Say, ‘Yes, Chef’ to improving your influence in the workplace

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My first real job was as a short-order cook at the storied Chicagoland music venue, Ravinia Festival. I still feel the heat from the grill on my face as I flipped copious amounts of chicken breasts and burgers as fast as I could. I still feel the strain in my biceps of hoisting multigallon jugs of fryer oil and dumping them into the empty fryers each week. I still feel the twitch in my right eyelid remembering the pressure of the clock while getting orders in and out as I expedited for the small crew of three, all of us in our teens. I still feel the ache in my back at the end of my shift, when the kitchen was closed and cleaned down, finally earning a few minutes of music still pouring out of the bandshell as our reward for another night of feeding folks.

For all its stressors, that job made me fall in love with cooking. To this day, nothing satisfies me more than hearing a family member make a reflexive “mmmm” sound when they take the first bite of a dinner I have made for them. 

So, it was with nostalgia twinged with fear of all those years at the mercy of the rush that I tuned into “The Bear,” which aired  its fifth and final season this year. That first episode got my adrenaline pumping and my fingers twitching just like they did  (cough, cough) years ago when I was flipping burgers and slinging fries, as the crew and us viewers fell into the weeds at The Beef, a small Italian beef shop at 666 N. Orleans Street in Chicago’s River North neighborhood. 

I’ve been fascinated by the show ever since we met Carmy, Richie, Sydney, Tina, Marcus, Fak and Ebra in that first episode as they worked, not always together, to deliver a quality meal for their customers. Watching Carmy, Sydney and Richie struggle to come together to lead The Beef and eventually the show’s eponymous restaurant The Bear was a master class in both effective and ineffective ways  to manage relationships in the workplace. The different approaches those three characters took in exerting influence on their team provides many lessons for us to examine about the role that influence plays in workplace relationship management, a key component of social and emotional intelligence, the power skill we are exploring this year. 

What is influence?

Influence is one of those wonderful words that is both a noun and a verb. The Cambridge English dictionary defines influence in its noun form as "the power to have an effect on people or things, or a person or thing.”  As a verb, it defines the word as "to affect or change how someone or something develops, behaves, or thinks."  But what are the components of influence that drive that impact? 

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Part of it is credibility, establishing that a person is trustworthy and knows what they are talking about. This is why we listen to our doctors when they spot something in our labs that drives us to change our behavior, take medicine or get an operation. Another part is persuasion, being able to convince people to affect change with logical and/or emotional arguments. That is why the great speeches of Fredrick Douglas and Abraham Lincoln still hold sway a century after they were first spoken. Framing also is an important part of influence: the ability of an influential person to direct people to view an issue through a particular lens. That is how a powerful message like "It’s morning again in America" helped to get Ronald Reagan reelected. 

Being able to align potentially conflicting stakeholders is an incredibly important component of influence. Ask any parent of two or more children about the work needed to influence them to agree on (checks notes) anything. Finally, timing and context awareness  also are key to influence. Very few people listened to what Winston Churchill had to say before WWII, but as the war became a reality for the United Kingdom, his leadership and influence suddenly became indispensable. 

Observe how influential people at your organization use these foundational elements (credibility, persuasion, framing, stakeholder alignment, timing and context awareness) in their ability to drive the actions they seek from others. People with some level of influence will have strengths and weaknesses among this tool set. The most influential people in your organization have learned to master all these elements and know how to mix them together like ingredients in a delicious recipe.  

Role, expert power and the importance of taping off your station

In 1965, psychologist Bruce Tuckman developed the "Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing" framework as a model of group development. This is the process a team  goes through to move its members from being strangers to becoming an effective performance unit. 

When Carmen Anthony Berzatto, aka Carmy, walks through the door of his family's restaurant, The Beef, his new presence forces the well-greased team to go back to the beginning of Tuckman's framework. Carmy is the brother of Mikey, the latest and late owner of The Beef, and Carmy walks in as a serious chef with a prestigious pedigree. He's won a James Beard Award, trained at elite restaurants like The French Laundry, noma and Daniel. He was the chef de cuisine at a Michelin-starred restaurant, essentially the operational leader of that kitchen. Before speaking one word to his new team, he comes in with two powerful influence tools, along with his high-caliber knife set: role and expert power. 

Role power, or legitimate power, is power granted to a person by a team based on their position within the hierarchy. Carmy is the new owner/operator of The Beef, so on paper, he is the leader whose influence should be followed. Carmy also walks in with expert power, which is power granted to a person based on their deep understanding or expertise within a particular field. 

