Races and Different Ways of Recharging (10-21-25)

Blog coming to you today, because I’m out of office tomorrow. 😉 This week is about different ways of recharging.

This might not make any sense to anyone. My racing hobby is one of my favorite things to do to RECHARGE my batteries. Right now, at least one of you is thinking, “So, running/hiking for miles in the heat, crawling through rock and mud, climbing on stuff, carrying heavy things, and picking up all kinds of bumps and bruises is recharging for you. Is there something wrong with you?” It’s a fair question 😉 All of those things are true, AND it’s time outside, mainly on my own without any distractions. It’s a time to be with my thoughts. It’s also a time to discover and push past my limits which is invigorating. Because of those things and more, races might take a lot of physical energy, but they fill so many of my other energy buckets.

Let’s connect some dots. Whenever I find myself feeling stressed or tired from work, one of my first instincts is that I need to rest to recharge. Resting looks taking it easy all day, not doing anything, and maybe even fitting in a nap. Sometimes, this helps me feel a bit better. Sometimes, it doesn’t. It’s not that resting was bad. It just wasn’t what I needed at the time.

Over the past few years, I’ve learned that when I need to recharge, sometimes I need to rest and other times I need something different. Sometimes, recharging looks like reading or writing blogs and poems. Sometimes, recharging is playing with Legos. Sometimes, recharging looks like hanging out with my family. Sometimes, recharging is being by myself for a period of time. Sometimes recharging is a good workout or an obstacle course race. How do you recharge?

The challenge: How are you being intentional about recharging in these busy and stressful times?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Obstacles and Celebrating Progress/Small Wins (10-15-25)

Last week was about embracing the grimy path to success. This week is about failed rope climbs, conquered warped walls, and celebrating progress and small wins.

I failed the warped wall 3 times at Frontline OCR back in May, which resulted in some nasty friction burns on my leg. With that in mind, I came into the recent Midwest OCR looking for redemption. The first obstacle I ran into was the rope climb. I did not complete this obstacle. HOWEVER, I’m so excited, because for the first time in my life, I actually hooked my feet correctly. I got further than I’ve ever made it. Then, when I got to the warped wall, I finally beat that thing! I latched onto the rope and knew I wasn’t letting go until I had finished climbing the wall. I had so much adrenaline running through my body after completing the wall that I thought I might pass out.

What does this have to do with anything? It would have been easy for me to call my race a failure. I failed obstacles. I was slower than I wanted to be. I didn’t win. However, I view it a success because of the progress and small wins I had. Now think about work for a minute. How often do you pause to celebrate progress and small wins? Be honest. If you’re anything like me, it’s so easy to get focused on the end goal with a win/lose mentality that I don’t pause at work. Then, I find myself feeling stuck or like a failure, all because I haven’t opened my eyes to the progress that has been made. Does this sound familiar to anyone else? It doesn’t have to be this way. We can all be celebrating small wins on a more regular basis.

The challenge: How will you ensure you are celebrating progress and small wins along the way?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

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

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

Professional and Personal Quarterly Check-in (3-27-24)

This week’s entry is about quarterly check-ins for work and for yourself. It’s a longer email, because I’m including my own quarterly self-assessment as an example.

As we finish out the end of Q1, I find myself doing a lot of reflecting on the progress that has been made on various projects and tasks at work. I’m asking myself things like, “Where are we now compared to where we were at the beginning of the quarter? Were we able to achieve our goals? If so, how do we keep up the momentum? If not, what should we adjust to do better? How can we ensure we regroup and are clear and focused for Q2?” It seems like a perfect moment to pause, reflect, regroup, and plan before attacking Q2.

What does this have to do anything? While this is great for work, we could apply this same thinking to our personal lives as well. What are some of your goals for 2024? How did you do with them in Q1? Have you stopped to CELEBRATE your progress? Stop RIGHT NOW and celebrate something you’ve achieved. After you celebrate, then you can reflect and see if there are any gaps. If you have gaps, why do you have gaps? What happened? What got in the way? How can you adjust to reach your goals for this quarter?

The challenge: Will you take the time to do a quarterly check-in? What changes will you make to set yourself up for the rest of the year?

Bonus: Here is my review based on the dimensions in my life I set goals for. Hopefully, it sparks a thought or two for you. Also, just know if things have been tough lately, you’re not the only one. Bottom line- tough quarter, and I need to bounce back. The picture of me flipping a tire is from my most recent obstacle course race and summarizes my Q1 in a nutshell. It was all about moving heavy stuff and getting through it. I did it, but dang it was so much harder and uglier than I wanted it to be, or it needed to be.

Intentionally Invest (D+)- This is my mantra for the year. This is about being intentional about where and how I invest my energy. Investing my energy means doing the right things that help me be the best version of myself. I gave myself a bad grade, because I wasn’t intentional. I got overwhelmed by a lot of things and just started recklessly spending energy. It wasn’t helpful and it didn’t help me get to where I wanted to go.

Mental Health (C-)- Overall, I want to feel like I’m in a good, strong, solid mental state. In full transparency, life and work just kicked my butt this quarter. The stress was overwhelming and was too much for me to manage in an efficient way. I got really lost and stuck trying to trudge through everything. Feeling lost and stuck drained so much of my mental energy. I spent so much energy here that I didn’t spend it on taking care of myself. I am proud of myself for getting some help. Moving forward, I need to use the new tools I’m developing, so I won’t get so stuck. If I can do that, everything else will improve dramatically.

Physical Health (C-)- The goal is to take good care of myself, so I can do the things I want to be able to do. The only reason I’m not giving myself a worse grade, is because I did manage to at least hold things together enough to complete a couple of obstacle course races. Other than that, I was inconsistent with working out, my sleep was poor, and my nutrition was abysmal. I’m ready to do better in Q2.

Family (ugly hard-earned B)- The goal is to feel like I’m being an amazing husband and dad. As they say in The Inside Job podcast, “Life gets lifey.” It’s been a hard few months with each day seemingly bringing new challenges. I give myself an “ugly hard-earned B” because it’s like one of those things in school where you have to put in so much effort you dang near exhaust yourself just to make it. I was not necessarily excellent, but I found ways to hold it together. It’s an ugly B, but one I can be proud of. At the same time, I think some work and mental health challenges got in the way of me being on the top of my game here.

Career (ugly hard-earned B)- The goal is to feel like I’m delivering magic. It’s a high bar about being in a flow state and getting incredible things done. Similar to my Family category, challenges kept popping up and compounding on themselves day in and day out. As a result, this quarter was filled with nothing but peaks and valleys, and they couldn’t have been further from each other. At times I was operating at a high level, and there were other times when I felt like an ineffective burned-out piece of garbage. This is another hard-earned ugly B that left me a little bruised and roughed up. I believe I focused on the right things. It just so happens that all the right things were the extremely difficult, and it was like carving through ambiguity made of marble while walking through quicksand. It took so much energy to keep slogging forward, and I know I was burned out for a period of time. On the positive side, I’m proud of myself for finding a way to regroup. I feel I’m getting my energy and magic back. All I need is a little more momentum, and then I’ll be like the Juggernaut (bonus points if you get the X-men reference)

Financial (B)- The goal is to ensure we are saving/investing money in the right way. I’ve already shifted money for investments. Some of these have been home repair things (replacing the hot water heater has been AMAZING!) and some of these are investing in fun vacations for later in the year. I do acknowledge that I was wasting too much money on junk food and stuff as I was super stressed.

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Discomfort, Psychological Safety, and the Yeti Challenge (1-31-24)

Last week was about embracing discomfort, so you can be successful. This week is about discomfort, psychological safety, and the Yeti challenge.

This past weekend I completed the Abominable Snow Race. I did the Yeti challenge, which consisted of 12 miles through ice/snow/mud/slush and around 50 obstacles. I was in a constant state of discomfort through most of the race. I was cold, wet, sore, covered in bruises, had a weird spot on my hand we call a yeti bite because we have no idea what happened (credit to Kristina Kittle for the name), and I was nervous/anxious/scared a fair amount. It would have been easy for me to say, “I’m uncomfortable, so that means this isn’t safe.” However, even though I was in a constant state of discomfort, the course and environment were safe. Plus, I felt like a complete bad a$$ when I crossed that finish line. #yetination

How does this connect with work and psychological safety? There are a lot of different definitions for psychological safety. At their core, I believe that most definitions center on the idea of creating an environment where people can be themselves and freely share their ideas without fear of negative repercussions. What you’ll notice if you read different definitions is that none of them promise a workplace without any discomfort or tension. This connects back to my racing story. I was uncomfortable for most of the race, AND I was still safe. In a similar way, it’s easy to be in a tough conversation or situation at work and think to yourself, “This isn’t comfortable, so this environment must not be safe.” This isn’t necessarily true. Tension, challenging questions, or a difficult conversation at work, doesn’t mean that the environment lacks psychological safety. Sometimes what we are feeling is just discomfort, and we need to find a way to process that and move forward. In my experience the more psychological safety I have with a person or group the more real conversations we can have that include tension and discomfort, and like how I felt when I finished the race I usually feel so much better after these convos. Is this true for you?

The challenge- How will you think about discomfort vs psychological safety?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Night Obstacle Course Racing, Headlamps, and Moving Forward (5-24-23)

Last week I concluded a series about lifting by sharing a story from a recent nighttime obstacle course race. Lindsey Caruthers reached out to me and suggested there was more to tell. That got me thinking, and now this week is about running a night obstacle course race, headlamps, and moving forward.

A few days before the race, I got my hands on the course map. I could see that it was going to be around 4 miles, mainly running through woods. I knew there was going to be a lot of mud. I saw the names of the obstacles, so I had an idea of what was going to come my way. When I started the race, the sun was still out, so for the first 30 minutes I could see quite a bit in front of me, including the obstacles. Then, it got dark. That’s when everyone turned on their headlamps. Now, instead of being able to see out in the distance, I was only able to see the few feet in front of me. While this may have slowed me down a bit, it didn’t stop me. While I couldn’t see as much as I once could, I could still see enough in front of me to keep going. I could still see the marked trail. I could see the obstacles as I approached them. I could remember the obstacles on the map to estimate where I was on my journey. I was able to stay focused on taking the steps in front of me over and over again, until finally I reached the finish line.

