Tag Archives: teamwork

October 18, 2019 · 2:45 pm

The Sides

This Foodie Friday, I want to discuss what is a sometimes-overlooked ingredient in a successful meal – the sides. I’ve got a friend who shows up for dinner every so often and the question is never “what are you making?” but “what are the sides?” That got me to thinking.

You probably haven’t given much thought to the role that side dishes play. First of all, they can help balance out the nutrition of your meal. I’ll plead guilty to being very “main” focused (you can read that as “protein”). Making a smart choice about serving a seasonal veggie or a salad or a roasted root puree of some sort can support the main dish in a way that actually improves it. Think mashed potatoes and meatloaf, for example. Many really good sides require very little work and can be prepped and assembled while the main is cooking.

There is actually research that bears out the importance of side dishes to restaurant diners. A research company published a report in 2013 called…

The Starters, Small Plates & Sides Consumer Trend Report, which details the importance of side dishes in the consumer’s choice of entree. 36% of consumers stated they selected an entree based upon the accompanying sides, and 46% stated they were less likely to order an entree if it came with an accompanying side they disliked. In addition, about 45% of consumers prefer familiar sides over unfamiliar sides. Sides can make or break an entree.

So there you go. Of course, the same is very true in business. Every team has its “mains” but every team also needs its sides. I have rarely found any star manager in business who also didn’t surround him- or herself with a phenomenal bunch of people that might not have been stars themselves but served to make the entire team better. These folks – analysts, accountants, and others – are the ones who usually aren’t front and center but who make the business successful, just as the sides make the main shine and the meal a success.

Our job as managers, much like that of a skilled chef, is to figure out the accompanying sides. I’ve sat with many clients who point out after some business development star has come to pitch them that the “star” isn’t going to work on their business day to day. It will be the “sides”. The smart clients always asked about that, often wanting to meet the people who would be on the account day to day. I know I usually asked about that as well when I got pitched by an outside firm. If the sides weren’t very good, I’d usually pass on the rest of the “meal.”

Don’t ignore your team’s sides. You’re only as good as they are!

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September 6, 2019 · 3:12 pm

Cooking With Kids

What could be more fun on a Foodie Friday than cooking with kids? Mine are grown, of course, but I always loved the weekend because that was when we’d often find the time to get in the kitchen and cook together. As it turns out, there is something to be learned about business from this.

I think one benefit of getting children in the kitchen at a young age is that they begin to learn another language. While English was the language in our home, the language of food and cooking was another that the kids learned early on. Understanding what terms like simmer and boil meant and how they were different taught them precision. Learning the difference between dice, chop and even chiffonade helped them with knife skills, spatial relationships, and relative size.

Improving small motor skills is another benefit that kids get as they learn to use a knife or to crack an egg without shattering it or even to measure a cup of flour properly. Then there are the obvious benefits of learning what things taste like and being able to describe what they were tasting as well as what they liked and disliked. Finally, they were learning some science without thinking they were in class. Understanding, for example, that pancakes rise because of baking powder bubbles. Did I tell them it was because of an acid-base reaction that released carbon dioxide? Come on – they were kids! But they knew it made bubbles and the bubbles popped leaving the little holes they’d see in their pancakes.

This sort of process is exactly the one good managers need in business. New employees have to learn the language not just of business generally but of your specific company. Working alongside them, demonstrating and explaining as you go, is the only way they will get properly informed. Letting them do simple tasks, just as you might have kids stir and pour rather than dice and saute, lets them get a solid footing and the confidence to take on more complicated endeavors. It was always a mystery to me why some managers just sat new employees at a desk and then wondered why they weren’t being especially productive several months later. Unless you “cook” with them, they will probably never become all that they could be.

I think the main thing I got from cooking with my kids was a bond. Not only had we done something together but we’d made something together that we and others could enjoy. It’s the same in the office. Think back about the last time you were the new kid. Wouldn’t it have been nice to have someone take the time to build that bond with you as well as to help you produce your first great work?

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April 10, 2019 · 12:55 pm

Circular Firing Squads

One thing that used to amaze me without fail was when a room full of intelligent people would form a circular firing squad and shoot away. OK, so it’s not literally true, but you know what I mean and you’ve probably been in one or more of these situations yourself.

Photo by Holger Link

It happens when someone surfaces an idea or an argument that deviates from the conventional wisdom or thinking on an issue. Instead of evaluating the new thinking on its merits, people start taking potshots at one another. They should be united against a common “enemy” – the competition, for example, or a big problem. Instead, they attack one another.

I’m not really sure how one combats this. I always used to raise ideas along with all of the flaws inherent in what I was espousing. By showing that I understood the weaknesses in my thinking I was also showing that I could be balanced and not delusional enough to think that every idea I had was gold. What I was hoping for was for others to focus on the good parts of my thinking instead of spending time trying to surface the problems because I had already done that.

Whenever possible, I’d draw pictures of some sort – Venn diagrams, flow charts, whatever – because I believe that pictures are more easily understood, even those drawn by a person with zero artistic ability (me). The goal was always to get the team standing back to back, rifles pointed out at the problem and away from pointing inward at one another.

Creating an environment where new ideas flourish is one of the biggest management challenges. Keeping the team focused on the big goals and not on taking pot shots at one another to further their personal goals is another one. What’s above are some of the ways I do that. How do you do that?

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