Wielding those two extremely sharp pieces of leadership cutlery, Carmy demands that everyone refer to each other as chef, hence the, "Yes, Chef," when responding to a request from someone on the team. He uses his role power to try to influence the team to adopt the standards of Michelin-starred restaurants in an Italian beef sandwich shop on its last legs. He also demonstrates his expert power by taping off his station, cutting the tape with some scissors to quizzical looks from Marcus, the primary bread- and cake-maker at The Beef. In his own way, Carmy explains to Marcus that he is taping off his stations to establish strict boundaries and to improve sanitation, standardization and, most importantly, order. Carmy cuts the tape with scissors instead of ripping it to achieve straight, flat edges that won't curl up, peel or smudge, a vector for food contamination. 

But while Carmy's influence through these changes was immediately embraced by Marcus, those same actions were immediately met with disdain by Tina, a long-time line cook at The Beef. Some staff members bristled at Carmy's lack of emotional regulation, losing whatever influence his role and expert power afforded him. Tina specifically responds to Carmy's efforts to use his role power to influence how the team operates by sowing chaos in the kitchen, discreetly turning up the temperature on the dough Marcus is proofing for the sandwich buns. Tina also adjusts the heat on a pot of beef that fellow line cook Ebra has been slow cooking at low temperatures for 12 hours, ruining the crucial ingredient needed in an Italian beef shop. 

While you might not be getting crushed dealing with a bunch of hangry Chicagoans (believe me, we're a handful), you've most likely had experiences like Tina, Marcus and Carmy. Like Tina, you may have had a new leader coming onto your team who maybe moves too quickly to change processes without getting a better understanding of how the team works, using role power alone versus earned influence to drive change. Like, Marcus, you may have learned quickly under the influence of a new team member how to perform a process more effectively. Like Carmy, you may have taken on a leadership role and looked to leverage your expertise to influence change. 

When considering the importance of influence in social/emotional intelligence, an important factor is learning how to wield that influence to achieve the desired outcome. Just like a professional chef's knife, that influence in the wrong hands can cause serious injury to the team, sending out ripples of discontent that impact the bottom line. In the right hands, that influence can perform delicate procedures, helping people achieve greater results than they previously thought possible. Just like Tina and Marcus had diametrically opposed responses to Carmy's influence at first blanche, effective social and emotional intelligence is about reading others and adjusting accordingly. Influence is not one size fits all. Understanding the motivations, aspirations and inhibitions of those who you are trying to influence is equally important to the behavior you are trying to influence. 

Referent power, persistence and the value of tasting everyone’s dishes

My favorite character, hands down, on “The Bear” is Syd. When we first meet Sydney Adamu, we quickly notice that she has serious cheffing chops despite her young age. She's got technique, she has experience with the brigade system Carmy is trying to implement, and she is the kind of chef who can visualize the interplay of ingredients in her mind before a single onion is julienned or celery stalk brunoised. We also know that The Beef was an important part of her childhood, often eating in the sandwich shop with her dad. Syd's heart, head and hand are all aligned in service of making The Beef great. While Syd's talent and presence are (sort of) welcomed by Carmy, others on staff push back on her influence, especially Tina, at first. 

When Syd is trying to assign the brigade role of garde manger, or preparer of savory cold foods, to Tina, Tina’s response is to say, “No Ingles.” Syd’s response is, “I know you speak English. I heard you speak it five seconds ago, but that’s fine,” and to continue with role assignments for the rest of the team. Tina is testing Syd’s persistence and letting her know she hasn’t earned Tina’s openness to be influenced by her yet. 

Later, Tina struggles with a pot that boils over with cream cooking for potatoes. Syd quickly steps in and helps. Tina sheepishly brings the cooked potatoes to Syd to taste, and Syd gives her encouragement and some constructive feedback. Eventually, Tina calls Syd “Jeff” (her version of  “chef”), illustrating that Syd’s influence through referent power, or influence that is built on trust, respect and being a positive role model, is an impactful one for leaders like her without role power. 

And Tina’s respect is important because Tina has her own referent power within The Beef’s crew. She had been intensely loyal to Mikey after he hired her at a crossroads in her life. She has invested time, energy and spirit into The Beef and pulled enormous weight among the other crew members. Tina needed to see that Syd and Carmy weren’t going to ruin what was so special about the place. Once Tina actively supported the new approach, many other crew members who were a bit reticent became much more openly comfortable with the change.

Every organization, every team, has a Syd. Someone whose influence may be outsized for their age or title. Who delivers over and over again amazing results. Who is willing to put in long nights,  clean the goop out of the drain and crawl through the vents. They discover opportunities for improvement, and they talk about them with others who can affect the change required to make them a reality. 

