Leadership Advantedge: Leadership | Influence | Talent | Neuroscience

It was 4.30 on a cold and wet morning and I was choking on thestench of thick layers of years old grease behind the deep fatfryer and I was ecstatically happy as I scrubbed and cleaned theonce white tiles back to their original gleaming brightness.It was my first day on my first proper job and I would soon bedelegating this filthy work to some other poor sap who similarlywanted to become a chef de cuisine. In the meantime, my job was toscrub, peel, haul, carry, chop, clear and clean it all upagain.The head cook (for in the mid 1970's we had few "Chef's" as thatwas far too French and suggestive of "haute cuisine") had agreed totake me under her wing and teach me how to prepare the only famousdish to come from England and clogged the arteries of its workingclasses: The Great British Breakfast.Putting talent in perspectiveTalent is often misunderstood. Businessleaders are obsessed with finding it, keeping it and banking theirsuccession on it. They recruit the top students from the bestuniversities, promote them