Six Lessons from Amateur Bakers

There are always learning opportunities in life and sometimes, they can be reinforced in different ways. For example, one of my favorite Netflix shows is called the Great British Bake Off. It is a competition show where twelve amateur bakers attempt three challenges trying to impress two professional chefs to earn the title of Star Baker. Each shows has provided and reinforced six valuable life and work lessons worth sharing:

What do you mean we have one hour to make a seven layer cake?

The first and most important one is the importance of time management. Each challenge has a deadline, and it is clear managing your time is the most valuable skill you can have and keep learning about. People may assume that multi-tasking is the answer. However, it is clear from watching the show, you need to organize your day focused on one specific task at a time to make sure it gets done. Once all the tasks are complete you can take some time to reflect upon the day – did you accomplish what you wanted? Where did you fall short and what do you think you will need to correct the next time?

If you are really interested in learning more about time management, I recommend purchasing Time Management Magic by Lee Cockerell, a retired executive from the Walt Disney World Resort. He has led a team of 40,000 employees at 20 resort hotels, 4 theme parks and 2 water parks, and also has a great podcast where he discusses how to get better at many things including time management. He has developed some great time management secrets which you can find more about here.

You are always accountable

Everything has a deadline – taxes have to be filed in April, rent is always due each month, homework needs to be turned in the next day. There is always a deadline, which means you are accountable for meeting that deadline. The worst thing you can do is show up empty-handed. Part of being able to meet your deadline is being able to communicate and manage expectations, including understanding how to handle unexpected surprises that show up and throw you off balance.

For example, in the show, one of the amateur bakers, Iain Watters, made the decision to not to present anything to the judges and, as a result, he was eliminated. What happened was the bakers had to prepare a Baked Alaska and Iain completed the ice cream portion and had placed it in the freezer. Later, as he was getting ready to assemble everything, he discovered that the ice cream was no longer in the freezer, it had been removed and left to melt in the summer heat. Iain’s response was to throw everything away instead of trying to determine some type of solution. The end result was his elimination because as the judge’s told him, he had nothing to show for his time. By his own admission, Iain explained that he didn’t cope with it well, although the judge’s explained that only part of the task had not been completed and he had other elements that could have still been judged.

 Mishandling surprises can lead to a wrong impression since the last thing you may feel is wanting to lose control and have an emotional breakdown in front of your bosses or clients.

Which brings me to the next lesson, when you have an emotional moment.

I have to be a complete professional and not cry at all

One of the competitions’ co-hosts, Sandi Toksvig, once used the sentence “now I have to be a complete professional and not cry at all,” before announcing which amateur baker was going to be asked to leave. Stressful situations in the workplace or in personal life, are prevalent and while we understand personal emotional breakdowns, we all seem not to understand when workplace stressful situations lead to an emotional moment.

We see emotional displays in the workplace all the time – frustrations due to technology, bureaucracy, vendors, landlords or coworkers. Disappointments in a lost potential business opportunity. The list is a long one, and in my view, an emotional display in the workplace is sometimes inevitable. A stressful situation can just lead to an outburst of anger or tears - and it happens. It should not be seen that you are not a professional or that your career is destroyed, it is just that the frustration has built up to the point that the emotions needed to come out.

Emotions are motivators. When faced with a “fight or flight” situation, our emotions push us to either meet our challenge or at times collapse. We all handle emotions differently, and if you do have an emotional moment in the workplace, my advice is to ask whoever you are with for a moment to collect yourself and then you want to move on positively.

The thing to remember is to manage the situation. If you yelled at someone, apologize for losing your cool and if possible, explain why you got so upset. Part of career management includes managing those “not-so-proud of yourself” moments and work to show your colleagues (and your supervisors) that you want to make things right to work better with your colleagues.

Everyone has a technical challenge

The show has three challenges, each progressing with a specific level of difficulty – the signature bake, the technical challenge, and the showstopper. The technical challenge requires these bakers to show their technical baking skills but is more complicated since they are given a recipe with only minimal instructions, leaving the amateur bakers without any direction.

Many times it can feel like you are being thrown into the deep end of the ocean without any assistance or clear direction as to how to approach. There were many times during all the seasons of this show that the amateur bakers had no clear path, and they had to see what the other bakers were doing and followed them. Rahul Mandal, the winner of the most recent season, expressed during the finale that he really didn’t know what he was doing but just kept looking at what the other finalists were doing to give himself some direction.

Feedback is important

After every challenge, the bakers are immediately given feedback about what they did wrong and what they did well, and if they did really good, they just might get a handshake from one of the judges. While it may sting, criticism isn’t always a bad thing. Part of everyone’s development is feedback, we get it when we ask someone for help when someone asks us to listen to a particular pitch or presentation or to review something we wrote. It also helps motivate us, especially when your employees feel that you are asking their opinions about issues and as a manager, can help you make better decisions and build trust with your coworkers. Feedback also provides an ongoing learning process for everyone – for you as a manager in making smarter decisions and for your team concerning understanding your clients and best practices.

Always remember why you do what you do

No one spends 100% of their day doing what they love. I know there were many days I had in different jobs where I felt all I was doing was having to explain to my boss about mistakes and problems that needed fixing. When those days come, just remember at the end of the day why you chose your career path.

Recent amateur baker finalist, Ruby Bhogal, explained why she baked saying she does it because people love to eat what she bakes and that makes people happy. 

Never forget that emotions are motivators. When you really drill down and focus on the “why” you will find the feeling that pushes you in a specific direction or path. For example, my central core is helping people, and I have found a variety of ways to do that, including writing. I enjoy writing. It is fun, educational, and while I have only been compensated twice in my career, it has helped others. 

I had one nonprofit executive from South Carolina distribute one of my articles at an event he was speaking at about advocacy. It also led to an opportunity to develop online content for Examiner.com. There I wrote about traveling to and enjoying the Walt Disney World Resort (which is so much fun!) and also about education and health issues impacting people with disabilities. I even laid out all the disability agency’s that the federal government has established over the years and how they work to help the people they represent in one article. I have always tried to educate and inform with everything, and to me, it was fun, and I felt that I was helping people.

So never forget your original motivator, what it was that got you started walking down your career path.  original motivator, what is was that got you started walking down your career path.