From the Kitchen to the Corner Office: How Ina Garten Offers Lessons for Leaders
By Karin Stawarky
Ina Garten has lessons that are bigger than how to make “Foolproof” dinners.
If you widen your lens on where leadership lessons come from, they aren’t always authored by a professor from a well-known business school or a famous CEO. They often come from unexpected people, both recognized names and individuals in one’s everyday life.
The last place I would have thought to get a reminder of a leadership lesson was an article in Food Network Magazine. And yet, there it was.
Ina Garten has been on my mind since I read a piece last night about her 20-year anniversary with The Food Network. I’ve been a long-time Ina fan; my Mom bought me Ina’s first cookbook – The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook – when initially published in 1999, long before Ina was a household name. (Mom herself was a spotter of talent). Ina is my go-to for dependably delicious, consistently repeatable recipes.
But Ina is more than her magic with recipes (like her Pan-Fried Onion Dip, a staple). What has been sitting with me is how people talk about Ina. Individuals (celebrities in their own right) in the article comment about feeling “lucky” to have met her; what is striking is that they speak about the qualities of her state of being and what the experience is like to be in her company.
An overarching theme from those reflections is Ina’s authenticity and accessibility, her real-ness. Ina is who she is – the persona seen on TV is who she is experienced to be in person. “Ina is everything you hope she’s going to be, that she appears to be.” Her warmth is married with a strength and there is “a ferocity” to her as well. “She is always true to who she is.”
Individuals remarked on her “humor, wit, intelligence”. Ina’s wit and sense of play was vividly illustrated when she “broke the internet” on April Fool’s Day 2020 in the early days of the pandemic when the world was in lockdown. She posted a short video of herself concocting what looks like cosmopolitans for a crowd. As she’s shaking the mix in the cocktail shaker, she quips: “you have to shake it for 30 seconds. But you have lots of time, it’s not a problem.” She then pours the liquid into one single enormous cocktail glass – so large one needs to hold with both hands. Ina gave a gift of laughter in a time of anxiety, uncertainty, and stress.
In conversations, Ina is experienced as a “wonderful storyteller and even better listener.” She is appreciated for her kindness and her gift “of always making you feel special.” After one friend had Ina and her husband over for a home-cooked dinner, “Ina then took me aside and told me she knew how much work went into this wonderful meal and how much she appreciated it. I was in heaven.”
The Washington Post published an article about Ina Garten in 2018 titled “What is it about Ina Garten?” referencing the notable diversity of her fan base, which currently includes 3.7 million followers on Instagram. What IS it about Ina? From my view, at the heart of it all, it’s about the power of presence and the atmosphere that then gets created - whether the interactions are in-person or virtual - which sparks followership.
Ina popped into my mind when coaching a CEO of a mid-cap corporation this morning. I’ll call him Frank for now. What could Frank and Ina possibly have in common? It turns out, quite a bit.
In other writing I’ve posted, I’ve talked about your ‘weather system’ -- by that I mean the qualities of and energy around how you show up. The power of your weather system can influence the atmosphere of a conversation, a meeting, a gathering or event. And with applied consistency, it can create permanent climate change in the nature of a relationship, or the culture of a team or an organization. The weather of every person can have a multiplier effect. No matter how long or fleeting the interaction, your weather system can leave either a positive glow or a negative residue on those you come in contact with.
Frank, my CEO client, knows this lesson well. In my coaching session with Frank, he reflected that what matters most in having influence and impact centers around your presence and how you show up. As evidence of that lesson, Frank recently received a message from a colleague who commented along the lines of: “Heard you had plenty of energy at the meeting… I heard from a few folks who were there who are all happy to see you and appreciate the energy. You always show up.” Frank acknowledges: “when I am my best self, I know the impact that I have.” By Ina being Ina, she reminds us how effective you can be when you go “Back to Basics”.
Beyond a given interaction, the nature of your weather system also influences your ability to effectively generate and maintain followership. Good leaders have followers - people who follow them because they want to, not because they have to (because of title, etc.). When you generate that kind of voluntary followership, you then create the conditions to invite commitment. Making a commitment is always a personal choice. Commitment begins with people choosing to give you their loyalty, to continue to follow you in the direction you lead. But the magic really happens beyond loyalty. The greatest commitment that a leader can receive is someone choosing to give you their hands (to help you do the work), their heads (to freely share their ideas, creativity, the full extent of their knowledge) AND their hearts (to unleash their passion and energy). With that kind of commitment, any organization can become electric with possibility and results.
Your weather system shapes the atmosphere of the interaction you have with another. Our weather system can send clear messages without us even saying a word. In order for a person to consider giving you their loyalty and then making the commitment to give you their ‘all’, they need to experience three things from you: That you see them. That you hear them. AND that you value them. To truly be seen in that moment, for your voice to be heard and received, and to be appreciated for who you are is a gift.
Frank is ‘tuned in’ to the effect his presence has on his organization and makes conscious, intentional choices about how he enters into conversations with others. Like Ina, he is also thoughtful and deliberate in expressing his appreciation in the moment. Frank’s company recently received a milestone recognition. Frank invited his members of his extended leadership team to participate with him in the event. At one level, participation in such a public event itself signals appreciation – a way of recognizing that you mattered in getting us to this moment. But Frank took this one step further, in a very personal way. Frank decided to hand write thank-you notes to each leader and named specific contributions each made that supported this achievement. Interestingly, Frank wrote these cards on a flight. The flight attendants noticed his activity and asked him what he was doing. He explained his intention and continued writing. As Frank was leaving the plane, one of the flight attendants handed him a small box of chocolates with a note and said: “This is from the crew. We wish we had a CEO who did that for us.”
After the event occurred, Frank shared that one of his team had told him: “This was a once in a lifetime experience for me. Quite possibly the best 48 hours of my career, but what made the trip so memorable was spending time with all of you. Your handwritten note to all of us makes it evidently clear—we’re not just at the right company, we’re working with the right leaders.”
We can get caught up that the lessons of effective leadership must be more complicated, more sophisticated, more advanced. But we are fooling ourselves. At the core, it’s not about strategies, techniques, or frameworks to be learned. It all about you as an instrument in how you relate with others.
Personal Weather System Check: You can ask yourself the following 3 questions to be your own weather barometer and raise your awareness on the nature of your presence:
How do I want to be experienced? (Clear intention)
Who am I being in this moment? Am I my best self? (Real-time self awareness)
What is one thing I can do or say to myself to shift into how I want to be experienced by others? (Choiceful action)
Pause for Connectivity: As you enter into an interaction with another person, or a team, ask yourself the following two things:
How can I indicate to the other(s) that I am fully present with them in this moment, that I truly see and hear them?
What is one thing I can do or say to acknowledge or appreciate the other(s) for in this moment?
Ina often remarks when she is demonstrating a recipe: “How Easy Is That?” How easy it is indeed, Ina. Thank you for reminding us that effective leadership is a deceptively “easy” one: it is first and foremost about how you show up and how you engage with others. As Maya Angelou rightly and wisely stated: People will never forget how you made them feel.
Postscript: I shared the final draft with Frank for his input prior to publishing and to make sure he was comfortable with his inclusion. He offered the following in response which underscores the importance of this lesson is in today’s context: “The article really is perfect and one of those things I should read each month to remind myself in this complex, chaotic, exhausting world of business (and life) that sometimes just SHOWING UP well is enough … How easy is that? (It’s my favorite when Ina says that!)”
Author’s note: Foolproof, Back To Basics, and How Easy Is That are all titles of Barefoot Contessa cookbooks by Ina Garten.