The column "Leadership Whiteboard" provides a short visual leadership coaching moment. It introduces and explains a new sketch in each issue, provides leadership coaching for further development, and shares a leadership quote and recommended resources.
Steak Sauce or Tartar Sauce?
Warning: this piece may challenge or offend your culinary preferences, but at the least it will make you hungry. Picture this: I order fish at a restaurant, and the server asks if I want tartar sauce. I can barely conceal my judgment. Why would anyone ruin fish with a dollop of dill-laden mayo?
Then it hits me: I sit in the seat of the scorned sometimes when I reach for steak sauce.
Ordering steak has an uncanny ability to categorize you and your culinary companions. Think of all the available cuts: chopped steak, sirloin, hanger, ribeye, porterhouse, filet, or tenderloin. You select the level of doneness (anything beyond medium, and you might as well settle for a bag of beef jerky, in my opinion). Next, you choose the preparation: grilled, smoked, or pan-seared. If you cook your ribeye in an airfryer, stop reading now; we are no longer friends. Just kidding…almost.
The way we enjoy our steak, like many things, is shaped by our culture and honed over time. Culture is the preference of preparation, but strategy is eating the same “Grade A Beef” in different ways.
The famous aphorism (often attributed to Peter Drucker) says, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”
However, healthy leaders use strategy to change the culture. The Bonhoeffer Project teaches, “The gospel you preach determines the disciples you make.” Do not be the leader who sees only the preferred outcome without contemplating various implications or unintended consequences of the strategic change. To paraphrase the Bonhoeffer Project, the strategy we champion will influence or determine our future culture. Therefore, be less critical of culture and more attentive to strategy.
It is possible to think you are changing culture when you are “stargazing” at cultural upheaval. What if your favorite restaurant, Tony’s Steakhouse, suddenly transforms into Antonio’s Italian Grill, trading steaks for spaghetti to the delight of some and the dismay of others? Let’s be more concerned with this kind of strategic change rather than with someone asking for A1. After all, their overdone steak will need that extra flavor.
