Red grapes and leadership; two things that don’t seem to have anything in common.
Back in the Fall, I was perusing the produce section of my local grocery store when I saw an irresistible sign. There was a sale on grapes; I took a quick glance at the quality of the grapes, opting for the freshest grapes I could get, which happened to be the red grapes. I had developed the bad habit of hitting the breakroom vending machine at work, and wanted to replace my nightly bag of Cape Cod chips with something a bit more conducive to living past 60.
Thus, I started bringing my red grapes to work. Every night at break, I’d bring a Scarface mound (my absolute favorite unit of measurement!) of red grapes along with my normal meal to an empty table. I’d mindlessly eat the delectable morsels of nature’s blessing, even if I was chatting up one of my direct reports or just scrolling through the endless stream of shitposts that one of my buddies sent me.
This went on for a few weeks, and I truthfully didn’t think much of it. Surely, the only ones who would’ve noticed would’ve been those corporate fat-cats sitting in Hyannis, dreading the loss of steady revenue from my thoughtless nightly purchases.
One week, the price of purple grapes were lower than that of the red grapes. After a quick freshness scan of the purple grapes, they went into my cart, then into my fridge, then into the workplace fridge. One night at break, I grabbed my lunch and a Scarface mound of purple grapes and took a seat at a vacant table. On my way there, two of my direct reports, Mary and Jorge (not their real names) stopped me.
“Deciding to switch things up a bit, Dan?”
Puzzled, I replied “What do you mean?”
“Well, red grapes are your usual favorite, but now you’ve got purple ones.”
I politely commented that the purple ones were on sale, and that I also like the taste of purple grapes as well (it’s true, I like all grapes, really; call me low maintenance). Mary and Jorge seemed to accept this line (at least, on the surface) and we casually went about our way. I sat down and it slowly dawned on me. My people are watching me so closely, they know my fucking grape preferences.
Yes, they know my grape preferences, a detail I never publicly discussed or even mentioned. I don’t walk around with an I love Red Grapes t-shirt or anything ridiculous like that. Yet, this was a subtle detail that they noticed anyways. Why did they notice it? Because they were paying attention to their leader.
If they’re paying attention to my break-time snacking habits, then you can bet your next paycheck on the fact that they’re paying attention to other behaviors. Facial reactions, tone of voice (I’ve received feedback on both, mostly on how difficult I am to read), how I solve problems, how I take bad news; all of it and much more are all being observed by those under my umbrella.
What does this mean? Well, as I’ve discussed previously, a rare behavioral slip-up can be forgiven, given enough context and if it’s a relatively minor one. However, a leader will receive precious few “do overs” before losing leadership capital. Many leaders are spending leadership capital without even realizing it simply because they don’t realize that they’re being watched by those who matter most. Therefore, composure is an absolute must, even in high-stress situations.
And now, I’ll leave you with some wisdom from the world’s cleanest power station…
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