Ever since I was a little boy in my mom’s kitchen, I’ve loved to cook. My mother always said the key to cooking is to not be afraid but to jump right into a recipe. As I grew up I would cook for friends at college, drop off healing dishes to sick neighbors, grill for volunteers and board members, and host food-centered gatherings of all kinds at our house. We have proclaimed for the past few years now that Thanksgiving, my wife’s favorite holiday, will be taking place at our house allowing us the control of the most important dishes: turkey and mashed potatoes!
Let me be clear, I am no Michelin chef, but I know how to make a good meal with the basic ingredients in most kitchens.
Like cooking, leadership requires us to not be afraid and to jump right in. Additionally, with some basic ingredients like trust, teamwork, timing and transformational change, most anyone can start to become a good leader.
Good food is all about timing, intention, and a willingness to experiment. Leadership is no different. So, this holiday, let’s take a detour from boring leadership jargon and straight into the heart of the kitchen—a place where raw ingredients transform into something magic.
Great leadership, like great food, can feed the soul.
Here are the essential ingredients for the perfect leadership dish:
INGREDIENTS
Trust (The Stock): The base for any leader and team - simple but impossible to fake.
Mission, Values, and Vision (The Key Ingredients): This is the “mirepoix” of most leadership dishes.
Adaptability (The Secret Sauce): Keeps the recipe flexible—add more when things get spicy.
Resilience (The Slow Simmer): What holds everything together when times get tough.
Pro Tip: Don’t skimp on Trust. Without it, the dish falls flat.
INSTRUCTIONS
Trust is the most essential yet delicate ingredient in leadership, serving as the foundation for all relationships and decisions. To build and maintain trust, leaders must balance character and competency. Character—rooted in integrity and intent—reflects your moral compass and genuine care for others. Competency—defined by capabilities and results—demonstrates your ability to deliver on promises and meet expectations. Broken trust almost always stems from a failure in one of these areas, and rebuilding it requires addressing the root cause directly. Like a stock that enriches over time, trust must be nurtured with intentionality through consistent actions, honest communication, and delivering results that align with your values.
Mission, values, and vision form the “mirepoix”—the flavorful base of leadership. Just as onions, carrots, and celery provide depth to a stew, these three elements infuse purpose and clarity into every action and decision. A clear mission focuses the team on who we are, what we do, for whom we serve, and "why" we do what we do. Values are the heartbeat of our team and reflect our assumptions and beliefs, especially about our relationships, serve as a decision-making guide and a source of energy, and shape the behavior of the team. Vision requires creating dissatisfaction with the status quo, developing a clear and compelling image of where we are going, and growing support from leadership and followers. Together, they infuse purpose and alignment into every action. Without this trio, leadership feels hollow. When balanced, they ground the leader and team and give meaning to the work.
Adaptability is what keeps leadership agile, responsive, and primed for innovation. In an ever-changing world, it’s not enough to stick rigidly to a plan; great leaders know how to pivot without losing focus. According to Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author and scholar known for his work on uncertainty and risk in books like The Black Swan and Antifragile, adaptability aligns closely with the concept of "antifragility"—systems and people that grow stronger, not weaker, under stress. Adaptive leaders don’t just react to challenges; they use them as opportunities to experiment, learn, and evolve. This ability to flex—whether in response to a sudden shift in priorities or an unexpected external event—is like a sauce that ties disparate ingredients into a harmonious dish. Pro Tip: Fostering adaptability means modeling flexibility yourself, empowering your team to take calculated risks, and encouraging an open mindset that embraces learning from failure.
Resilience is the backbone of leadership (and most dishes), providing the grit and endurance needed to see teams through difficult times. Research from psychologists like Angela Duckworth, author of Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, highlights resilience—or "grit"—as a core predictor of long-term success. Resilience isn’t just about bouncing back from setbacks; it’s about learning, growing, practicing, experimenting and becoming stronger in the process. Like a slow-simmered stew, resilience builds depth and richness over time, allowing teams to weather storms without falling apart. Resilient teams understand their "why" (mission and purpose), trust in their leaders, and know how to regulate emotions under pressure. Pro Tip: Build resilience by fostering psychological safety, celebrating small wins during challenging times, and equipping your team with the tools and support they need to thrive, even in adversity.
Prep Time: 6 months to a year
Cook Time: A lifetime
