Pasta and Leadership

By Michael Tessler, Managing Partner

You might be wondering if the pandemic has claimed my mind. What in the world does pasta and leadership have in common? Well, let me share my thoughts.

Lately, I’ve been reflecting on things that I miss. With the pandemic, travel requires at least a 14-day quarantine in almost any international country. One of the countries I miss the most is Italy. I reminisced about all the wonderful times during my visit, especially the amazing food!

In Italy, hospitality is a serious responsibility. Italians take pride in their food and each dish is treated with care. This is how they approach it. It is almost a crime to feed anyone bad food. It’s simply unacceptable.

So, this made me think. What does it take to make a great pasta?

There are three things:

1. Start with high-quality ingredients. Nothing fancy. Just fresh ingredients carefully purchased locally.
2. Legendary cooks have great recipes. Pasta dishes in Italy have few ingredients brought together with accuracy and precision.
3. The perfect dish is created from patience. You can’t get a great pasta dish in 30 seconds. It takes time to bring these together. Not only does a dish take time to prepare, but great chefs continuously adjust their recipes.

To me, no pasta dish exemplifies these concepts as well as Cacio e Pepe, which translates to Cheese and Pepper. In fact, this dish has only three ingredients: Pasta, pepper and cheese. Doesn’t get any simpler than that. These ingredients, in the hands of a great cook, delivers a dish that is exquisite with a result that leaves a smooth, silky and flavorful taste.

You can’t get this dish out of a box. It takes time and patience. It takes great ingredients and it takes lots of practice.

At this point, you may as well be hungry. So, what does this have to do with leadership? Well, let’s find the parallels for great leadership.

First, you want to start off with great team members. These team members don’t have to come from the best universities, several years of work experience or be the best at selling themselves. Now, all of the above qualities are great to have, but what you really want are team members that are curious, trustworthy and dedicated. You need team members that have the right empathy to work together.

Second, great leaders rely on a few key skills. No fancy tools and techniques. Great leaders are coaches where they help their teammates to be successful. They communicate clearly and honestly. They are role models by demonstrating hard work, dedication and transparency. They align the team to a mission and empower the team to be successful.

Third, great leaders realize that developing the skills to lead a team takes time and patience. They make mistakes and are not afraid to try new techniques. They admit when they fail, but strive to learn how to improve and do better. Building great teams is another skill that is the result of developing themselves as a leader.

Next time you think about your leadership skills — compare it to making great pasta. You won’t be disappointed. And, if you have any great pasta recipes, share with us!. Look forward to more of my leadership thoughts as some of you have expressed interest.

Ciao