Mastering One Dish Doesn’t Make You a Chef - And Leadership Is No Different

🍕 The Pizza Analogy: Where It All Begins

Imagine you're a master at making pizza. You know exactly which ingredients to use, how much to add, when to toss in the flavors, what temperature to cook at, and how long to bake it to perfection.

Now, imagine you decide to make a burger using the exact same method you use for pizza.

What do you think will happen?

• Will it still be considered a burger?

• Will it retain its authenticity?

• Will people enjoy eating it?

• How will it look and taste?

• What kind of feedback would you get?

• More importantly, will you be trusted to deliver again?

And here's a deeper question: if you only know how to prepare one dish, can you truly call yourself a chef?

This analogy helped me deeply understand something crucial about leadership. Here's my story.

👥 From Pizza to Burger: A Leadership Misstep

I was leading a high-performing team, let’s call them Team A. Their work was like making pizzas: a process-oriented, structured, and predictable.

I implemented the right systems, built strong processes, and we were delivering great results. Leadership noticed, and I was soon given a new responsibility, to lead Team B (a capable team, but one shaped by legacy practices, informal routines, and a culture rooted in stability over change), a team that worked on something entirely different, more like making burgers.

I walked in confident, thinking, “What worked for Team A will work here too.”

Spoiler alert: It didn’t.

Without taking time to understand Team B’s dynamics (culture, context, and work), I tried applying the same structure, expectations and processes I had used previously. As a result:

• The team became confused about the rationale for change

• Engagement dropped and performance slowed

• People became withdrawn, guarded and hesitant to speak up

• Morale dipped

• Internal resistance quietly began to build

At first, I couldn’t figure out what went wrong. As a new leader in that space, I hadn’t yet earned the team’s trust, and instead of building it, I was unintentionally eroding it. Then I paused, and truly listened.

🔁 Hitting Reset: What I Did Differently

Realizing that something wasn’t working, I made a conscious decision to course-correct.

Here's what I did:

• Slowed down my pace of change

• Spent time observing and understanding their current workflow, internal culture and team dynamics

• Conducted individual one-on-one conversations to hear personal perspectives

• Identified pain points and gaps (not just in process, but also in communication and expectations) that the team was already aware of but hadn't had a forum to express

• Invited their ideas before proposing any changes

• Adjusted internal processes in collaboration with the team, without disrupting their core strengths and process

• Encouraged feedback and shared accountability

What followed was a gradual rebuilding of trust. The team began to open up, and together we co-created small changes that eventually led to big wins. Alignment, performance, momentum, and morale all began to rise again.

🎯 Takeaways

This experience taught me more than any book or training session ever could.

• A successful process for one team may not work for another

• Never assume your actions are right without first understanding the team’s context

• Success with one team doesn’t guarantee success with another, each team is unique

• Success is not always transferable. Past performance is not a blueprint - it’s a foundation.

• Leadership is dynamic, adaptability is key, one need to know know when to adapt, not just when to act.

• Trust is fragile. Gaining it is hard - and once broken, regaining it is even harder.

• Change doesn’t happen overnight. It requires patience, consistent reflection, and the willingness to adapt and refine along the way

This lesson is not just for first-time managers. Even experienced leaders need to relearn this over and over, especially when scaling influence across larger or more complex organizations.

🧠 Takeaway for Leaders

To be a great chef, mastering just one dish won’t make you world-class. You must understand every ingredient, its purpose, and how to adapt recipes to the dish you're creating.

Leadership works the same way. There’s no single recipe that works for every team. You must listen, learn, adapt, and evolve - understanding the strengths, struggles, and stories of the people you lead. Only then can you truly serve something meaningful.

Leadership Isn’t a Template - It’s a Taste You Develop

Have you had a leadership moment where “copy-paste” didn’t work? Drop your story or thoughts in the comments, I’m all ears!

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