When it comes to leadership, we need to make sure we allow people to add an egg.
Let me explain what I mean.
Back in the 50s, General Mills introduced a ready to use cake mix called Betty Crocker. And all you had to do was pour in the water, mix it up, whack it in the oven. An hour later, you had the most amazing cake. And all their research suggested that people did think it was actually really good cake.
But people didn’t buy it.
And the reason they didn’t buy it is because it was way too convenient. It was far too simple. People felt guilty using it and serving it because they felt people expected them to have made the cake. They wanted to have done some of it themselves.
So what General Mills did, and this is brilliant, they removed the powdered egg and they said, right, now you’ve got to add water, but you’ve also got to crack an egg into it before you mix it. So you are now actually baking it’s, not ready to use cake mix, you’re actually doing the baking it’s just one egg.
But people then felt like they were part of the process and they were involved in what was happening and sales skyrocketed.
And the same is true when we’re leading people. They want to be involved in the process. They want to be involved in deciding how to do what they’re going to do, not just be told what to do and go away and do it.
When we get that bit right, people are more engaged, productivity goes up and generally they’re happier and they want to do the job. So when it comes to leadership, remember, people want to add egg.