Leadership Thoughts

Everything I know about leadership I learned in a kitchen from; a thirty something Irish American to which I will refer to as Bigfoot, Lupito a thirty year old male Mexican immigrant from Sonora, Claudia a twenty something female Mexican immigrant from Acapulco, and Wadita a 17 year old skinny drug addicted white girl from Phoenix Arizona.

You may be wondering what all these people had in common. We all worked in the same place for about two years, and everyone except Bigfoot I was their leader in a small submarine kitchen in Scottsdale Arizona.

I don’t want to downplay the leadership lessons that I learned from my father, but when away from his mentorship I undoubtably had to learn by experience for his lessons to sink in.

Bigfoot taught me by example, by that I mean he lead by example. You damn well better keep up with his work output or you’d certainly hear about it. And if you did hear about it, it was in passing before you had a chance to respond, leaving you with your thoughts of shame and frustration because he was right.

He was organized, extremely organized, so organized knew when a product was slightly overused by a mere percentage point, and knew everything there was to know about our little corner of the world. Which made it difficult to argue with the man because you knew he did his homework. Also he taught me the importance of being on time as a leader.

People are expecting you to get your stuff done in accordance with theirs, if you are behind everyone is behind. He is the reason I wake up before my alarm goes off and the reason I get frustrated with people who show up late. He also taught me the art of subtle sarcasm. He taught me how to run a kitchen, more importantly to lead a group of people. For all of these things, I am grateful.

Lupito taught me about my failures and one success. He did such a good job at pointing out my shortcomings he forced me to educate myself to get better at being a leader. And he didn’t keep his opinions to himself, if I wanted an honest answer ask Lupito. It didn’t take me long to not be surprised by what he said either.

His two biggest lessons to me were so completely different but both had such an impact on me as a leader. ‘it’s your fault’ I can still see and hear him say it. Yelling at Lupito about something I had not taught him was the wrong thing to do, ‘it’s your fault’ was his response. But he was right. I was frustrated he didn’t know whatever

it was I wanted him to know, but I hadn’t taught him so I could only be mad at myself. So if he was lacking I any area, it was immediately my fault, no one else’s but my own.

Being a punk twenty year old, recently promoted to kitchen manager, and in culinary school this was very humbling. Mostly because of Lupito being the hardest working and craziest dude I’ve ever known. To disappoint him in the way I was leading was a total discouragement. So I educated myself on how to be a good leader with books, seeking advice and other leadership stuff.

The other lesson Lupito taught me was to stick with my decisions as a leader. I had an employee who was wishy washy for months. Show up late, do shoddy work, and treated everyone else with disrespect.

One day he didn’t show up at all. I went to his house and found him on a bender. I told him to take three days and show up on time on his next day of work and we will work it out. I said to myself that if he doesn’t show up i’m firing him.

That day came he showed up late, and that was the last straw for me. I canned him on the spot. He threw a fit in rage, threw some things, took his stereo and stormed out. He called me later that day and left a voicemail threatening to kill me. I was on edge for months, I kept a bat by my bed for years afterword and kept other defensive tools in my truck. To this day i’m still looking over my shoulder.

When this kid threw a fit, Lupito didn’t waver almost seemed rather cynical about it. ‘We didn’t need him anyway’ he said. And prior to that I wondered if it was the right thing to do, and at that point I knew I had made the right decision because it took care of the team, and Lupito let me know. And for these I am grateful.

Claudia taught me about how hard work needs to be recognized and appreciated. Claudia wasn’t the best cook, but she did the work and kept her head down and got shit done when we were in the weeds. (‘In the weeds’ in a kitchen means, you are so backed up that you are so busy/backed up you are close to mental breakdown and food preparation failure) Claudia never broke. Never. She slowed down, but she never cracked under the pressure. She just took the time to make time to get shit right.

Claudia started a few months after Jose humbled me so by this time I knew I had to show my appreciation for claudias hard work. Which by learning Spanish, that Jose taught me, I was able to learn what type of music Claudia liked. So for one hour each day she worked, we listened to just that, and she loved it. And her productivity skyrocketed. Also I learned from Claudia how to politely fix issues with productivity with respect. Respect goes a long way and I learned that with all my employees. It almost instantly fixes problems.

Wedita was the first person I took under my wing and began to teach skills in the kitchen that I had learned from others and culinary school. She wanted at the time
to go to Chicago for culinary school, but I think that might have changed. Wedita taught me about how I would later on judge my ability of a leader. She taught me that the success of the people that I have influenced/lead gave me great pride and happiness. Almost more than my own success, and also the importance of leadership in this way. This is probably hands down IMHO the best thing about leadership, watching those you have taught/lead make successes of themselves.

I still pay attention to what Wedita does, and have seen her struggle, but I am proud to see her getting her shit together. She still asks me if She can use me as a reference, which maybe means I did something right to help her, I always tell her absolutely. Although no one ever calls me about her, I would hands down tell them that she is one of the hardest workers that I know and an absolute pleasure to be around. Both of which are true.

Although I’m not in a formal leadership position now at work, all of these lessons I still apply as a fireman. And because I don’t have a title I know I don’t need it to be a leader. I had forgotten most of these lessons, a hard pill to swallow. But a pleasant reminder of my life as a line cook pirate in submarine kitchens was reintroduced when I re-read my favorite book ‘Kitchen Confidential’ by Anthony Bourdain, and also reading ‘it’s your ship’ D. Micheal Abraschoff.

I guess my take away last from this would be, don’t forget where you came from. How could I forget everything about kitchen life, I did it for almost ten years.

And try to remember the good things about what you’ve done in the past to help you in times of uncertainty in your current position.

Also don’t be afraid of the weeds. Slow down, keep your head down and do shit the right way.