Final Thoughts on Chocolate and Leadership

Chocolate has an interesting history. It used to be mixed with hot peppers and spices rather than sugar, was first a drink and only relatively recently in bar form. All chocolate has caffeine to some degree, dark chocolate has fewer carbohydrates (less sugar) than milk chocolate and chocolate can be a very strong motivator – well for some people. That last item you would know had you spent some of the last few months with me in SENYLRC’s Leadership and Supervisory program offered on Tuesday afternoons.

Barbara Wall	Barbara Wall presents a topic to participants

Chocolate was not always my favorite food, but it certainly has been for a number of years. I used to obsess about peas but they are so green and they get soft if you carry them around with you. You might be wondering at this point what on earth I am talking about and where does a chocolate obsession fit into Leadership? Well, very nicely, thank you.

Working with leadership training makes one very much aware of what motivates staff and co-workers to do their jobs and that something extra. Research indicates that while a paycheck is nice, other less tangible things enter into the equation of motivation and job performance. Chocolate for instance, or more likely a heartfelt “Thank you”, from a supervisor or colleague is likely to elicit that extra effort next time around. Now, I do truly understand that very few other people are so easily motivated as to give forth effort when presented with a bar of truly exquisite dark or bittersweet chocolate (I was informed that not everyone even likes chocolate!!!)

For me, then, chocolate has become a metaphor for leadership and specifically for motivation and working with staff members. Some colleagues work hard to be the very best leader, exhibiting a number of strong leadership characteristics such as good management of time and space, developing acceptable methods of dealing with stressful situations and stressful or difficult employees, using performance evaluations to promote good work habits and providing opportunities for professional growth to staff members on an equitable basis. This is the top of the chocolate food pyramid – the really good stuff.

Participants at Leadership Training

In contrast, there are colleagues we all have known who believe that they are doing a good job just so long as no one loudly complains about the job or the situation in the workplace. Would you want to work there? This is the white chocolate place, near the base of the chocolate pyramid. For those non-chocoholics, white chocolate is only cocoa butter and actually contains NO chocolate. You can only go up from there. And in between are a wide range of skills and abilities, just like the myriad of chocolates and flavors out there.

	Have I carried the chocolate metaphor too far? Perhaps. But there is such a range of quality in this one food that it seems the perfect comparison to leadership. We are all capable of being great leaders – we just need the right ingredients and a good blending agent to create a workplace that is beneficial to the employee and the employer. And, make no mistake, it does take very hard work. How to get there??? As leaders, we need to partake of that growth food – professional development - that enables us to find within ourselves better tools to use in our workplaces. We need to blend it into our everyday interactions at work. Practice, as they say, may not make perfect but it sure does help you to improve. And no one makes perfect chocolate the first or even the second time. It only comes from a combination of the right temperatures, time, and continuous hard work.
Mary Climes		Tessa Killian

It has been my extreme pleasure these past few months to work with the staff and member libraries of the Southeastern New York Library Resources Council. I have learned so much from you in our meetings for the Leadership and Supervision program. I can only say that in my mind and heart you are all high quality dark, bittersweet chocolate – top of the food pyramid. Thanks for the memories.

By Barbara Wall, Program Director, Leadership and Supervision

Southeastern News Online is published bi-monthly by SENYLRC staff.