Sizzle - Summer 2012

can you
manage
yourself?
Ever known an ignorant, know-
it-all boss so self-infatuated
that he or she fails to see the
surrounding realities, so the
team bombs? As Ligouri puts it,
“You cannot give what you do
not have.”

“History’s great achievers— a Napoléon, a da Vinci, a Mozart— have always managed themselves,” says Peter Drucker in “Managing Oneself” in HBR’S 10 Must-Reads: The Essentials.

Columbia College Chicago’s Nicholson tells us that, “According to current leadership theory, two of the most important functions of the leader are structuring the work and coaching the team members.” Still, nobody can perform these crucial functions while having a meltdown.

Kitchens can be emotional
hotbeds for everyone, says
Kleiman. “Employees can be
full of fear concerning possible
job loss or lack of necessary
skills. And apathy can kill
a kitchen in which there is
little or no opportunity for
advancement,” he says, adding
anger and aggression to his list
of common emotions that can

be hotter than our stoves. Chefs must successfully regulate their own emotions before they can lead.

Johnson advises leaders to hold
back from decision-making in
the heat of the moment. Instead
of plunging forward, he suggests
leaders take a step back (at least
24 to 72 hours, depending on
the circumstances), taking due
diligence to assess. This
often leads to better relationships
and more positive results.

While fear of the chef no longer motivates employees to toe the line, today’s culinary leaders must know themselves, human nature, and their industry and craft. “Employees want a positive work environment and room for growth and advancement,” Ligouri says. “My research shows that culinary professionals want feedback and recognition. They also want to be respected and trusted. Money is not a primary motivator.”

True leaders are not infallible, invincible knights in shining armor or arrogant know-it-alls who act like tantrum-throwing children. “Calling someone an idiot because he or she doesn’t know how to grind up fenugreek seeds is not leadership,” Kleiman says.

Ethel Hammer is a writer, lecturer and cartoonist based in Chicago.

followers have power, too

managing
your mon y
NEXT
ISSUE

While America romances
leadership, the role of followers
is just as crucial and far
more important than most
people think, according to
Barbara Kellerman, James
MacGregor Burns Lecturer in
Public Leadership at Harvard
University’s John F. Kennedy
School of Government,
Cambridge, Mass.

In the You Tube video, “Barbara Kellerman on Followership,” Kellerman identifies these five types of followers—who have the power to be agents of change—based on their “level of engagement”:

Isolates: Totally
detached people who
strengthen leaders by
their nonengagement.
Bystanders: Passive
followers who deliberately
withdraw and therefore
wind up supporting the
status quo.