever been the leader who hasn’t done those things well? I have. What did you notice? I notice when I don’t do those things well, it puts a tremendous burden on folks that shouldn’t be there, and it sucks their souls.

The challenge: As a leader, what are you doing to create an environment that minimizes the potential of burnout? Asked another way, as a leader are your actions increasing or decreasing the chances of people experiencing burn out?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Shin Splints, Stress Fractures, and Paying Attention to Signs (8-24-22)

This week we are going to start a series on lessons I’ve learned dealing with a stress fracture over the past few months. This week is about paying attention to warning signs.

Many of you might remember that I started doing obstacle course races last year. Originally, I had planned to do more races April through July, but that didn’t quite pan out. Here is what happened. I had been training hard for months. I noticed that my shin hurt when I ran. It was inconvenient. I just kept running. Soon, it went from being inconvenient to hurting. I ignored it and just kept running. Soon, I got to the point that my shins were hurting even when I wasn’t running, and if I did run the pain would be sharp. I ignored all this, and just kept running. Finally, I got to the point where my shin hurt bad enough that I saw a doctor. I was diagnosed with a stress fracture.

Looking back, I wish I would have paid attention to my body earlier. At the first sign of pain, I wish I would have stopped to better understand the situation, so I could have made adjustments to help me recover before it became a substantial problem. However, I didn’t pause, so what likely started as a shin splint became a stress fracture. What started as a minor issue, became something more intense that sidelined me from running and physical activity for 3-4 months. Luckily for me, the leg has healed and I’m back to running and things again.

What does this have to do with anything? How often do you keep “running” despite the pain and all the warning signs telling you that you need to stop and figure out what is going on? Maybe the “running” is working yourself to the point of burnout and not functioning well. Maybe the “running” is continuing to operate in a culture where there are signs that something isn’t quite working. Maybe the “running” is continuing to press forward with the project even though there are signs that people aren’t exactly aligned. Maybe the “running” is doing everything else on your own and not having the right support around you. I’ve done all of these things. Have you? In all those situations there are initial signs that indicate that things might not be going well. If we can pause when we first see the signs, we can often fix things before any real harm is done. However, far too often we put our head down and keep pushing, believing that pausing is weakness. We keep pushing, ignoring the warning lights until something finally breaks. I know I’m guilty of this and am trying to do better.

The challenge: Will you listen to the initial warnings when they come?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Burnout and Boundaries (3-1-21)

I kind of hit a wall last week, so I spent the weekend recharging. This led to some reflections I want to share with you.

There are different types of rest- The 7 types of rest that every person needs | (ted.com). This weekend was all about mental, sensory, and creative rest. I completely unplugged, hung out outside, and spent most of the time reading and blogging. It was the recharge I needed. Make sure you’re filling your bucket.

Setting boundaries for yourself- Speaking of burnout, it’s important we set boundaries for ourselves. Here’s something I do. Whenever I have a new colleague I’m working with I get to know them and then we spend time discussing working styles. I always talk about how my family time is sacred, so I do what I can to avoid being on my computer at night. This means they won’t see stuff from me at night and shouldn’t expect to. Of course there will be times when it’s all hands on deck and everyone is putting in extra hours, but that shouldn’t be all the time. If it is, something is wrong. Priorities aren’t clear, expectations are unrealistic, or you’re not clear on what your boundaries are.

Setting expectations for others- While we set our own boundaries, it’s important to set and reinforce expectations for others. A vendor sent me an email on Sunday and said, “I’ll be standing by all day if you have questions.” This morning I sent him back the below message to clarify my expectations, because I don’t expect or need him to work all weekend for me.
- I appreciate you saying in your email that you’d be standing by on Sunday to answer questions if needed. I want you to know that I do NOT expect you to be on call for us over the weekend. You’re not some random vendor to me, you’re a teammate. When it gets close to crunch time, we will all be working long hours, but until then I want you and all my other teammates to spend time unplugging, refueling, and spending time with friends/family/important people in your life. In fact, if there is ever anything I can do to help alleviate any work burden you might have on the weekend please let me know.

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry