Chocolate chip cookies have been an important part of my life since I was a kid. Both my mother and wife specialized in the treats.

I was faced with a daunting situation when I started working in San Francisco, and chocolate chip cookies helped me succeed.

There have been a few times in everyone’s life where our confidence somehow disappeared. It could have been the first time we had to speak in front of a group, or when we had a major assignment at work, or when we purchased a new home or moved to a new city.



Today, the reaction is sometimes referred to as ‘Imposter Syndrome’ but in earlier times, it was simply a lack of confidence or insecurity.

According to Wikipedia

"Imposter Syndrome, also known as impostor phenomenon or impostorism, is a psychological experience of intellectual and professional fraudulence. One source defines it as "the subjective experience of perceived self-doubt in one's abilities and accomplishments compared with others, despite evidence to suggest the contrary".

Those who have it may doubt their skills, talents, or accomplishments. They may have a persistent internalized fear of being exposed as frauds. Despite external evidence of their competence, those experiencing this phenomenon do not believe they deserve their success or luck. They may think that they are deceiving others because they feel as if they are not as intelligent as they outwardly portray themselves to be."

A time I remember where my confidence dipped was my first trip to San Francisco as a thirty-something leader. It turned out to be the site of one of my best turnaround performances but started with me acting like a terrified child. Here’s what happened.

Jim Kiser, the same leader who had once given me the feedback that the thing I did best in my job in Los Angeles was filling up my car with gas after a day of driving, chose me to become his Director of Operations in Northern California, based in the city by the bay. It was a big promotion that took place during a corporate reorganization: new Chairman, new President, new titles and so forth.

There would be a Director in San Francisco and another in Seattle, both reporting to the Vice-President, who would also be based in San Francisco. But there was a catch.



Jim wouldn’t be moving up from southern California for six months because he was the leader of a major concept renovation for selected company restaurants.

• I had never been to San Francisco.
• I had never ‘taken over a region.’
• I had never had such an important role. 

I was only a few years removed from being a single store manager, and now I would be in charge of 68 locations doing a weekly volume of between $800,000 and a million dollars (in 1983 dollars). Gulp.

I was sort of confident, but definitely a little intimidated. No, make that very intimidated.

Sunday night before my first day in the San Francisco office, I flew up from Santa Barbara, which has the cutest airport in the world, and took a taxi to the Holiday Inn in the Chinatown section of San Francisco.

The San Francisco Chinatown might be the most famous in the country. Sitting on the twentieth floor of that hotel, looking down at the lights of the city, did not help my confidence at all. Gulp.

I realized this was the big time and probably struggled to sleep.

The plan for the next day was that Jim was going to meet me at the office, introduce me to the team, hang around for a while, and then leave things to me.

I walked down the hill to the office at 333 Market Street in the financial district of the city. Gulp. 

The office was on the 24th floor of a financial district skyscraper. Gulp. 

There would be about a dozen staff members who would be meeting me including regional managers and administrative staff. Gulp.

I "hid" in the lobby of this beautiful building with my heart pounding, not knowing if Jim was already there or not. I was afraid to get there before him, so I called the office from the pay phone and asked for him. Not there. 

I did that a couple of times until the receptionist told me to hold a minute, she would forward the call. I hung up and hopped on the elevator and walked into the office to meet the new team, MY new team. I was a little ashamed that I didn’t have the confidence to go to the office before Jim arrived, but I took it as a measurement of where I was as a leader. Room to grow.

My heart was still pounding as the group gathered, but I quickly established a rapport and announced that our first staff meeting would be a week from Wednesday, as well as sharing other calendar elements.

My corner office had a view up Market Street out of one side, and a view of the San Francisco Bay out of the other side. Definitely big time.

That night at the Holiday Inn, I was significantly more relaxed and laughed about being afraid to go upstairs without Jim. I guess I was still a kid and needed to be on my toes moving forward because I had a big job. Everything about it was big, and although I was afraid, I was not intimidated. I knew I could do it, I just had to get used to the ‘big time’ nature of the role.

I flew home a couple of days later, shared the details with my wife and made a special request. She was famous, and still is, for her chocolate chip cookies. I asked her to make some that I could offer at the staff meeting coming up. She did, and I did.

The rest is history. I brought chocolate chip cookies to every weekly staff meeting for the years I led the region.

I knew that even if I wasn’t popular with members of the team, that my wife was.

That scared little boy in the lobby of 333 Market Street went on to become a company leader and turned a very rough region into one of the best in the country. The same guy who established the standard of restaurants clean enough to eat off the floor and did. (Read about that here).

A few years later, there were some more changes, and I added the Seattle Region to my territory, bringing my scope to 135 restaurants. But I was experienced in big jobs now, and did not wait in the lobby in Seattle before going up. But what I did do the same, was bring my wife’s chocolate chip cookies to the first Seattle staff meeting.

Worked like a charm. Again.

(Those are the cookies above that were baked this week specifically to take a photo for the Weblog. Thanks, Betty.)