Let's talk about Vietnamese egg coffee.
The legend goes that fresh milk was in short supply in Vietnam post-war 1975 because fresh milk and condensed milk were scarce commodities due to the trade embargo, so whisked egg yolk was used as a replacement to make coffee. It turns out that adding eggs instead of milk changes the beverage in a powerful way and creates a unique and delightful experience. Dare I say, some of the functions of the egg in coffee could also be leadership functions in teams.
For example, adding the egg helps clarify the coffee, allowing the grounds to separate from the water easily. When egg whites are subjected to high temperatures, their proteins break apart and attach to other macromolecules in the liquid. This is similar to the concept of tannins in wine and cellular material in consommé.
In your teams, when you are subjected to high temperatures or situations, separate what is necessary and what is excessive. Here's what you can do, find the separate the grounds from the liquid. In other words, filter out what information, what communication, what factors are all really important in your decision making. It is so easy to become overwhelmed with an influx of information. Be like egg coffee, and separate the pertinent information from the extra.
Also, in egg coffee, the egg white extracts the bitterness from the grounds and enhances the caffeine. While the coffee brews inside the pot, a concoction of grounds and egg begins to congeal together towards the top as the water and solids are separated (hydrophobic effect). Basically, the egg whites enhance the acridness of lesser-quality coffee and diminish the bitter flavor while enhancing the caffeine.
That is powerful. The egg eliminates the bitterness in the coffee. It takes out the bitter and pungent aspects of coffee. But it's not just keeping everything light and fluffy, at the exact same time, it enhances the caffeine. So, it diminishes the bitterness and enhances the beverage's productivity, effectiveness, or caffeine.
You can diminish bitterness in attitude and mindset. By this, I mean set the stage for an offensive, proactive mindset rather than a defensive one. At the same time, don't be just fluff. While the two are generally complementary, that is not always the case. Be intentional about enhancing the effectiveness of your team dynamic.
When coffee is made with the egg, the result is a light, clear brew with absolutely no bitterness or acidity and a velvety texture that's easy to drink.
The egg changes the dynamic of the beverage. The change does not add more to the coffee. As leaders, sometimes we're really tempted to add more and more. But all the creamer and sugar in the world can't be added to a bad cup of coffee to make it great; it can just make it tolerable. Egg coffee doesn't add. It filters through the bitterness and separates the unnecessary, enhances the effectiveness, and results in a lighter and clearer brew.
I know, I know, this is a little bit of a stretch, but what if we sought to lead like egg coffee. Here's one thing that you can do in your team today. Identify one way that you can filter through the bitterness/sour taste in your team or complexity within your team and then be like egg coffee for higher performance. It's an eggggggcelent idea!
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