I don’t watch a lot of traditional television these days. While I could accurately blame things like my work schedule, making sure I spend time with my family, the amount of travel I experience, or even the seemingly constant barrage of weekend activities that require endless time and money (yes, I’m looking at you travel soccer), the truth is I’m really just not all that interested. Well, I’m not that interested with the following exceptions:
- Law & Order reruns
- Texas A&M Football games
- Law & Order SVU reruns
- Dallas Cowboys Football games
- Cooking shows
If I’m being 100% candid, I’d have to say I love cooking shows the most. The main reason is that I’m an admitted foodie: meat & potatoes, sushi, Mexican, traditional French, Thai, Cajun, Greek, or Italian – you name it and I’ve at least experienced it, if not fallen in love with it. When it comes to cooking shows, however, many times there’s a competitive component which really appeals to me.
Whether it’s Chopped where four chefs battle against each other making meals from unusual combinations of ingredients under duress or Guy’s Grocery Games where competitors are assigned a dish to shop for and cook after playing a game which usually eliminates either ingredients or aisles in the supermarket, they are an automatic tune in for me.
The greatest of them all, however, is Iron Chef America. If you’ve never watched a battle in Kitchen Stadium, you’re missing out. It’s essentially a 60-minute cooking show/battle where a challenger takes on one of the Iron Chefs – experts in specific cuisines – to make five courses using a mandatory secret ingredient. After the cooking is completed, both chefs present their meals to a 3-judge panel where the winner is crowned. All in all, it’s very entertaining way to kill an hour.
This past weekend I ran across an old episode featuring my favorite Iron Chef (Masaharu Morimoto) vs. Michael Symon who, interestingly enough, became an Iron Chef a few years after this battle was over. The secret ingredient, asparagus, was used in so many interesting ways – not the least of which was Iron Chef Morimoto creating “stained glass sushi” – that I couldn’t turn away.
As I watched I took particular notice of the sous chefs who were assisting the main competitors. In many cases, they were handling the brunt of the work: chopping, sautéing, basting, grilling, roasting, stirring, and even plating. Clearly, each chef had a tremendous team to bring their vision of a five-course meal highlighting asparagus to fruition. I found it quite interesting, however, that no sous chefs were present at either the judges table or when the winner was announced. The chef who won received all the glory alone – and that’s just not right.
In the business world, this also happens far too often. You can point to any number of charismatic leaders – both in and out of the promotional products industry – who stand in the sun as praise shines down on them. Whether publicly acknowledged or not, each one of them has a team that makes what they do possible. Just like Morimoto had sous chef David Koon (and two others) during battle asparagus in Kitchen Stadium, every single leader has a group of capable, intelligent people supporting him or her.
My situation is no different than Morimoto’s – except I really can’t roll sushi all that well. I may be the person people think of when “PromoCorner” is mentioned, but the team that works with me (I rarely, if ever, say “for me”) makes every single thing we do possible. Elevated creative: that’s the team. Operational upgrades: that’s the team. Sales growth: that’s the team.
Our success: that’s the team.
For the record, Iron Chef Morimoto won the battle and while he received all the accolades, there was a great team behind him that made the victory possible. As the closing credits scrolled, he used his right hand to gesture to his three sous chefs to ensure they were part of the celebration as well. More importantly, he then turned and bowed to them – a huge sign of gratitude and respect that wasn’t lost on anyone paying attention.
The more we take time to recognize ALL the contributors to the achievement of a goal, the more engaged people will be. I’m beyond fortunate to have a great team that supports me and my vision. While I may never make “stained glass sushi,” I have a group of people here at PromoCorner that make me believe that I just might be able to do exactly that someday.
Today, on Labor Day, I bow in gratitude to my team at PromoCorner.
Bill is president of PromoCorner, a digital marketing, media, and advertising agency, and has over 19 years working in executive leadership positions at leading promotional products distributorships. A featured speaker at numerous industry events, a serial creator of content marketing, president of the Regional Association Council (RAC) board, and PromoKitchen chef, Bill has extensive experience coaching sales teams, creating successful marketing campaigns, and developing branding that resonates with a target audience. He can be reached at bill@PromoCorner.com.