If you are a regular reader of Cowardly Leadership-Up Close and Personal, you know that I usually reference another post by a recognized Leader: Simon Sinek, or Gen David Petraeus, or Secretary of Defense James Mattis, or even investor James Altucher.
This week, these are my analogies and my metaphors. I’m taking full ownership of eggs.
EGGS
You remember how Forest Gump kept repeating, “Life is like a box of chocolates?”
Imagine a chef with a carton of eggs. What that Chef does with those eggs depends, to a great degree, on how creative, innovative, safe, or conservative he or she is. He can keep them in the carton, put them away and ensure that nothing changes. Or, he can make the decision to change them, and by doing so, make them better than if they were merely left raw.
Cowardly leaders have just as many eggs to cook as anyone else. But because their primary focus is on maintaining the status quo and stifling innovation, not testing any boundaries, they prefer eggs to stay just as they were when they first arrived: in the carton, unchanged, with their full potential untapped. In Cowardly And Courageous Leadership I talk about how Courageous Leaders make tough choices- the difficult, but correct choice over the easy, but poor choice.
If you are in a position of authority, power, and leadership, what you do with your eggs depends, to a great degree, on whether you are a cowardly leader, or a Real Leader.
SCRAMBLED
New York Times Journalist Adam Bryant wrote a column called The Corner Office which had been a popular feature for over ten years. His premise: To sit down with CEOs, and intentionally not talk about their companies; but instead, talk about leadership. He published his last Corner Office column a few weeks ago, and compiled some common themes he learned from the very best corporate leaders.
Bryant said the best career advice he heard from a decade of interviews came from Joseph Plumeri, the Vice Chairman of First Data Corporation. Plumeri’s advice:
Play in Traffic.
Plumeri said: If you go push yourself out there and you see people and do things and participate and get involved, something happens.
So what does this have to do with scrambled eggs and cowardly leadership?
Real Leaders like Plumeri and many of the others that Bryant interviewed 
understand the value of breaking some eggs.
Something is going to happen if you play in traffic.
OVER EASY
Cowardly leaders are uncomfortable with letting eggs out of the carton in the first place. Keeping them in their place, just as they were brought in, means that the cowardly leader stays in control. There is no questioning who is in authority. The “over easy” way of managing.
Even when an egg is or two is taken out, the best that can be hoped for is something easy.
Over easy.
Nothing that requires adding ingredients, introducing new elements or combining the talents of other foods in the kitchen that could make the final product much better.
WHAT GREAT CHEFS-AND LEADERS-DO
Over ten years, Adam Bryant interviewed hundreds of leaders. He found that there were three common attributes that every great CEO possessed:
- The best CEO’s were obsessively curious
- They loved a good challenge
- They focused on doing their current job as well as possible.
Don’t great Chefs think the same way regarding the eggs in their kitchen? Great Chefs, and Great Leaders, are:
- Obsessively curious- They are continually looking for new and innovative ways to use their resources. How can this dish, meal, or experience be made better? How can I break, mix, and enhance the eggs so that the final product is better than what it was before?
- Always Looking for a Challenge- Great Chefs, and Real Leaders, don’t dodge a challenge. They don’t adhere to the status quo. If one thing defines cowardly leadership, it is the hesitancy to do anything new and different, for fear they may be criticized.
- Passionate About Excellence in Their Current Job- Every job is constantly and continuously changing. That is why continuing education in most professions is required- in order for those who are truly professional to stay on top of trends and best practices. Are there better ways to cook (manage), prepare (train), store (provide a quality work environment), purchase (hire)? Real Chefs and Real Leaders find out and implement them.
As a Chef, think of the eggs in your kitchen, and how great a Chef- and Leader- you want to be.
With acknowledgement to Marcel Schwantes in Inc. Magazine
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