Lessons from Chopped!
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"Success is about ingredients and execution." ~ Thomas Keller
Great cooks produce their finest creations when they have control over both the ingredients and the process. That's how great dinner parties happen. As a boss, you can achieve almost anything if you can pick your team and have all the time you need to prepare and get the job done.
OK, stop laughing. If you're a boss, you know that most of the time you work with the team and resources you have while you race to meet a ridiculous deadline. For you, my friend, it's like an episode of the TV show "Chopped!"
On that show, contestants have to prepare dishes from a set of ingredients in a "mystery basket" in a half hour or so. The basket includes ingredients that you wouldn't normally consider, like hard candies for an entrée. And, at least once a show the name of some ingredient sets me googling to find out what the heck it is.
If you're the boss, how do you deal with that? You didn't pick the team. You have no control of the deadline.
Build on the strengths of your team. Use what team members do well to drive performance.
Make their weaknesses irrelevant. Everyone has weaknesses and it would be great to eliminate them, but most of the time you have to work around them.
Stick to the basics. Don't try something new and fancy when you're under the gun. Go with what works.
Taste your dish. Go and see. Check. Don't leave things to chance or the last minute. Check your work and your plan while you still have time to make changes.
Boss's Bottom Line
Don't worry about what you can't control. Don't wail about the unfairness of it all. Concentrate on what you and your team can do and get the job done.
Wally's Working Supervisor's Support Kit is a collection of information and tools to help working supervisors do a better job. It's based on what Wally's learned in over twenty years of supervisory skills training. Click here to check it out.
Categories: Supervision, Boss, Management, Leadership
Tags: Leadership Management Supervision Boss
We love that show and the management implications are unending. For me it boils down to:
1) Know your business fundamentals so well that you can figure out what to do with something you're never seen before. (Chopped: This furscatzen tastes like beet, therefore I can make my famous beet stew with it.") [Business: No one in business has seen or experienced everything. Not even the major stuff.]
2) Develop your own unique style, but be able to switch (or add) styles if you need to. (Chopped: Nothing but chiles and peppers in the basket. Looks like I'm cooking TexMex...Chicago style.) [Business: Do what you do well, but be prepared to adapt your approach to what the customer or your co-workers need.]
3) Respect everyone around you, not just the judges. [(Chopped and Business: Your attitude shows. If it shows too negative, it gets included in the grading, whether it should be or not.)]
Thanks bringing this insight up!
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Man, Kirk! I should have let you write the post. Thanks for those great comments.
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Hi Wally,
Agree with all, but especially the part about weaknesses. I'm always surprised when leaders expect their team to be as perfect as they believe themselves to be. People are like anything else -- they have good uses and bad. It's a reflection on the leader if he puts them to an inappropriate use.
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Thanks, Greg. I like that line "as perfect as they believe themselves to be." I think it's also important that the objective is to make weaknesses irrelevant, not necessarily eliminate them.
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Wally,
I love that show!
The thing that amazes me is that these folks see ingredients and in the course of 20 or 30 minutes make something that will impress the heck out of some culinary experts. Sometimes it takes me 20 minutes just to think of something to do with those ingredients, let alone do anything about it!
My perception is that this ability to "riff on the fly" is the mark of an expert, an artist, and someone who is passionate enough about their profession to live it all the time.
I am not sure I agree with your stick to the basics comment. One of the three factors in that show is creativity, and it seems to me that a lot of the Chopped winners move out of their comfort zones to some extent. The ones who get bacon and eggs and make breakfast get chopped. The ones who "re-purpose" the ingredients (love that phrase!) usually win.
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You make a good point, David. I wasn't clear enough about that. I meant sticking to the basics in terms of techniques that you know and have mastered. The time to try using liquid nitrogen is not when you're under pressure. Thanks for the catch and the comment.
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