Kitchen Confidential: What 80s Restaurant Life Taught Me About Leadership

My dad was a chef.

In the 80s, when it was his custody week, he’d lug a 13-inch TV into the restaurant kitchen for me. I’d sit in his closet office, sneak bacon from the prep pile, and eventually get put to work slicing maraschino cherries.

He was the only Chef. There were cooks and dishwashers, but only one Chef. He was considered a worthy investment by the owners, expected to carry the load alone.

He did everything: menus, budgets, hiring, soothing patrons, and cooking the meals. His staff was competent, but none were enabled to share the burden of strategic success.

They never wanted him to take a day off. Why? Because without him, it was chaos. The restaurant could open, but it couldn’t perform.

I was thinking about this recently after reading about a Private Equity firm that focuses exclusively on developing "Star CEOs" for their portfolio companies.

Smack my forehead. This approach, focusing only on the top leader(s), is faulty.

It’s like assuming you can put one trained Chef in a kitchen, and a staff of cooks will magically produce 5-star meals just by standing next to them.

The CEO sets the tone. But they rely on an entire organization to enact the strategy, manage the client relationships, and run the engineering, sales, and support divisions.

Especially during a merger, acquisition, or restructuring, we assume that if the C-Suite is strong, the rest of the organization will follow their guidance and succeed.

But if the layers below the C-suite aren’t skilled, aligned, and supported, the strategy will fail.

I wrote more about this Star Fallacy and why investing in middle management is the only way to meet investor commitments. 

Prepare your 'Line Cooks' (Managers) to execute the Chef's (C-Suite) vision. If you are looking to secure your strategic goals by aligning the layers of your organization, DM me. Let’s discuss how to support your team beyond the C-Suite.