What the series, ‘The BEAR’ is teaching us about leadership.

If you’re like me and have been in a post-pandemic television binge sabbatical, you’re likely missing out on some of the most interesting television that has hit the airwaves in decades.? Yes, of course, there’s the sensuous and entertaining re-writes of England’s ‘debutantical’ and erogenous 'Bridgerton' or the countless rewrites of the latent ‘rom-com’ like 'The Idea of You' or 'A Family Affair.'? ?What I’m talking about is a new era of television I would describe as ‘hyperbaric.’ ?That is, placing characters in extreme conditions of internal emotional struggle.? What Christopher Storer's The Bear brings to light is a long list of life and leadership lessons my clients encounter every day at The Executive Coaching Corner.

Jeremy Allen White (of ‘Shameles’ fame) plays Carmen Berzatto, an anxious-avoidant CDC (Chef de Cuisine) who comes home to Chicago to take over the ‘hole-in-the-wall’ Italian beef place (in real life, Mr. Beef and yes, it still exists on Orleans downtown) his brother, Michael, left him after shooting himself in the head on the State Street bridge.? Mr. Beef (the restaurant) is in debt, the health department declares it a disaster, and the rag-tag team of line cooks are untrained, unskilled, and oftentimes, out of control.?

But Carmy has a vision.? He talks about it with Michael several times before his death, but his brother didn’t know the first thing about opening a fine dining restaurant. ?All Michael knew was that he could leave Carmy the restaurant and some money (along with debt to his ‘Uncle Jimmy’) to get his vision started, a fine dining experience called, The Bear.?

Carmy finds a CDC in Sydney Adamu (played by Ayo Edebiri) and through Sydney together they begin to build repeatable processes and discipline (French hierarchical style) in the kitchen.? In Michael’s restaurant, there was no consistency in the product they were serving. They struggled every day to try and meet the cost and expense of keeping the place open.??

Natalie (Sugar) Berzatto, Carmy’s sister, played by Abby Elliot, becomes the project manager overseeing the transformation and renovations of Mr. Beef into The Bear (while she is pregnant).? The transformation was met with insurmountable obstacles (termites, mold, a chronic gas leak).? But slowly as they tackle each issue and with a little luck, The Bear is starting to become a reality.

But Carmy had never been an Executive Chef before, and Sydney had never been a Chef de Cuisine (CDC).? In fact, most of the characters had never been trained to take on the jobs they embarked upon including the Front of House, ‘Richie’ (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), Line Cook ‘Tina’ (Liza Colon Zayas) and pastry chef Marcus (Lionel Boyce).? The idea of turning Mr. Beef into a fine dining establishment in Chicago seemed absurd, a foolish dream, and well, hopeless.

In every character, we see and feel the chaos, the doubt, the battles with self, and the wanton desire to challenge and change both themselves and their situations.? This undisciplined, untrained, and mostly unskilled team finds their desire to do the impossible.? Each of them has come from diverse backgrounds, but they all have something in common -- they have been told or they have told themselves that they weren’t good enough.

As they watch Carmy go loudly ‘into that good night’ they start to see their own sense of mattering and value.? And that catches fire.

Carmy had a vision that he was maniacal about.? He trained with some of the best chefs around the world (fictionally, Thomas Keller, Daniel Bouloud, and Terry Alexander) and he believed in the idea of The Bear as a Michelin ‘starred’ restaurant despite all the failing restaurants around him post-COVID.? Not surprisingly, he had doubts.

But Carmy recognized talent and potential.? It is his superpower instinct.? He knew that Sydney was hungry for an opportunity, and that she was talented.? Carmy took a chance on cousin ‘Richie’ and Marcus sending them to some of the restaurants Carmy got some of the best coaching and learning experiences of his life (Chicago’s Ever and Copenhagen’s Noma). ?

Carmy encouraged everyone to experiment, to just try new skills, new habits, new thinking and he allowed his own passion to lead him. He created the opportunity for transformation to happen… and each person he invested in began to see the value (and the payoff) of self-investment. All against a remarkable canvas of the streets of Chicago and an unbelievable soundtrack that triggers our emotive sense of self.

But what’s different for me about this show is we get to see and feel the turmoil inside each character.? The love interest, Claire Dunlap, who ignites Carmy’s romantic passions, but also activates his self-doubt that he doesn’t deserve something that good and he’ll just ‘fuck it up.’? The chaos of ‘Donna’ the narcissistic, alcoholic matriarch, brilliantly played by Jaimie Lee Curtis who continually gaslights, looking for something or someone to blame.? The wise but equally suspicious Uncle Jimmy, played by Oliver Platt, who gives Carmy enough support-rope to potentially hang himself (we’ll see in Season 4), but can also dissect the moment the Cubs lost the pennant (not because of Steve Bartman’s attempt to catch a foul-ball) because of a lack of focus.?

Like many of my clients, everything we experience fits inside a context that brings out the best and worst in us.? None of us live in a hyperbolic chamber with a constant supply of clean oxygen.? Work and life are messy and sometimes toxic.? How we show up and choose to respond to the messiness is the key to how we weather through it and if we choose to thrive despite the challenges.? We can adapt through disciplined processes, habits, and learn from our mistakes, or we can lock ourselves in a walk-in refrigerator (as Carmy did on opening night) and blame ourselves.

Running a restaurant is one of the most difficult businesses because the profit margins are almost non-existent, and it is dependent entirely upon whether people come, enjoy themselves, and hopefully, create irreplaceable memories.? Chefs and their financial partners do it because it’s a passion that is inescapable.? They do it for the experience of doing it because no one has done it before and that for them is enough.

Do you have a passion and a vision and a team that is dying to succeed?? How are you unleashing the power of your team's potential? Are you following a maniacally focused path to greatness? Or are you locked inside the 'walk in'?

Let’s talk.

#ceocoach #ceomindset #leadership @theexecutivecoachingcorner Joe Tria, MFA

Joe Tria, CEO, The Executive Coaching Corner, Chicago, IL