A Thanksgiving Tool Leaders Can Use

Here we are at Thanksgiving in the U.S. and we just finished a big election and we are in the second wave of the pandemic! How leaders choose to focus on and how they react sets the example for the team. In this episode, Paul Simkins, The Values Coach, talks about gratitude does that nothing else can do.

Plus, Worth the Wait Turkey! A recipe for smoked turkey that will have a nice, crispy skin and tender, juicy, and flavorful meat! The recipe is from the book Smoke and Spice by Cheryl Alters Jamison and Bill Jamison. You can find the recipe, and many more, on the Smoke and Ash Facebook group or by emailing paul@BoldlyLead.com.

You can find the latest edition of Cheryl's book here.
You can read more about Cheryl and see more recipes at excitedaboutfood.com.

You can get a copy of Paul's eBook 15 Innovative Ways to Show Employees You Care and Not Break the Bank by emailing him at paul@BoldlyLead.com.

Join the discussions at our Podcast Facebook group here.
Learn more about Paul Simkins on his website.

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Transcript

Producer: 0:00

The tech leaders toolbox podcast is brought to you by Paul Simkins and the bully LEAD program, focusing on helping tech leaders like you, and the frustration of low performing teams, and losing excellent employees, so they can increase productivity by 50%. Go home on time, and sleep better at nights.

Paul Simkins: 0:22

Hello, and welcome to the tech leaders toolbox. I'm Paul Simkins. And we're here because how you lead today determines how your team succeeds. Tomorrow. This is Episode 44. This episode is dropping on the Monday before Thanksgiving, during this second wave of the pandemic, and after a tumultuous election season, how we think and act through all of that, as leaders has a huge impact on how our employees will make it through as well. So let's talk about how we put our thoughts and actions in place for success. Plus a little bit later on, I'm going to share a thanksgiving turkey recipe with you that you will be glad you stayed around for Are you ready? Let's go. As we enter the Thanksgiving holiday here in the United States, obviously the topic of thankfulness and gratitude comes up. My pastor once suggested that more often than not, we're thankful for things but not grateful. Do you agree? what I got from this is that thankfulness is a verbal expression, but gratitude is an action. In the story Jesus rids 10 men of leprosy, but only one comes back to show gratitude to him. Were they all thankful? Most certainly. But only one truly showed gratitude. And that made the difference? Well, it's been a weird year, for me, at least for me and my wife, you know, one of our kids moved out, which is a big thing for us, you know, they're at that age. And just as we're gaining momentum, the pandemic and the shutdown hit. And I mentioned this, not just to give you a family update, but rather as an example, there were things that didn't get done, when I wanted them done because of these many distractions. So where is your focus, as a leader, I can put my focus on all the things that aren't going the way I want them to go. Or I can focus on what went well. Doesn't mean I ignore what didn't go well. But I focus more and show gratitude for the things that go well. And see, my son moved out. I'm thankful that my son has taken initiative to make his way. My gratitude is the action supporting him, while still encouraging his independence and freedom. We're thankful for remaining healthy during this pandemic. Our gratitude is to use the shutdown time to reinvent some of the things we do and how we do them. I take a lot more hikes for example. And the dog is really appreciated that because I'll take the dog with me and we'll go hiking a lot of the hiking trails around here. And let I'll let the dog run loose a little bit. And she is absolutely thrilled. See his leaders the actions we take in gratitude affect. Well, not only us, but those we lead as well. You can be thankful to be in business and in gratitude, approach each day in a positive manner. You can be thankful for the team you have and show gratitude by the way you treat them. You can express thankfulness for the level of productivity your team has achieved, and demonstrate gratitude by helping them to reach higher, you can thank each client for their business, and show gratitude by rewarding them for their choice and their faithfulness. Because you see, despite all the disturbances in our week, the family's going to be able to spend time together and to celebrate Thanksgiving, and share a large, very filling meal. It may be smaller groups now than what we had used to in the past. I know some families will get together and there's 3040 people in the room. Now maybe it's going to be 10. Our plan is we're going to be putting up some pop ups outside where we can space out a little bit more and be outdoors. And that's how we're going to celebrate Thanksgiving. So rather than harp on all of the inconveniences, we can instead focus on the good and the positive things that have happened. See, gratitude is an action and therefore is one of the leaders strongest tools. Gratitude is practically the ultimate Positive thinking. It doesn't ignore the fact that there are problems. It doesn't disregard that we're not where we wish to be or who we wish to be. It rejoices and what we have been blessed with so far, no matter how big or small, and it turns that attitude into an action that creates more positive effect in both ourselves and our team. So when you hear people talk about how gratitude is so critical, and leaders need to be showing gratitude and the really successful people show gratitude, this is what they're talking about. Not just being thankful, but turning thankfulness into the action of gratitude. Gratitude is outloud. Gratitude when practice practice, gratitude, when properly practiced, becomes a way of life and a way of thinking. The proper practice of gratitude is to engage in a daily waiting until the holidays to express gratitude is not the appropriate application that's called ritual. What we want is authentic, heartfelt thankfulness for how your life has been blessed, and how others have influenced you positively. In fact, the key to effective gratitude is to remember that gratitude is loud and persistent, the more often you probably proclaim your Thanksgiving, and the more openly you share it, the more blessings multiply and opportunities appear, and actions yield results. The key to effective gratitude is to remember that gratitude is loud and persistent. I'm thankful that I am here with family celebrating this season. My gratitude action is that I am stopping here to enjoy that. Actually, I share after they share the recipe with you. So what will you do? So here's a little tip for you a little application tip for you. Start your own gratitude journal, beginning today, and go through the rest of the year at least. And just a little notebook is all you need in each day. First thing in the morning, including weekends, write down just one thing for which you're grateful. Just one thing each day for which you're grateful, and it needs to be something new every day. From that determine one action you will take to demonstrate your gratitude that day. Maybe it's call somebody write a letter. Do something for somebody else. Take an action that turns your thankfulness into gratitude. Start now. We'll be back in a moment.

Producer: 8:00

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Paul Simkins: 8:29

well. As you know again, I always like to share outdoor cooking recipes on the show and the last part of the show here and have I got a great one for you today. It's not my own invention, but I have done this recipe several times before. And I can attest that it is absolutely fabulous. And it is well timed. Because it is called worth the weight Turkey. So this is a way you can prep your turkey and it's a smoked turkey recipe. And let me tell you, if you had smoked turkey in the past and you go Ah, this skin was kind of rubbery and and you know the meat was dried out and all that that will not happen here. What you're going to get out of this Turkey has a nice crispy skin and tender, juicy, flavorful meat inside. It's called worth the weight Turkey. And I actually got this recipe from a book called smokin spice, which is written by Cheryl alters Jamison and Bill Jamison. The edition I had was in 1995 edition, Cheryl Jamison has actually come out with a revised version of it. And and it is very, very good. And in the show notes, you're gonna find links to information about the book, as well as Cheryl Jamison's current website where she shares a lot of recipes. So again, this is called worth the weight Turkey and you're going to start with about a 10 to 12 pound turkey and there's three phases to this. So you need an injection liquid, which you're going to use garlic flavored oil and beer and cayenne pepper. And then also you're going to make a paste out of garlic cloves, black pepper, coarse ground black pepper, kosher salt, cayenne pepper, and garlic flavored oil. And then finally, you're going to make a mop marinade out of two cups of turkey or chicken broth, chicken stock, about a cup of water, some more beer and canola oil. So here's how to make it the night before you're going to cook the turkey. You're going to take your mix your injection ingredients, put them all in a bowl and mix them up real good. And then using a kitchen syringe, you're going to inject the marinade into two separate places on each breast of the turkey. two places in each thigh, and then one in each leg. So a total of six injections. The bulk of the liquid needs to go into the breast because they're going to be biggest Of course. Then the next thing you need to do is take your garlic to make the paste you're going to mash up that garlic real well. And combine the garlic and all the dry ingredients of the paste into a small food processor. And then slowly add the oil to make a paste. You're going to massage that paste all over the turkey inside and out, slide some under the skin if you can get under the skin without breaking the skin, rub it under the skin as well when I was able to do that it came out really really well. Then once you get to paste all over the turkey wrap the whole thing, put the whole thing in a plastic bag and refrigerate it overnight. Now the next day, you're going to take the turkey out from the refrigerator at least 45 minutes before you want to start cooking it. Get your smoker up to about 200 to 220 degrees Fahrenheit. And then you're going to cut about a four to five foot length of cheese cloth and wet it down with water. And then wrap the bird completely in the cheesecloth and tie off the ends. And now you're ready. Place the turkey in the smoker breast side down. And all told you're going to cook it for about one and a quarter to one and a half hours per pound. And you'll know it's done when the temperature in the middle of the breast is about 180 degrees Fahrenheit. If you're using a woodburning pitch smoker, then what you're going to want to do is wet the cheese cloth with more water every 30 minutes. