Leaders Eat the Banana Bread

 I don't like banana bread.  Friends who are bakers say that brown bananas make the best banana bread.  So banana bread was invented as a way to make people eat a food that they would otherwise not eat.

A member of a team I worked on was very proud of her banana bread.  A few times a year she would bring a few loaves of her banana bread into the office for everyone to eat.  I would take a slice, eat it, and say "this is best banana bread I've had in a long time."  This was not, technically, a lie.

I would follow up with asking her "what's your secret?" which, inevitably, was the addition of nutmeg, which is not a banana bread secret.

I could have said "no thanks" or "I hate banana bread" or something like that, but I knew that for her, sharing her banana bread with her co-workers was an important gesture of giving appreciation -- showing that we were important to her beyond just earning a salary.  It was also an assertion of her unique personality in a workplace that often suppresses unique personalities.

A leader values their team members for who they are and not just for what they produce.  We, especially in America and a few other countries, invest so much of our lives and our identities in our careers.  When we meet people, one of the first things we ask them is what they do for a living.  As if it's any of our business.  We commit a large part of our person to our employer, and so it is natural that we want our employer to value us as a person.  While the corporate bureaucracy may not care, you can.

Look for ways to recognise how your team members put their personal thumbprint on their presence at work.  Gone are the days when we had a permanently-assigned cubicle (or office!  Imagine that!) that we could adorn with family photos, Star Wars action figures, and plastic toys representing our passions (though troll figurines creep me out).  Listen with sincere attention when an employee talks about their weekend Ironman Triathlon, even if your idea of exercise is running errands; gush at the photos on their phone of their new puppy, even if you don't care for dogs; when people tell you on Friday that over their weekend their child will be playing in a volleyball tournament, ask them on Monday how the volleyball went (and it you have to put the reminder in your smartphone, do it).  Appreciate that your team members sacrifice a lot for their jobs.

Eat the banana bread.