Ina Garten had to ‘learn very quickly how to be a boss,’ she says—the best leadership advice she ever received
Ina Garten is an expert at making big career changes: She built a multimillion-dollar culinary empire after leaving her government job to open a food store.
She told Amy Poehler on Nov. 25 that Garten’s husband, Jeffrey, gave her sage advice when she decided to leave her previous career. section From her podcast “Have Fun with Amy Poehler.”
“I told Jeffrey I really needed to find something else to do, and he said, ‘Just pick something fun. Pick something you think you’d love to do, and if you love it, you’ll be really good at it,'” Garten said.
He purchased his first store, Barefoot Contessa, in Westhampton Beach, New York, in 1978.
Garten said running her own store was difficult at first. He had to “learn very quickly how to be the boss” and struggled to find his leadership style.
“A friend gave me advice; your employees need two things from you. They need you to be open and they need you to be happy,” Garten said.
From then on, Garten tried to give instructions more directly, “I need these candies packaged, and I need them packaged this way,” and decided not to let her bad days at the store “spoil the energy in the room.”
“That was the best lesson I ever learned in business,” Garten recalled.
How does he criticize?
Garten has a “very clear” rule about giving feedback to her employees: “If I I criticize you, I will take you out of the room and discuss what you can do better. If I’m complimenting you, I’ll do it with everyone around me.”
Although Garten tries to avoid firing people — “I usually give them a lot of warning, explaining what they need to do better,” she said — sometimes the job isn’t quite the right fit.
Learning how to let go of employees was also a leadership skill Garten needed to develop.
A month into running Barefoot Contessa, Garten noticed that one of her young employees was “terrible” at her job.
“He was very sweet, but not very nice,” Garten said, and decided to fire him.
“I took her out the back and explained, ‘I’m sure there are other things you’re good at. This isn’t it,'” Garten told Poehler.
Garten said her delivery was “very polite because I was so worried about hurting her feelings” but failed to tell the employee.
“He came back to work the next day. He didn’t know he was fired,” Garten said.
Garten didn’t dare fire the employee again, so she let him stay on the job for the rest of the summer.
Garten has now mastered the art of politely but firmly dismissing people: She said she fires people “in a way that makes them say thank you and kiss me when they leave.”
As a leader, Garten also prioritizes transparency. When Garten let an employee go, he said he called the rest of the team together and explained what had happened.
He told Poehler that he always worried that other employees would be mad at him for firing their colleague, but “100% of the time, they’re like, ‘Oh.’ [they were] such a neck pain. We hated working with them. “I’m so glad you kicked them out.”
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