Blog #650- Central Air, Systems, and Being a Leader/Technician (8-6-25)

This is going to be the final entry in the series about replacing my air conditioning. Last week we explored how leaders can create a cooler and more comfortable environment. This week I want to dive deeper into this idea by exploring central air conditioning as an integrated system and being a leader/technician.

When my air conditioning was broken, my thermostat still worked. We could set it to the desired temperature. However, some parts of the integrated system didn’t work. It was pushing air around, but unable to cool the air. As a result, even if we had the temperature set where we wanted it to be, the system was unable to deliver those results. The technician knew the thermostat was fine, and also knew the only way to achieve the desired result would be to upgrade the parts and system.

What does this have to do with work? A thermostat is a lot like a vision. The thermostat/vision can be set clearly and correctly. However, the vision doesn’t matter if we haven’t set up the pieces and processes in a way that enables us to achieve that vision. Have you ever encountered a situation where a vision couldn’t be achieved in the current system? Maybe, you were asked to move faster, but our internal processes were not set up to enable speed and there were not the right tools to be more efficient. Maybe you were asked to be bold and take on more risks, but the processes and governance around you didn’t empower you to make decisions. The system must be designed to support the vision.

With this in mind, great leaders aren’t just people who set the thermostat. Great leaders aren’t just people who create successful environments with words. Great leaders are the technicians who ensure the other pieces and processes will lead to achieving the vision. Great leaders are the ones who say, “We want to move faster, well X is getting in the way. X either needs to be removed or replaced by something that gives us speed. Let’s take Y process and totally reimagine it to fit our needs vs the way we’ve always done things.”

The challenge: Will you be a leader who just sets the thermostat (vision) or will you be the leader/technician who builds a system that leads to success?

Bonus: This is blog #650. Thanks so much for reading and encouraging me throughout the years to keep writing. I appreciate you all being part of this journey! If you have any favorite blogs or topics, I’d love to hear about them.

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Parenting, Obstacle Course Races, and Tailoring Support (6-19-24)

Last week was about Alice’s wisdom, “Have a day you can be proud of.” This week is a story about parenting, obstacle course racing, and tailoring support. Shout out to Mud Run – Hollis Adams for putting on such a fabulous family friendly event.

On Saturday, Alice joined me for her first ever obstacle course race. To say that she was nervous would be a major understatement. I told her it was okay to be nervous, and that I’d be there beside her. I explained that I wasn’t going to swoop in and do the obstacles for her, but I would be there to help her if she needed it. Sometimes, helping her looked like me giving her advice on how to attempt an obstacle. Sometimes, support looked like me giving her a boost, so she could get her footing while climbing a muddy creek bank. Sometimes, support looked like me saying, “I know you’re scared because you’re on top of this tall wall. You can still do this. I’m here. Just swing your leg over.” Sometimes, support looked like me just cheering her on and high fiving her for conquering an obstacle. By the end of the race, we had achieved our goals, and Alice was so excited and proud of herself. I was super pumped too! (The picture on the right is out before picture. The after picture is at the bottom).

What does this have to do with anything? There were several times where Alice was nervous or flat out scared. It would have been EASY for me to do all the work for her, but that would have robbed her of a chance to grow and see what she was capable of. Instead of doing it for her, I helped and offered support. That support took different forms based on HER needs in that specific moment. Now think about work for a minute. The best leaders I ever had weren’t the ones who swooped in and saved me from a challenge. The best leaders I ever had were the ones who knew how to tailor their support to the situation. Sometimes, I needed explicit direction, because I was lost. Sometimes, I needed a thought partner to challenge my assumptions. Sometimes, I just needed someone to say, “I trust you. Go get’em!”

The challenge: How will you tailor the coaching and support you give to people?

Bonus lesson- I mentioned that Alice was nervous about the race. In particular, she was worried about what would happen if she wasn’t strong enough to handle an obstacle. She’s a planner and needed to know how things would work out. I needed her to trust that I was strong and able to help her in any situation. Here’s what I did. I came home after my 20 miles of racing, and said, “I did 20 miles of racing yesterday. I’m at my weakest and most tired point. I need you to know that even now, I’m strong enough to support you. I want you to know that I’ve helped boost and lift people who are my size, so you’ll be easy. We are going to practice, so you know how this will work.” From there, we practiced me giving her boosts and lifting her up. I even had her sit on my shoulders while I squatted her for reps. I walked around the house with her on my shoulders, so she knew I could carry her. I know this all sounds ridiculous, but those actions showed her that she could trust my strength. She realized that if I was able to do that when I was tired and weak, I’d be even better when I was rested up for our race. As a leader, I’m not asking you to pick up people and squat them for reps (I’m pretty sure HR would frown on that 😉). I am asking you to consider what you could do to inspire trust in the people you lead.