Every organization, every team, has a Tina, too. Someone with a deep history within the organization and seeming investment in the status quo. Someone who holds considerable sway within the culture of the organization or team and whose verdict on proposed changes can have outsized influence on their outcomes. When considering how to lead teams through these dynamics, it is important to respect both archetypes' personalities. Because on “The Bear,” there is one more crucial character who, more so than Tina, demonstrates what happens when a team has someone on it who is actively working to use their own considerable influence to negate the influence of Carmy and Syd.

Respect, culture holders and the power of turning the napkin

It is exceedingly painful for me to admit that the best Chicago accent on TV right now comes out of the mouth of a New York City native. But Ebon Moss-Bachrach, who plays Richie on “The Bear,” sounds like he's been eating hot dogs without ketchup and taking shots of Malort his whole life. While Carmy and Syd both had a history with The Beef before walking through the door, no one had a deeper relationship with that Italian beef joint than Richie. Mikey's life-long best friend, Richie was the manager of The Beef and was still reeling from the loss of his friend as Carmy and Syd "take over" and started to institute changes to save the shop from closing. It is no wonder that Richie sees their changes in a negative light, as if they are trying to erase Mikey and his ways of operating from the team's culture. Richie begins to lash out, running the gamut from passive-aggressive sarcasm to straight up aggressive yelling.

Richie consistently tells his "cousin" Carmy that his “froufrou cheffy” stuff isn't going to work at The Beef. He never misses an opportunity to call Syd "sweetheart." Richie even gets into a physical fight with the character Fak while Fak is trying to interview for a full-time job at the shop. 

In Season 1 of “The Bear,” the negative influence Richie exerts when he is among the crew of The Beef has an outsized impact on everyone's ability to minimize the noncustomer-related stress of their daily efforts. He uses his waning but still present power to actively work against the changes Carmy and Syd are trying to make with the system and menu. He acts as a chaos agent in an already chaotic environment. That chaos crescendoes during a particularly stressful moment of being in the weeds that leads to Syd accidentally stabbing Richie with a chef's knife, a potent symbol of the clash of the new and old within that small but venerated establishment. 

Richie's breakthrough comes in Season 2 of the show, when the restaurant is on its way to reopening as The Bear, a high-end restaurant that is very different from The Beef. Richie is sent by Carmy to stage at Ever, a Michelin-starred restaurant in the city. First seeing this as a punishment, Richie bristles at having to polish hundreds of forks to a spotless shine. But as he starts to see the precision and professionalism of the front of house staff and their impact on the overall experience for the diners, he begins to see how he can leverage his charm and (sometimes hidden) warmth to help The Bear become a success. He comes back to The Bear changed, and his new presence is immediately noticed by Carmy, Syd and the rest of the team. His role and referent power are reestablished.

Everyone has had experience with a team member like Richie. Someone who uses their considerable power within an organization or team to negatively impact its success. Someone whose personality and actions drive people to mitigate them to get work done. Whose interactions make people consider switching teams or organizations. Everyone also has had some level of experience being a team member like Richie. Maybe it's some difficult family situation that you are navigating that makes you difficult to interact with at work. Maybe it's a change in the direction of the team or organization that you don't approve of and actively work against. Keeping that duality in mind is important when trying to manage a worker on your team who is like Richie. Leading from a place of empathy is a powerful weapon when working to increase your influence at work. I mean, who among us hasn't been accidentally stabbed by a chef's knife once or twice, amiright? 

Mastering spicing or the importance of improving your influence

I love my mom dearly, and she is an incredible baker who put clothes on my back one cookie sold at a time. But the woman does not know how to spice her food, an unfortunate habit she learned from my grandma. My mom thinks black pepper is exotic, and when I bought her a tin of Old Bay seasoning as a joke, she was genuinely perplexed by what to put it on. “Everything, Mom,” I told her. “You can put Old Bay on everything." Spicing is incredibly important in cooking. It has the ability to enhance flavors, blend competing tastes or add surprising depth to a dish.

Mastering the use of influence in workplace settings is a lot like mastering the art of spicing your food. You need to learn when to exert your influence and when it is best not to do so. You need to learn which component of influence (credibility, persuasion, framing, stakeholder alignment, timing and context awareness) is appropriate for the situation. You need to empathize with those who bristle at your influence and work to bring them on board with your objectives. 

In the end, Richie, Syd and Carmy all have a shared goal in mind: They all want The Beef and eventually The Bear to be successful. They want to bake bread together to help people break bread together. They all learn in varying degrees how to leverage their influence to achieve this time-honored outcome. So, if you have the chance to work on improving and increasing your influence on your team or at your organization, say "Yes, Chef," and get to work.  

Adam Bazer, MPD, senior director of thought product development, ASHE.