Omakase

Omakase directly translates to “I leave it up to you.” Omakase, a chef-curated dinner, is where the customer leaves the order details to the sushi chef. Why would you let someone else pick what you have for dinner? Because you believe (and trust) that the sushi chef knows more about sushi, the current state of their inventory of fish, and other conditions than you do. The chef is an expert; you are not.

Why then, when faced with a “menu” of options in our organizational decision-making do leaders often demand that they get to choose the items on their own? By analogy, leaders go into a sushi restaurant and act like they know more about fish than the sushi chef. When you put it that way, it sounds pretty dumb.

There are only a few reasons one might legitimately be better positioned to select items from the sushi menu than the chef:

1. You are eating sushi at a gas station. Leaders who don’t have a team with the necessary skill sets to do their job better than the leader have one of two problems. Either they are not focused on and committed to getting the right people in the right seats on the bus (in which case they have made their bed and deserve the stomach issues that will ensue), or they are in the process of developing their team, and this season will pass (quickly, we hope).
2. You are a sushi expert. Or, more likely, you are under the impression that no one in the universe knows more about sushi than you do. Leaders who think they have all the answers lack the most critical characteristic necessary for healthy, successful leadership—humility. It can be easily proven that no one person can acquire, maintain, and apply all the knowledge and information necessary to do everything with excellence. Get over yourself.
3. You don’t actually enjoy sushi. You know what you like and are not interested in trying anything new. I tend to approach the world from my own viewpoint, which is one where I want to learn and explore. I love omakase, but not everyone does. (I also love ordering the same breakfast at the same restaurant, sitting in the same booth—so go figure.) Leaders who must have it their way should be honest about the value they will place on other people’s input.

Great leaders are passionate about surrounding themselves with people who are smarter and better at certain things than they themselves are. It doesn’t mean they don’t know anything about the subject, but they willingly acknowledge they are not, cannot, and will not be the expert. True leadership isn’t threatened by people who know more and can do more; they are energized by it.

Great leaders say, “I trust you.” Often. They say it because they do. Leaving it up to the chef isn’t a cop-out or not doing your job. Rather, giving someone else the responsibility and authority to execute the things they are really good at is the highest form of respect.

Great leaders know they don’t belong in the kitchen. When we tell people what to do, we get exactly what we ask for. When we tell people where we want to go, what we want to accomplish, and who we want to be, we are often amazed at the “off-menu” items that are presented to us.

Healthy communities are led by leaders who are passionate about people, trust the right people with the right responsibilities, and stay out of the way of the creativity that people have in them. Saying, “I leave it up to you” as often as we can leads to amazing things that we might not even imagine. If you try a little more “omakase” in your leadership, you might be pleasantly surprised at what your team puts on the table, because you are leading the Bison Way.