“At times, I can be a hard-charging boss,” Chef Barbara Lynch told The Boston Globe in an extensive piece on Friday about her alleged abuse of employees. The article, a version of which also ran in The New York Times, was a lengthy expose on the reported “toxic culture” in her Boston restaurant group.
Here’s what you don’t do when stories emerge that your leadership can be abusive, derisive, and corrosive. You don’t try to defend it by asserting how much of a perfectionist you are. As is too often done, you don’t explain it away by invoking high standards and expectations or that you are “hard charging.” These responses only mask the underlying problems.
Furthermore, you don’t want supporters telling journalists, as one defender of Chef Lynch did in the article, “I don’t look at her being a perfect person as necessary to being a viable leader.” No kidding. Nobody is talking about perfection here. Don’t take this discussion to an unobtainable vantage point, which also serves to obfuscate the real issues. It's a red herring and not for sale at any restaurant.
Chef Lynch is a remarkable success story. We’ve enjoyed her terrific restaurants over many years. Succeeding at the highest levels as a woman in a world of fine dining that is dripping with machismo is extremely difficult. Her 2017 book "Out of Line" is candid and effective. She deserves great credit. Nonetheless, leaders engaged in unacceptable and inappropriate behaviors need to focus on admitting the truth and fixing the problem, not on spinning clichés that indicate they and their supporters don’t get it. Yes, for sure, there are myriad, complex legal and PR reasons for saying and not saying certain things in painful situations such as this one. It is certainly all too easy, as well, to opine like this from 30,000 feet.
Still, it's essential to be brutally honest about abuse, though one can do so with an open heart. This is not a time for pettiness or schadenfreude. Getting Chef Lynch the help she needs will be good for her, her team, the restaurant business, Boston, and the practice of leadership in general. The Boston Globe story was an emphatic call to action. Here's hoping that it now serves as a fulcrum for needed change.
