Olympic Lessons Part 4 Are we doing the right things to achieve success? (8-24-16)

This will be the final entry in the series on the Olympics. We’ve looked at leadership and alignment (rowing), gymnastics and finding your purpose, and trust and teamwork (soccer). I’d like us to finish this series by asking ourselves one question. “Am I doing the right things to achieve success?”

Michael Phelps is the most decorated Olympian of all time. In order to become one of the best swimmers of all time, he spent hours on the uneven bars and doing floor routines. Wait. That’s not right. That’s gymnastics. He spent hours working on his foot speed and agility. That’s not right. That’s the soccer players. Michael Phelps understood that he was competing in swimming events, so he spent time doing drills and building muscles that would enable him to become a great swimmer. In order to achieve success, he had to focus on doing the right things. If he would have focused on doing gymnastics workouts he probably wouldn’t be a great swimmer and I’m guessing he wouldn’t have been great at gymnastics either 😉

How does this connect to work? We are focused on winning a gold medal with HCPs, payers, and patients. As our world changes, do we know what event we are actually competing in? Are we swimming? Are we playing soccer? Are we performing gymnastics routines? Depending on the customer we are supporting individuals might be competing in different events, so we might need different skillsets. That’s okay, because we are all on the same team. After we know what event we are competing in, are we focused on doing the right things that will build our skills to help us win? How often do we waste time on things that won’t make us better and won’t help us win in life? As leaders, what are we doing to make sure we stay focused on doing the right things?

Besides our day to day work, the she same thought process can be applied to developing in our career and building our culture. When it comes to our career, do we know what game we are playing? Do we know what game we want to play in the future? Are we working on developing the skills we need, so we can be successful in our current and future areas? As leaders, are we giving people the feedback they need so they know where and how to grow? When it comes to building a culture, do we know what kind of culture we are trying to build? Are we building the culture that will help us win where we want to win? As a leader, are we making sure we focus on rewarding and recognizing the right behaviors to build this culture?

The challenge: Are you doing the right thing to achieve success? Are you ensuring others do the right things to achieve success?

Have a jolly good day and congrats team USA,

Andrew Embry

Olympic Lessons Part 3 Soccer, Teamwork, Trust, and Empowerment (8-17-16)

Last week was about gymnastics and knowing your center. This week’s entry is inspired by a conversation I had with a friend and looks at teamwork, trust, and empowerment by looking at Olympic soccer vs. little kid soccer. Have you ever watched little kids play soccer? When they aren’t picking blades of grass for no reason they are all running after the ball. The entire team runs in a huddle in the direction of the ball with all of them trying their best to kick it in the direction of the goal. There’s no passing. No teamwork. Just a mass of kids chasing a ball around, because everyone thinks they have to kick the ball.

Contrast that image with Olympic soccer. In higher levels of soccer you don’t see a herd of people running after the ball. Over time the individuals have proven that they excel at soccer, so instead of a mass of people chasing a ball, the individuals play their positions. They have trust in their teammates to play their roles. The individuals on the team are empowered to do what they need to do in order to help the team win. Individuals perform their role, playing defense and offense, shifting and moving, passing and scoring. This all comes together to execute the team’s game plan, which eventually leads to a win.

What does soccer have to do with work? How often do you work on something only to have it checked on by a million people at every step? People come out of the woodwork to look at your stuff and offer feedback, even if you don’t ask for the feedback. If you think about it, this is kind of like kids playing soccer, where everyone is moving in a herd chasing a ball, so everyone can kick it. How effective and efficient is it? Contrast this with the times where you’ve been on teams where you were truly empowered and trusted to do your job. Think of the times you have had freedom to roam, play your position, and then bring things back to the team when it made sense to do so. How much better is your engagement in these situations? How much better is your work?

In a consensus based culture it’s easy to fall into the habit of giving everyone the chance to touch everything, but is that really the best thing for us? Is it really the best thing for patients? The challenge: Are you truly trusting and empowering those around you or are you forcing everyone to run and kick the ball?

Have a jolly good day and go team USA,

Andrew Embry

Olympic Lessons Part 2 Gymnasts and Finding your Center (8-10-16)

Last week we started a series on the Olympics with a look at rowing and alignment. This week we’ll look at gymnastics and knowing your center.

The things gymnasts are able to do are absolutely mind blowing. They can do flips and twists during their floor routines. They turn and spin while on a balance beam that is 4 inches wide and 4 feet off the ground. They fly through the air, turning on the parallel bars. They vault through the air becoming looping tornados. Just thinking of all of this makes me dizzy.

The spinning is impressive. Even more impressive is that they stick the landings. How do they do this? They do this because they have spent years training their body to be in balance. They have spent years finding their center of gravity and learning how to maintain their balance through an assortment of twirling and whirling circumstances.

How does this connect to life? Life is all about spinning you around. It throws you on balance beams and asks you to walk a fine line as winds blow. Life asks you to vault through the air taking risks, twisting as you fly. Life swings you around in circles like the parallel bars. In order to stick the landing, you need to know your center, your purpose. This is the thing that keeps you in line as you spin.

How does this connect to work? It’s the same concept. This time it is the changing environment and landscape that is making you spin. It’s the ruling you didn’t see coming. It’s the growing power of the payer. It’s the trend of integration. This is where your purpose of helping that specific patient comes in. This is where your purpose on your team comes into play. The more clarity you have on who you are, where you fit, and what you’re trying to accomplish, the better your center of gravity, and the higher the chance of you sticking that landing!

The challenge: Have you found your center? Will you stick the landing?

Have a jolly good day and go Team USA,

Andrew Embry

Olympic Lessons Part 1 Rowing, Alignment, and Leadership (8-3-16)

The summer Olympics run from August 5 through August 21, so this week we will start a series inspired by different Olympic events. Let’s start with rowing and lessons in alignment. We often throw around the cliché that we want to all make sure we are rowing in the same direction. This is our way of saying that we all want to be aligned. I’d like to dive deeper into this common saying.

In case you aren’t an expert at rowing, the set-up is like the picture on the right. You have 8 people rowing and then you have the cox. The cox sits at the stern of the boat steering and coordinates the rhythm and power of the rowing. In the 2004 Olympics the US Men’s rowing team won their first gold medal in 40 years. Take a second and watch part of the race. Click HERE.

If you watch the video you’ll notice a few things. You’ll notice that the rowers have their back to the goal. They can’t see where they are going. You’ll also see how the rowers are all in, doing their individual job to propel the boat forward. You’ll see how synchronized everything is. The team members all put their oars in the water at the same time, row at the same time, remove the oars from the water at the same time, hold the oars the same height over the water, and repeat this process. If you look at the cox you’ll notice that he is always making adjustments to steer the boat and is consistently calling out direction and giving guidance.

How does this connect with work? You could throw me and 7 other rowers in a boat and we could probably figure out how to row in the same direction (it would be ugly though). We could generally be aligned, but this wouldn’t get us anywhere. In order to get somewhere we would have to add power to our alignment. We’d have to find a way for the entire team to be functioning at their best. One slow rower could mess up the entire thing. Are we pushing ourselves, making ourselves stronger, so we can always be playing our role to the best of our ability to drive the larger ship?

Now, let’s connect with the cox. As I mentioned he is continually making minor adjustments and consistently calling out direction, because the rowers have their back to the goal. The rowers can’t see what he sees. How often does a leader share a vision at some meeting and then never revisits it? The leader shares a vision one time with people who can’t see what they see and then expects it to happen. Think about that. The cox would never do something like that in rowing. Leaders need to articulate that vision, over and over and over again. Leaders need to communicate that vision with everything they say and everything they do.

The challenge: As a rower, are you all in, moving with efficiency and strength? As a leader, what is your vision and message? Are you consistently communicating the vision of where we are going?

Have a jolly good day and go team USA!

Andrew Embry