The Eggplant Emoji and a Leadership Oopsies

Some years ago, when emojis were just really starting to hit their stride, I had quite a memorable leadership lemon. I’ve always been a big fan of silly team-building games that lighten the mood at work and break up the day. I especially liked finding things that could be just embedded throughout the workday to make people smile.?

?One Christmas, someone got me a yodeling pickle desk toy, because I am also a fan of nonsense desk toys. Somehow we started this obnoxious game of leaving the singing pickle on people’s desks and passing it around for them to find as a funny surprise. It became a game of pass the pickle and it caught on fast. Eventually, we started getting very into it and we would randomly every few days call for a “freeze the pickle” at work and wherever the pickle was located at that given moment the teammate would win a prize. It was always a pickle-themed prize of course…..pickle socks, a pickle mug, pickle pencils. Nothing that someone would actually want ?? The person caught with the pickle always got a picture with their prize. I bought every themed pickle prize I could find until finally one week, I ran out.?

?So, one day I decided it was probably time to find another silly vegetable to use for our goofy games. I googled “vegetable-themed gifts”, and there were a surprisingly large number of eggplant gifts available. (This should have been my first clue, but alas the story does not end here.) An eggplant I thought, that’s perfect!??I stocked up on Eggplant silly prizes and bought a stuffed eggplant toy that would be our thing to pass around.??(This picture above is legitimately my desk at the time with my prizes gathered). The game resumed and people kept playing smiling and laughing at our nonsensical game. (Or what I assumed was just laughing at a goofy game, oh dear.)?

?People were talking so much about it, that my boss and I at the time thought, let’s include this in our Board Update and share how much fun our team has and the sense of camaraderie we have created. We mentioned in front of a few members of the leadership team that we were considering sharing.??There were some awkward stares and a few looks back and forth. What was I missing here?

?One team leader said, “Umm, people love the game and we think it’s funny, but don’t you think it’s a bit inappropriate for the board?”

?“What do you mean?” I asked.?

?“Well, I mean you know….because an eggplant emoji means penis”, they said.?

?“WHAT?!? Are you kidding me?? How did I not know this?!”, I exclaimed. What an enlightening moment of being naive and filled with stupidity, I still remember my shock. And I was supposed to be the wise leader of this place!?

?The team leaders burst into laughter, “We assumed you knew!” They loved every minute of my vulnerability and authenticity in that moment, and let me tell you I could not have been more caught off guard by my lack of emoji knowledge.?

?I absolutely did NOT know. I shared this with my husband later that night, who was aghast that I could have possibly not known this and never paused to wonder why there were so many eggplant gifts out there. It turns out everyone just thought I was a super progressive supervisor with a raunchy sense of humor. And this my friends, is a real leadership lemon, or should I say eggplant….nope it’s definitely a lemon. Needless to say, we switched games and I later landed on using glitter bombs-but that’s a story for another day.?

?Leadership Lesson-Always vet your ideas first with people you trust. Often people help you see your blind spots.?

?Life Lesson- Stay up to date on emoji usage, and if you don’t know, ask your kids and they’ll tell you.