How does this connect to anything? I’d argue that organizational change management efforts or leading projects is a lot like running an obstacle course race in the dark. It would be so much easier if we always had a goal AND a clearly outlined path we could easily follow to get to that goal. However, it doesn’t work that way. You might have a general idea of where you are trying to go, but you like don’t have a clear line of sight to get there. The path isn’t going to be easy either. It’s going to be filled with mud and obstacles like resource demands, difficult stakeholders, last minute pivots, etc. It’s easy to freeze and become paralyzed when things aren’t 100% clear. The thing to remember though, is you don’t have to be able to see every step on the path clearly. All you really need is a good head lamp in the form of a clear milestone or next step to take. As long as you have this headlamp, you can keep moving forward, even if things are a little dark and tough.

The challenge: How can you keep your headlamp focused on the immediate next step, so you can keep going?

Bonus thought: I can’t remember where I saw this, but it’s always stuck with me. I saw a presentation about how to successfully drive organizational change management. They said you needed 3 things: A clear vision of where you’re going, a clear why that people can rally around, and an IMMEDIATE next step the audience can take toward that vision. If folks get stuck, it’s because you don’t have those 3 things.

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Assessing Progress, Lifting, and Adjusting Training (5-17-23)

This will be in the last in the series inspired by lifting weights. This week is about assessing your progress, lifting, and making adjustments to your training.

This past weekend I completed Highlander Assault Dark Ages, a 4-mile obstacle course race that you do at night guided by a headlamp. One of my favorite parts of racing is that it enables you to assess your performance, and what led to that performance. You either completed an obstacle or you didn’t. If you did, was it as easy as you wanted it to be? If you didn’t, did you lack the strength, technique, or something else? I had some areas I felt great about. My legs felt fresh through the entire race. I felt strong, flipping tires and carrying heavy stuff felt easier than it has in the past. I also had some good failures. I still didn’t make it up the rope, but I made it farther than I have before. I have technique and strength gaps here. I had a couple monkey bar like obstacles that I failed. I still don’t have the grip strength I need. After I reflected on my performance, I looked at my lifting/training plan. It served me well in some areas, but there are other areas I need to tweak to get even better.

You might be wondering what this has to do with anything. In my obstacle course racing story, I completed a race, assessed my wins/losses, and then updated a training plan to make me better for next time. I’ll execute this updated training plan until my next race, and then start the cycle all over again. How often do you do this at work? How often do you pause to honestly assess your performance? When you do, how much time do you spend reflecting on what got you there? How often do you create a plan that helps you develop new skills and techniques? I think we could all do better at this. I know I could.

The challenge: Are you assessing your progress? How are you adjusting to become even stronger?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Why are our Challenges Challenging? (11-30-22)

I hope you had a fabulous Thanksgiving. We are winding down for the year, so the next few entries will be things to think about as you wrap up. This week is about reflecting on why our challenges were challenging this year.

As you might know, obstacle course racing is my new hobby. Let me be clear. I’m not good at these races. I fail a lot of obstacles and I’m slow. With that said, usually I can get up and over the 6-foot wall obstacle with little difficulty. I have the strength and skill to do that one (other obstacles, not so much 😉) Recently, I completed a race in Arizona. When I got to the 6-foot wall I struggled a few times before I got over it. I started thinking about why I had an issue with something that I can normally do on the first try. I realized a few things. Usually, the 6-foot wall is one of the first obstacles and happens early in the race around mile 1. Also, I was used to races in the Midwest where I was running on dirt and grass. This particular 6-foot wall came around mile 3, after I had completed other obstacles and spent a fair amount of time running on loose sand. Clearing the 6-foot wall on its own is challenging, but doable. Clearing the 6-foot wall after getting through a series of challenges BEFORE I ever got there, made it more difficult because my legs and body were more tired than usual.

What does this have to do with anything? As we finish the year, we likely will have some kind of end of year discussion. During this time, you’ll likely be asked to talk about your successes as well as the areas where you struggled and could improve. When you think about those areas where you could have improved, spend time thinking about why it was difficult. Was it difficult because you didn’t have the knowledge or skillset to do it? Or was it something you normally could have done, but it became a challenge since it came after so many other obstacles that popped up in your path? As I reflect, there were some things I didn’t do as well as I had hoped, because they were new to me. There were other situations where I had the skills and talent to handle them well, but since they came at the end of a slew of barriers, I didn’t handle them as well as I could have. As you can see, these are two different root causes for why you could struggle with something, and each root cause has its own set of solutions. I know I’m continuing to reflect on what I can do to improve in each instance.

The challenge: Why did you find certain things challenging this year?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry