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What does cooking have to do with running an association? As it turns out, quite a lot. In today's session "Cookin' Up Leadership," Rhea Blanken gathered a mixed group of association professionals, from CEOs to entry-level to mid management, then created diverse teams to make a meal from scratch.

"I just want it to be good. I'm not a manager," says one of the lead chefs while she's stirring a steaming pan of tasty-smelling food. She was chosen to be head chef of her group, though typically she works under others' leadership. The food her and her teammates are cooking will be served to another group.

"We're working for the other team and not just for ourselves. I just want it to be good for whoever eats it."

An animated teammate of the head chef appears who asks what she can do to help the lead chef. By day, she's a CEO. Today, she's a sous chef and works for the head chef. "I get impatient," she says. "We ran out of rhubarb, which we have to use to make the dessert." The other three teams were able to snag some of the precious rhubarb, but this team was left out. The other teams promised to share. This isn't a competition; it's an exercise in teamwork. "But I noticed that people were OK [in theory] with you using something, but if they need it, it's a different story," says the sous chef.

What does this have to do with running an association? Think about it this way: how often are you short on resources? How many times does your team need to work with another department to meet a goal, but it doesn't seem like that other team will give up ownership of a project?

Blanken admits there were a few tricks in the process. CEOs were purposely put in positions that had to answer to others, while those that typically aren't in the lead were put in charge. It was interesting to watch the head chef evolve during the cooking process. To start, she seemed a bit unsure of herself and obviously ready to please others. But when the sous chef hadn't measured out the melted butter before another teammate poured it into a dish, the head chef sprang into action. "We can just add flour to the mix."

As time went on, her confidence level in leading noticeably increased. Meanwhile, the sous chef was ready to throw out the dish before asking the head chef what to do. "That's typically how I operate at work," she says. But when another teammate pointed out that maybe the head chef would have an idea of what to do to salvage the dish, the sous chef says it all clicked. Sometimes leaders, who are ready to spring into action, should find out what your teammates know. That's the point of having staff members. They bring a new idea or perspective to a situation or project that you might have been ready to toss out.