Our last class, Catering & Buffet, is challenging.  For a number of reasons, the major ones being:

There is a massive project due in about 13 days where we individually have to plan from beginning to end and cost out a catering event.

The tests are all open-notebook (read: justification to test you on any and all material you may have heard during class.  Suck.)

And we have now for the first time switched solely to group work and mass production, where you are part of a larger piece getting your part ready for a “line fire” exercise whereby you execute a menu (you may be on a station you didn’t prep) as tickets are being called.

Of these, the last one is the most daunting.  But not because of any of the things I listed in that sentence.

Rather, when you put a group of “equals” together, people who have no official rank or authority over one another, and tell them they need to accomplish this menu from start (prep) to end (being completely prepared for line-fire), the idea is well..  a massive contradiction.  Where a Cat that’s perfectly willing to work in the team one day, decides the next day they need to stretch their feline legs and buck any type of skeleton authority that’s started to emerge in the class.. mainly to make sure they aren’t “left out,” not because they genuinely want the responsibility.

Consider it for a moment: even in the working civilian world, there is a hierarchy.  In a school setting with a huge “group project” every day, it’s worse than herding cats.

Enter then Cat #2 who sees this and thinks, well I want to be in charge too..  and so the dominos fall and attempt to make a pattern, but since the path wasn’t set up right, it’s sporadic and disjointed.

I will be bluntly honest.

Attempting to find my place in this psychological nightmare of a leadership exercise has been excruciatingly challenging.

Having some leadership experience from past jobs, most days the larger picture and where we need to be going with it readily presents itself.

My instinct is to run with it.

But my gut tells me the right thing to do is respect those who want to stretch their legs as well.. as this is a learning environment and hence the place to do it, and sometimes you never know what value a person might possess until they’re on the spot.

However, stretching legs involves learning with mistakes.. do I step in when the class is about to get dinged for something and fix it?

All that teaches is dependence on a safety net.

Do I step in when Cat #2 has decided they’re suddenly done with leadership exercise for the day.  Half-way through production?

Big Ben, Parliament.

Frustrating, to put it mildly.  So I decided to put myself in a purely prep roll about the middle of last week- never giving an answer but asking the question back (how do you think it should look/taste/ where do you want me to go with this, etc).

This change occurred simultaneously with our class getting ready for one of two large buffets in our curriculum, which occurred yesterday.  Last week I watched people stand up and lead certain areas, ideas flying, feelings getting rubbed, and several leaders somewhat emerge.  It was cool.  People were flexing, I was happy prepping and watching ideas bloom around me.

And then yesterday happened.  I walked in about 10 minutes before class started, and was greeted with a very singular question coming from all the Chiefs of the week prior.

What’s the plan?  What am I supposed to be doing?

I was a touch shocked and confused by this given the confidence and ideas I’d heard the week prior, and started out with the routine of the last few days- asking the question back.  But where this has worked before it was no longer working, and we were about to open a buffet to the “public” (our school) in two hours, and no one had a road map.

So after being offered the reigns, I took them.  We opened with about a minute to spare.

I write about this not because of yesterday’s success, but because a question I’d had on my mind for my entire schooling career was finally answered yesterday, quite by accident.

The 8-month answer to leadership in an environment of equals- how do you lead your (civilian) peers?

I mulled this over extensively yesterday, and the answer I came up with was simply..  a foundation of dependability.

I have come to school every day for roughly 175 days now.  I have never been late, I have never missed a day.  My uniform is pressed every day.  I always have all the tools and uniform items required.  My notes are always done, I’ve passed every test, quiz, assignment and met every requirement presented in every class.

This is not an easy path, in fact it’s the yellow brick road to burn-out land if not managed correctly (which I found out a few months ago).

You will initially be labeled the nerd of the class, and hear things like “oh well of course SHE has one (fill in the blank, peeler, pen, extra anything..)”

And then after about 6 months, when you’ve established that your pattern isn’t going to change, the jealous label of nerd turns into a happy and accepted label.  People come to you to silently ask to borrow your peeler/grater/extra knife cause they know you’ll have one.  And you smile and lend it out.  At 7 months you become a tasting sounding board.

And then yesterday happens.  It makes me smile because the answer to the question that’s been rolling around my mind all this time, has in-fact all this time, been right under my nose.

If you own the areas/things you can control.. fully, utterly, completely..  leadership opportunities will come to those who’ve earned it.

That ownership takes an immense amount of dedication.  That ownership is massively worth the return.

This isn’t a new concept, I’m pretty sure it was the first lesson in Leadership 101.  But what the class leaves out is the time factor.

It takes time, patience, and trust to travel this path and see results.  A whole friggin bunch of time.

So much time in fact, that by the time you actually start to see results your behaviors that were once a choice have become a lifestyle change.

I think I’m finally starting to get it now…  🙂