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Deadlifting and Coaching Nudges (4-19-23)

This week we are going to start a new series inspired by lessons learned from working out. We will start with deadlifting and coaching nudges focused on the right things. This is inspired by an interaction I had with Rhonda Pacheco, so big shout out to her.

The other day I was chatting with Rhonda about work, life, and everything in between. I can’t remember exactly how it happened, but we started to talk about exercising and lifting weights. I had been struggling with deadlifting, so I asked her if she ever deadlifted. When she said yes, I explained that even though I wasn’t lifting anything that heavy I could always feel it in my lower back, and I’d be sore for days. This definitely shouldn’t be happening. That’s when Rhonda said something along the lines of, “Sounds like something is off on your form. The thing that helps me when I’m lifting are those small little cues to focus on. For deadlifts, focus on pushing the ground down. If you focus on pushing the ground down your body will naturally hinge in the right way and activate the right muscles.” I didn’t believe it would be that simple. The next time I did deadlifts I focused on pushing the ground down. This felt SO DIFFERENT from what I had been doing before. I was then able to do the reps without any soreness in my back and was able to add 10-15 pounds to my lifts. #gains

What does this have to do with anything? The coaching that Rhonda gave me was a small nudge focused on the right thing. By helping me focus on the right thing with a tangible action, I was able to make large improvements. She didn’t need a lot of words. She didn’t need complicated models or verbiage. She helped me focus on ONE SIMPLE THING. Think about when you’ve received coaching in the past. How often is it specific and focused enough that you know exactly what to do? How often is it truly focused on the thing that matters? Think about giving people coaching. How clear is the advice that you give them? How would following your advice have positive ripples in their work?

The challenge: How can you leverage small nudges to help people grow?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Video Games and Diagnosing the Situation (3-29-23)

This week we are going to kick off a series inspired by video games I’ve played with my kids. This week is about diagnosing the situation before offering any coaching or guidance.

The other day my kids were playing Shovel Knight, and they were struggling with a boss. It would have been easy to take the controller from them and do it myself, but that wouldn’t help them develop skills. Whenever I see them struggling, I go through a series of questions to identify the problem. First, I ask them what they are trying to accomplish. If they are clear here, we move to the second question, and I ask them if they even want to accomplish that thing. Sometimes they do, and sometimes they just want to do other side missions for fun. Assuming they want to accomplish the goal, I go to the third question, and I ask them if they know HOW to accomplish the goal. Assuming they are good here, I go to the final question and ask if they are capable of doing the thing. Turns out they knew what to achieve and wanted to do it, they just didn’t know HOW to do it. Once I helped them there, they had the physical skills to do so, and they ended up defeating the boss and advancing.

You might be wondering where this is going. In the video game example above, I give my kids guidance, based on the specific issue they have. For example, building their skills to do something is very different from helping them gain clarity on the objective. There is a sequence of things we need to work through, so they can perform at their best and I need to meet them where they are. Now reflect on work for a moment. When you give advice/coaching to someone, do you ever jump right in without fully understanding the situation? I’ve done this. What happens when you do this? I’ve found that when I jump right in without diagnosing the situation, I often solve the wrong problem. If I solve the wrong problem, then the advice/coaching is not relevant, and the issue still isn’t solved.

The challenge- Will you take the time to diagnose the situation before providing advice/coaching?

Bonus 1: My flow chart of questions to diagnose the issue.

Bonus 2: Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove is an AWESOME indie game. It’s kind of like a different take on Megaman. I’d highly recommend it.

Bonus 3: This blog is partially inspired by takeaways from the book: Coaching for Improved Work Performance by Ferdinand Fournies. The book helps you be more methodical in diagnosing issues.

