Cleaning the House- Begrudgingly or with Flair (9-27-17)

This will be the last in the series of lessons I’ve learned from doing stuff around the house. We looked at ironing and development as well as taking out the trash and letting go of negative emotions. We then thought about dusting and brushing off our skills. We also reflected on ourselves and tools in a tool box. Last week, we thought about my wife reorganizing the pantry and meeting customer needs. This week I want to end by reflecting on how we approach cleaning the house.

When you clean do you clean or do you clean? You might be wondering what the difference is between those two.. Well, the first version is begrudgingly cleaning the house. The second version has italics, is bold, and is underlined which obviously means you are doing it with some flair 😉 In my house we turn cleaning into a game. We might become ninjas who are taking out the evil germs. We might become ghost busters going after dust bunnies. Sometimes the vacuum becomes a monster that chases the girls around the house as they run and use their freeze powers to stop the evil vacuum monster. Even when I’m by myself, I’m at least blasting some good tunes as I do everything from clean kitchens to bathrooms, and if you’d walk in on me you’d wonder if I was cleaning or having a one man dance off. In case you’re wondering, I have moves, but that’s a story for a different day 😉

So what does this have to do with work? Cleaning the house is something that needs to get done. At the same time, I have a choice in how I go about doing this. I can choose to allow cleaning to be this horrible activity I have to suffer through. I can choose to find ways to make cleaning enjoyable and maybe even insightful enough to inspire a few blogs 😉 The same thing can be said for work. We do some amazingly important work. We do things that are legitimately life changing. At the same time, this isn’t all fun and glory. There’s a lot of drudgery and grinding that we have to do. We have projects, processes, meetings, etc. that we have to go through every day. It’s easy to get lost in this grind. At the same time, we can choose how to go about doing these things. We can choose to bring in a smile and a high five. We can choose to find joy in these moments. We can choose to not always take ourselves so seriously. We can choose to do these things begrudgingly or we can choose to approach these tasks with a mind that is looking for an opportunity to learn and maybe even a chance to have some fun.

The challenge: Are you doing a job or doing a job?

Bonus lesson from cleaning-> Give people a role and a job to do that matters. Whenever we clean I give the girls jobs and tell them why the jobs are important. They are always willing to pitch in if they understand why the work they do matters. In this case, Alice is the spray helper and Violet is the wiper.

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Reorganzing a Pantry and Meeting Customer Needs (9-20-17)

Last week we talked about tools and knowing who you are and what you bring to the table. This week is we will dive into doing house projects and addressing customer needs.

A few months ago I came home and my wife had reorganized the pantry. See the picture. Before we had the colorful tubs we placed things on the shelves and grouped them into categories. The buckets took this grouping to the next level. I was standing in the reorganized pantry and she asked, “What do you think? Pretty great, huh?” My face instantly gave away my answer, so she responded with, “You don’t like it.” I respond with, “I’m mainly neutral. I don’t understand why we needed to do this.”

My wife then says, “The buckets make it easier. How many times have you went to bake something and you couldn’t find the ingredients, because everything was disorganized? The tubs solve that issue and keep all of the like things together.” There is a flaw in this argument. I reminder her that I don’t bake. Everything I cook is either grilled or on top of the stove in a skillet. All of my grilling stuff is always easily accessible, so I’m not experiencing those problems. Essentially, she is solving a problem for me that I don’t have or care about. In fact, her doing this actually creates new problems for me. Before I could just see the stuff on the shelves and now I have to spend the effort trying to fit things into tubs and looking inside the tubs to find what I want. All of this results in me being neutral at best toward the new pantry, when my wife was super excited. #awkward

How does this connect with work? Essentially our job is to solve problems. With that said, I see two ways how this anecdote connects to our work. First, how often are we solving our problems vs. solving problems our customers face? If you’re anything like me, it’s easy to fall in love with something cool and never stop to ask, “Does this actually even help a customer?”

The second connection is when we attempt to solve the problems of our customers, are we connecting our solutions back to what they value? The mistake my wife made is that she tried to tell me the tubs in the pantry solved an organization problem. I didn’t have that issue. If my wife wanted me to be thrilled about the tubs in the pantry all she had to do was reframe the solution. She should have said this, “I’m here with the kids every day and they go in the pantry and mess stuff up all the time. I feel I waste a lot of time dealing with that and it adds to the stress I already have of taking care of them and doing everything else that I do to help the family run. I think these tubs will make things easier for me and take some of my stress away.” If she would have framed it that way I would have thought the tubs were an awesome idea. Why? Because I would have said to myself, “The less stress she has, the less stress the family has. She spent minimal money and I didn’t have to put in any effort to fix this. If the tubs make her happy, then she should just go for it!” Connecting this solution to what I value, completely would have changed how I responded to the solution.

The challenge: Are you doing something because it solves a problem that matters to you or because it solve a problem that matters to your customers? Are you connecting the solutions you provide to what customers value?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

House Projects, Tools, and Knowing Who you are (9-13-17)

Last week we talked about dusting and our development. This week I’d like us to reflect on ourselves, who we are, the value we bring, and tools for doing projects around the house.

Every year my wife and I choose a few projects to do around the house. Some projects are bigger and require us to get help. Some projects are small. No matter what the project is one of the first things we do is figure out what tools we will need. We then grab the tools and use them, understanding that one tool can’t do everything. A hammer is a great hammer, but a horrible screwdriver. Essentially, every tool has its own unique purpose and function. In order to be successful, you need to have a collection of tools, because they all have their place and time when they are needed.

You’re probably wondering what this has to do with anything. I don’t know about you, but from time to time I still struggle with who I am and where I fit and the value this has to a team or group. To continue with the analogy, sometimes I look around to see a world full of wrenches, screwdrivers, hammers, pliers, etc. and say, “Do I need to be a wrench? Should I be a hammer? Maybe I should be a pair of pliers…” Instead, what I should be doing is reflecting on what kind of tool I am and what I bring to the table.

This was worse when I was younger and earlier in my career. As I’ve grown up I’ve learned more about who I am, but still I have my doubts at times. Over time, I’ve come to realize that in the grand scheme of things, I’m a tool that is part of a larger toolset that can be used to build things and solve problems. For example, if I’m a drill, then I have certain things that I do well and certain things I don’t do as well. My goal is to be the best drill I can be. As I focus on trying to be the best drill I can be, I have to not get distracted by trying to become a wrench. It doesn’t make sense for a drill to be a wrench when they have different strengths and functions. At the same time, I need to be honest with myself and understand that not all problems can be solved by a drill. Instead, sometimes the best person for a job is a tape measure, wrench, hammer, screwdriver, etc. This small change in thinking has helped me appreciate others more and appreciate myself more.

Another connection in the analogy is that as a leader, your job is to figure out how to solve problems, which means that the first thing you need to do is understand what tools you need and how to use those tools to solve the problems before you. The main difference from doing household projects is that it’s not so easy to determine what you need. It’s not like you have instructions telling you which tools you will need to complete the project. Instead, you need to be willing to look at the problem from a variety of ways and then figure out how to leverage people and their gifts to figure things out. You need to know when you need a screwdriver and when you already have one and could use a tape measure.

The challenge: Do you know who you are? Do you know your strengths and weaknesses? Do you leverage your strengths?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Taking out the Trash and Letting Go (8-30-17)

Last week was about ironing and development. This week we are going to think about taking out the trash and releasing negative emotions. Fair warning, this blog might trigger your olfactory senses.

Pretend for a moment that you came over to my house. The moment you walk in you encounter a powerful odor, a disgusting overwhelming smell. You see me sitting at the kitchen table and you ask me, “Why does your house smell so bad?” I simply shrug and say, “I don’t smell anything that bad.”

You begin searching my house for the smell and finally you realize the problem. The garbage can is overflowing. There are empty food containers, dirty diapers, mold, and all kinds of disgusting stuff. You grab me and say, “Why didn’t you ever take the trash out?” I respond by saying, “I just got caught up and stuff and never thought about it.” Eventually I take out the trash and let the house air out. By the next day everything smells so much better and I’m thankful I’ve removed the garbage from my home.

You’re probably wondering what taking the garbage out has to do with work. Let me ask you a question. Have you ever held onto some negative thing someone said or a negative emotion longer than you should have? I know I do that sometimes. I get bitter, angry, jealous, upset, hurt, etc. and I bottle it up and hold onto it. Sometimes I hold onto a mistake I made. Sometimes I hold onto something someone said. Sometimes I hold onto my own self-doubt and insecurities. After a period of time I don’t even realize I’m holding onto those things anymore. Just like keeping trash in my house, sooner or later my whole entire being stinks and becomes toxic. This not only hurts me, but it also impacts the way I interact with people. Throughout this entire process what I really need to do is realize that negativity is something I need to let go of. I need to release it so it can be taken away. Sometimes, you can do this on your own, and sometimes you need a friend or someone to help you let go of things.

Now here’s an important nuance. I’m not saying negative emotions or experiences are bad. What I’m saying is that when we encounter these emotions we need to learn what we can from them and then let them go. It’s kind of like eating a banana. I eat the banana, and then I throw away what’s left because I can’t use it anymore. I need to take the mistake/criticism/self-doubt learn what I can and then move on.

The challenge: Are you taking out the trash when you need to? Are you letting go of your toxic emotions?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry