Leadership Essential: Removing Roadblocks

For every failure, there's an alternative course of action. You just have to find it. When you come to a roadblock, take a detour. 

Mary Kay Ash

Cannonball! Always more than 1 way to complete an obstacle.

One of the primary responsibilities of a leader is to remove roadblocks so that people can innovate and move the mission forward.  We are no strangers to roadblocks here at Our Year in the Mud.  We call them obstacles and our objective is to crush them in any way possible.  Change is a difficult process without roadblocks in place.  Unfortunately, leaders often unknowingly put additional roadblocks in the way.  Here are a few of the roadblocks that I have seen put in place by leaders with great intentions.

1. FORMS - People are required to fill out a form for absolutely everything.  These forms could be filled out to document that a meeting took place, a meeting will take place, planning occurred, etc.  If you put a box on a piece of paper it will be filled out. That doesn't mean that anything different will ever take place.  Take a close look at what you are asking people to complete.  Does it match what you say you are about?  What would be different if nobody filled in a form?
2. COMMITTEES - It seems like there is a committee for absolutely everything these days. That is not the true essence of shared leadership.  Always start with your priorities. There shouldn't be a group of people meeting about something or convening a committee if it isn't directly related to a priority.  
3. MEETINGS - I successfully led a building without ever having a staff meeting.  It truly can be done.  Technology can be utilized to convey the messages of traditional staff meetings.  Your schedule tells people what is truly important to you.  Every time you gather a group of individuals, it has to be focused on the mission of the organization. How much time do you currently spend in meetings?  Is there a better, more effective and efficient way to accomplish the task?

These are just a few of the most common roadblocks disguised as organizational improvement structures.  I'm quite sure you can find more at your workplace.

As a leader, keep the following three questions in front of you as you embark on a new year?

What is preventing the necessary changes that need to take place?

How are you contributing to these roadblocks as a leader?

What roadblocks can you move out of the way this year?  

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10 Questions Answered in Miami (Sort Of)

We began a 10 day series that posed a different question that we intended to answer at the Miami Mudder.  Some of these questions involved the team while others were directed at particular team members.  We were able to answer most of the questions in Miami.  A few will follow us to the Mid-Atlantic Mudder.  There is certainly a longer story or post behind each question but the short answers are below.

10.  Will running on both Saturday and Sunday in Miami be as challenging as doing two laps at the Carolina Mudder?

I'm sure DC and Patrick will be weighing in on this one as well.  It was definitely a challenge to run both days even though we actually ran faster the second day.  It could be the fact that we missed all of the official starts and had to make up time on Sunday.  

9.  Can we as a team avoid a major setback on the course?

Yes we can.  There were no major setbacks on either day.  We didn't lose anybody or need the assistance of the medics along the course.

8.  Will Brian overcome his fear of the newest obstacle “Dark Lightning”?

The answer to this question is still up in the air as the obstacle did not make an appearance in Miami.  While that obstacle did not appear we all developed a healthy aversion to the shocking obstacles.  The voltage seemed to be turned up this time on South Beach.  Check out the Amped Up videos here if you need additional proof!

7.  Will Patrick finally remove the monkey from his back by successfully completing the Funky Monkey obstacle?

This question was answered with a resounding "Yes" on both days.  As promised we captured video of this accomplishment which you can find here.

6.  Will DC’s regrouping made easy and regrouping sucks strategies pay off in Miami?

All of the regrouping that was noted through DC's posts paid off in a big way.  The shoulder and knee both held up remarkably across 24 miles and 44 obstacles.

5.  How will not knowing the obstacles and order of events impact our approach on the course?

Honestly, this really did not have a measurable impact.  I enjoyed not knowing what to expect as we went through the course.  

4.  Can we scale Everest without any help from teammates and fellow mudders?

We had a varied degree of success on this one.  Patrick scaled the ramp without assistance while DC's shoulder/knee would prevent his unassisted triumph.  This obstacle is also where it went all downhill for me on Saturday.  I was determined to use the spiderman technique and scale the wall by myself.  I was able to scale the wall by myself but I felt a pop in my calf as I reached the top.  I knew this feeling well because I have torn my calf a couple of times.  This would not spell bad news for "Team Bad News" as we went on to successfully finish Saturday's race and run even faster on Sunday!  

3.  How will the heat impact running the course in Miami?

The heat did not impact the course at all in Miami.  The heat actually did not really make an appearance until late in day 2.  DC and I agree that the first day could have been the coldest mudder ever.  Patrick disagrees since we ran Wintergreen when it was 39 degrees.  The weather ended up being a perfect balance for the obstacles that were placed on the course.

2.  What type of crazy mohawk will DC and I attempt to pull off in Miami?
Miami marked the first ever appearance of the sidehawk for DC.  Patrick had the locks flowing and I went with the standard hawk.  Patrick took pictures and documented it which you can find here.

1.  Will this be the race that we qualify for the World’s Toughest Mudder?
Time will tell with this question.  We put up good times on both days.  We are also developing some strategies for Mid-Atlantic to cut additional time from our run.  Once we qualify you will be the first to know!

We are 45 days away from the next Mudder.  We learned a lot of lessons about ourselves and our team that we will share in the weeks leading up to Mid-Atlantic.

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T-Minus 5 Days: Fear of the Unknown

5.  How will not knowing the obstacles and order of events impact our approach on the course?

We are five days away from our start in Miami and we still haven’t seen a course map.  We typically get a sneak peek at the course outline several weeks ahead of the start.  The maps are not always entirely accurate but you get a glimpse of what the course will bring.  This time will be completely different for us.  We have no idea what the course will look like other than the generic sample map that is included for every course.  I am excited to see the addition of some new obstacles in the events leading up to Miami.  One of the great things about running these courses is that you can test your progress against known obstacles (Funky Monkey, Everest, etc.) while seeing how you can adapt to newer obstacles.  I'd like to put a plug in for the reappearance of the "Twinkletoes" obstacle in Miami.  I need to see if our resident yoga master DC can do the "Warrior 3" across the obstacle. In 5 days we will be heading into Miami with signed death waivers and a very limited knowledge of the challenges that this course will present.  We'll be sure to post the actual course map post-mudder!

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How in the World Did I Get Here?

The old saying that the journey of a thousand miles begins with one single step is certainly true.  For me my journey of a thousand miles began with a single step straight into a mud-filled obstacle challenge that showed me that my life needed to change.

Hold Your Wood - Carolina

I participated in my first Tough Mudder only as a dare from  Patrick whose backstory you can read here.  I did not train for the event at all.  I had actually let my weight balloon and fitness was the furthest thing from my mind.  I had become in my own words "Chunky but Funky".  I even spent the day before the race tailgating at a University of Virginia football game.  This was hardly  a recipe for success but it was an absolute recipe for disaster.  I am the last of the three to post my story to start this journey of "Our Year in the Mud".  This is fitting since Patrick and DC spent most of the first race waiting for me to reach each obstacle so that we can go on.  This exemplifies one of things that draws people to this type of challenge.  Tough Mudder is not a race but a challenge that requires assistance from a team or even perfect strangers.  I'm pretty sure I almost died up in Wintergreen during the first race.  That may be a slight exaggeration which might be a theme that you see during some of these posts.  I do know that I never would have completed it without DC and Patrick.

The humbling experience at the first race inspired me to get in the best shape of my life.  We signed up for a second race and I began training.  This could be considered by many as a mid-life crisis which could be accurate (let the record show I am the youngest of the three) but it is more about three guys who are challenging ourselves to push the limits of what is possible.  During the training for the second race I was able to drop nearly 40 pounds which made running more of a possibility.  I was excited to see what we could do with some intense training.  The second race was in Pennsylvania and our team which expanded to four absolutely crushed the course.  You can see a comparison of me running the same fire walker obstacle at the two races.

Fire Walker - Virginia

Here's a hint:  I wasn't actually running in the first picture.  I was being overcome by smoke because I couldn't move another step.

Fire Walker - Pennsylvania

As guys typically do we decided to raise the bar again.  We set our sights on a third race in South Carolina which would mark the anniversary of our first race attempt.  This time we would run it twice which meant instead of 12 miles and 25 obstacles we would take on nearly 24 miles and 50 obstacles (no exaggeration on this one).  Could I actually go from barely completing the first race to running it twice within the period of one year?   This would motivate me to train even harder.  Working out tends to get boring by itself.  I need a challenge to motivate me and Tough Mudder, Patrick, and DC became that motivation.

This time we expanded the team from 3 to 5 with only 3 being crazy enough to take it on twice.  I'll save the whole South Carolina story for another post but we did manage to complete the course twice, inspire a lot of people in the process, and even save a life.  That's not bad for a day in the mud.  I did end up in the ER but isn't that how you should live your life????

October 2011 - Wintergreen, VA

We now have our sights set on competing in the World's Toughest Mudder.  To accomplish this latest challenge we will crisscross North America competing in Tough Mudders to prepare for the 24 hour race in October 2013.  Our next race is scheduled for Miami in March.  This time we will run on both Saturday and Sunday.  It definitely isn't the way most people would spend their time on a vacation to South Beach.  As you are beginning to find out...we aren't most people.  We'll keep you posted on the training, the races, and even some leadership/education lessons learned along the way!

October 2012, Florence, SC

                                     

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