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Bernoulli’s Principle and Applying Pressure (3-13-19)

Last week was about catalysts and chemical reactions. This week we are going to reflect on Bernoulli’s principle and pressure. Let’s start with the principle. “In fluid dynamics, Bernoulli’s principle states that an increase in the speed of a fluid occurs simultaneously with a decrease in pressure (Wikipedia). It’s easy to get lost in that. The essence of this is that Bernoulli’s principle gives you the ability to understand how to manipulate pressure.

One of the most useful applications of Bernoulli’s principle is in aircraft flight. “If the air flowing past the top surface of an aircraft wing is moving faster than the air flowing past the bottom surface, then Bernoulli’s principle implies that the pressure on the surfaces of the wing will be lower above than below. This pressure difference results in an upwards lifting force.” (Wikipedia). A person designing wings for planes needs to understand Bernoulli’s principle, so they can appropriately manipulate and harness the power of pressure. If you don’t harness pressure correctly then a few bad things could happen. For example, the plane never takes off, it comes down too hard, and/or it spirals in the air out of control.

Besides being lost in a nerdtastic rabbit hole, you might be wondering what this has to do with anything. Last time I checked, we don’t design wings for airplanes. At the same time, I’d argue that we are all leaders, and leaders are people who need to understand and harness the power of pressure to lift us to new heights. As leaders, we direct pressure with the expectations we set, how big we dream, and how much we are willing to push each other. Much like an airplane, if we don’t harness the power of pressure correctly bad things can happen. If we don’t do things to create enough positive pressure, then we never create the upward lift that helps people reach their full potential. If we create too much downward pressure, we crush people and keep them from every flying. If we apply uneven pressure throughout the journey we send people spiraling. I know because I’ve had leaders do all of these things, and more importantly I’ve made all those mistakes.

The challenge: How can we harness pressure for positive change?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Obi-Wan and Force Ghost Coaching (2-13-19)

We began this coaching series with the idea that anyone can be a coach, and we’ll end this series by reflecting on the lasting legacy of coaches and Star Wars A New Hope.

I’m assuming most of us have seen Star Wars: A New Hope. If not, spoiler alert (for a 40 year old movie). Throughout the film, Luke (our hero) has a mentor/coach named Obi-Wan Kenobi. Eventually, Obi-Wan sacrifices himself and is killed by Darth Vader (villain) in a light saber battle. Fast forward to the climatic end of the movie, and Luke is flying in an X-wing (think jet) and needs to shoot a missile into an exhaust port of the Death Star to blow it up and save the galaxy. Luke is nervous, doesn’t know if he can do it, and all of a sudden a voice appears in the back of Luke’s mind telling him to use the force. This voice is the force ghost of Obi-Wan, Luke’s deceased mentor/coach. Luke listens to his former coach, trusts the force, shoots the missiles, and blows up the Death Star.

So you’re probably wondering what any of this has to do with work or coaching. I’d say that average coaches are the ones who can help you when they are physically with you. I’d argue that the best coaches are like Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan’s presence is so strong that he gives Luke encouragement even when he is not there. Obi-Wan is like a force ghost coach. (How cool is that phrase?) Do you have any coaches in your life, where you can still “hear” them or “feel” their impact even if they aren’t physically there? I do. I’ll be working on stuff sometimes and say, “Susie would probably ask me to consider X. Bob would ask me if I knew Z before I got started.” Although that person may not physically be there, I still benefit from what they have instilled in me throughout our time together

I started this series saying that anybody could be a coach. With that said, what do you think YOUR lingering impact is on people? Do they hear your voice or feel your presence when you aren’t around? Ihope they would for me. For example, if someone I’ve worked with is facing a problem, I hope that they would hear my voice in the back of their brain saying, “What do you need people to think, feel, and/or do? Let that guide you.” And then I hope they would hear me giving them some kind of encouragement like, “You are a boss and I got a lot of love for you. Go beast mode and slay dragons. You got this.” I hope they would hear that just as clearly as Luke heard, “Trust the force.”

The challenge: Are you having a lasting impact on people? What is the “force ghost” version of you saying to the people you have coached when you aren’t around?

Bonus: Drop one of your “Force ghost” coaches a line and tell them thank you and what you can hear them still telling you.

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Coaching- Putting Effort into Giving Critical and Positive Feedback (2-6-19)

Last week was about showing yourself the same level of coaching compassion as you show others. This week’s entry is about putting in equal effort to providing positive and critical feedback to individuals.

I have two girls, Violet (5) and Alice (almost 7). As a parent I feel the majority of my job is coaching them in some way, shape, or form. When my kid does something small that’s wrong I usually respond with a quick, “Hey, are you supposed to be doing that?” When it is something more serious, I call them over to me. I crouch down to their level and look them right in the eyes as I talk with them. Then the conversation usually goes something like, “Violet, are you supposed to hit your sister with your ninja turtle sword? Why did you hit her? Why shouldn’t we hit each other? What will happen if you continue to behave in this way?” The reason why I call them over and then crouch down is because I want them to know I take them and their behavior very seriously, and you can see from the look on their faces that when I stop and do this the message usually sinks in..

I more or less do the same thing if they are exhibiting positive behavior. The small good things they do get a quick, “Good job!” and a high five. However, there are times when their positive behavior deserves more than a quick “good job!” and high five. When this occurs, I call them over, get down on their level, and talk to them. These conversations usually go like this, “Violet, I saw that you were getting frustrated, but you managed to calm down and then solve your problem. Good job being able to calm down. I know that’s incredibly hard, but look at how you were able to do it after you took time to breathe and calm down. You did so great, and I’m so proud of you. Keep it up.” Just like in the other example, slowing down, getting on their level, and having a deeper conversation helps the message sink in.

You might be wondering what this has to do with work and giving feedback. Do you give the same intention and effort into giving positive feedback that you put into giving critical feedback? In my experiences, most people don’t. In my experience, people are often apt to give critical feedback on a more regular basis and tend to have a little more thought behind it. However, when it comes to giving positive feedback it is often sparse and consists of a generic, “Good job!” Some positive feedback is better than never receiving positive feedback. However, putting a little extra time and effort into sitting down with someone and giving them more specific reasons on why something was good is more motivating and impactful than generic comments.

The challenge: Can you give the same intention and effort into giving critical and positive feedback?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Coaching and Giving Feedback that Matters (1-23-19)

Last week was about understanding the situation before providing feedback. This week is about focusing and giving feedback on things that matter. A little while ago I saw someone give a presentation. After they were done I dropped them a line telling them I felt they did a good job because they got the main idea across in a clear, concise, and engaging manner. That should be the goal for any presentation, right? Later on the person saw me, said thanks, and then said, “Feel free to give me constructive feedback too on what I should have done better.” This caused me to pause and ask myself, “At what point should I give constructive criticism and at what point should I just leave well enough alone?”

In the this example, I didn’t feel I had anything of substantial value to add on the constructive front, because she had accomplished the goal of getting the main idea across in a clear, concise, and engaging manner. If I would have been pushed I could have found flaws to talk about regarding her presentation. The person’s body language wasn’t perfect, the slides could have been better, and there were a few places that could have been smoothed over. However, I don’t know if fixing these things would have really elevated things that much. The bottom line is that this person accomplished their goals with the presentation and communicated a clear message. If the presentation was an 8 out of 10 before, maybe fixing that stuff would have made it an 8.3. Most of the audience wouldn’t have even known the difference.

Your next question might be, “Well, shouldn’t the person shoot for a 10?” Not necessarily. A 10 presentation requires a lot of additional effort and work. Most of the time you just need a solid 8, so it is clear enough to move an audience. Now, if the person would have delivered a 3 or 4, then the person would have missed their objective of getting their point across. At this point, the issue would have been large enough to talk about. At this point, the gaps would have been substantial enough that I would talk to them about filling them. It’s kind of like working on a road. You fill giant potholes before you think of filling surface level cracks in concrete. See the picture to the upper right of a small crack with a circle around it. Are you going to fill that crack or are you going to focus on fixing the hole at the bottom of this email?

More work connections. It’s easy to give feedback about every little flaw, mistake, and area that could be improved. However, just because something is a flaw or it could be improved doesn’t mean that it SHOULD be improved. For example, how many times in meetings have you been trying to get thoughts on an idea and people start talking to you about the font and colors on the slide you are showing instead of the key message you are trying to communicate? I don’t know about you, but I see this happen far more than I’d care to admit. #sadbuttrue How many times have you received feedback on stuff that really doesn’t matter? I feel when we give feedback on every small little thing, we actually give feedback on nothing, because we’ve given them so many things to think about they can’t take action. Additionally, every ounce of energy a person puts forward to fix a “meaningless” issue is an ounce of energy they are unable to put toward making meaningful change. Instead of giving feedback on every little thing, can we work on doing a better job of focusing on the things that will truly move the needle with each other?

The challenge: Are you focused on giving/seeking feedback that will truly make a difference?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Coaching and Taking the Time to Understand the Situation (1-16-19)

Last week was about making your intentions known before providing feedback. This week we are going to focus on understanding the situation before giving feedback.

Pretend for a moment that you are a coach for a football team. The kicker just missed a field goal. You saw it hit the uprights and the crossbar. What coaching do you give the kicker? Maybe you would give the kicker coaching on kicking the ball harder, changing footwork, etc. What I would hope you’d do is first ask the kicker what they think happened. I hope you’d say, “From here it looked like X happened. What was going on for you?” The reason this is important is because the kicker’s response will influence what you talk about. Maybe the kicker didn’t take the wind into consideration. Maybe he slipped. Maybe he was trying to kick too high to get it over the linemen. Maybe everything was fine until someone from the other team partially blocked it. These are all different problems with different root causes that require different coaching interventions and different solutions.

Connections to work. How often do we seek to understand the situation before we give feedback? How often do we find the root cause of the problem, before we offer to solve it? If we don’t know the root cause, it’s likely we will attempt to solve the wrong problem.

Have you ever had someone give you feedback on something that ended up being really off base, because they didn’t actually understand the situation? How did it make you feel when they did that? I’ve had that happen to me before, and I’ve felt frustrated that the person wasn’t even trying to understand the situation before blindly giving me coaching. This led me to wondering if the person even wanted to understand my perspective in the situation, which led me to wonder if I really wanted to work for someone who didn’t even want to attempt to understand me. On the flip side, have you ever had people take the time to understand the situation before providing feedback? I’ve had this happen, and when it does I’m always appreciative of the fact that they took time to understand the situation and I’m more prone to take the feedback to heart.

The challenge: Are you understanding the situation before you give feedback?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Coaching and Sharing your Intentions (1-9-19)

Last week we started a series on coaching, and one of the most important aspects of being a coach is giving feedback. This week I want us to think about communicating our intentions as we share feedback. I’d like to do this by sharing an Andrew Embry failure story.

Embry failure story. I mentioned before that a couple of summers ago I had an intern that I coached named Kristine. She was a few weeks into her internship and she had hit a little snag in her project. We had a 1 on 1 and she asked me what I thought she should do. Rather than give her an answer I started asking her questions. “What do you think the problem is? Why do you think the problem exists? What do you think you should do? Why do you think you should do that? What other angles are you thinking about? Who else should you talk to?” I’m on a complete roll and notice that she is starting to have the “deer trapped in headlights” look. That’s when I realize that she now thinks she’s stuck in some kind of FBI investigation.

I stop asking her questions and I say, “Whoa, that’s a lot of questions. It probably feels like I’m interrogating you. My bad and my apologies. I want you to know that I don’t expect you to have answers to most of the questions I ask you during your time here. My goal for this summer is to help you become a better thinker, and the only way I know how is to ask you questions to stretch your thinking. I’m going to ask you a barrage of questions until you either solve the problem or we figure out what you need to know to solve the problem. Then after we figure out what you need to know, we can talk about how you might get that information and I’ll be more than happy to give you more direct guidance as you need it.” After I said all that, I could see the switch her in body language. Now that she understood my intent, she was okay with me asking away.

Connections to work. How many times have you been like me in that situation? How many times have you been like Kristine in a situation? How did it feel? I remember being in a situation with the roles reversed once. This person was asking me all kinds of questions and my thought process was, “This person believes I am entirely incompetent,” so I was worried every time I spoke. Then one day the person was like, “Yeah, I like to ask a lot of questions so I’m up to speed on everything and can talk about work and connect dots as appropriate.” That one simple sentence completely changed the way I viewed and experienced our conversations. As a coach/colleague/leader, one of the most important things we can do is share and demonstrate our intentions. Demonstrating the right intentions goes a long way to building trust and enabling you to give meaningful feedback.

The challenge: Are you demonstrating your intentions when communicating with individuals?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry