How To Be a Better Chef….Leader of Cooks

I humbly wish I had learned this a long time ago.  I sincerely wish others would learn this now.

Our last day of class at the CIA featured a lecture on leadership.  As a former president of the largest advertising agency in the United States, our teacher is currently on the Board of Trustees at CIA.  He is a keen wine enthusiast and consultant with many restaurants in New York City as well as the West Coast.  He knows his food and his people.   These are my take-away notes from the time he spent with us on Friday afternoon.  I believe it should be shared.

Leadership Features:

• Show you care. Be Compassionate. To Everyone.
• People listen to your words and try to understand what you said.  Be Specific.
• People watch everything you do and evaluate how you do things.
• People want you to lead them.
• Be technically proficient.  Be better, faster, cleaner than your people at their jobs but never wield that as power.
• Know yourself and constantly seek improvement.
• Know your people and look out for their welfare.
• Keep your people informed.  Transparency on all matters builds relationships.
• Train people as a team.
• Develop a sense of accountability, ownership, and responsibility within everyone you work with.
• Take responsibility for all of your actions.  Everything is your fault.
• Tell more stories, the context makes it easier to interalize values and lessons.
• Have a purpose.  Define that purpose clearly.  Have a purpose.