What baking and leadership have in common
It is the season for endless gatherings and desserts so let’s talk about one of my favorite things: baking! and why it’s a lot like another one of my favorite topics: leadership!
For any kind of intricate dessert, baking has three major components: Planning, Execution, Presentation. Starting to sound familiar?
Planning
To make things go smoothly, as much work goes into planning as executing. Some of the planning is fun like endlessly watching YouTube cake decorating videos :) and others less fun like checking ingredients. I’ve run out of ingredients in the middle of baking on more than one occasion because I failed to check ahead of time (or because someone made scrambled eggs after I counted them!). I’ve also stayed up waaay too late on many nights baking because I was overly optimistic in estimating how long (or rather, how short) things would take to do and often left things to the last minute.
The purpose of planning is not to have an exact script but to prep the best you can, to gather all the ingredients (resources!) you think you need, and to have thought through potential problems ahead of time and how to solve them.
Execution
In all my dessert making, just like in leadership, unexpected problems come up all the time. I often encounter uncontrollable conditions — like extreme room temperatures (this is NYC!), humidity, finicky ovens or surprise rotten eggs when you crack them into your bowl already full of other ingredients (yes! they actually occur naturally in real life. They’re black and smell really, really awful!) All of these things really impact how the ingredients come together, or not. You have to adjust as you go. Some things take longer. Some burn faster. Some you have to do all over again.
Shortcuts often lead to failures. I’m usually too lazy to write down conversions and believe the math in my head is better than it actually is when scaling up or scaling down recipes, which leads to forgetting what I did or didn’t convert as I add one ingredient after the next to the mixing bowl. This one is a combination of failing to prep properly, impatience, and overconfidence! All the pitfalls in leadership too!
And just like in leadership, even if you do everything ‘right,’ sometimes things just don’t turn out the way you planned. In those moments, you have to decide if it’s good enough to keep, or if you have to throw it all out, take a deep breath, and start over in whatever time you have left, which is usually very little. Or quickly figure out a plan B because the event is happening — whether you’re ready or not.
Presentation
When the baking magic works, and when leadership works, success feels amazing and looks easy. But in reality, there were many technical and adaptive challenges along the way to overcome.
Both baking and leadership are about conveying a vision so vividly that everyone can see (or taste!) what you‘re creating and are excited to be a part of it. Done well, you inspire people, create joy, and leave them wanting more.
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As a baker, I’m always trying new recipes, learning new skills, falling back on my tried and true ones when I need to, and most of all, continuing to fail at many things but the fun is in the journey and in bringing people together. Just like leadership.
Now, who wants some cake? :)
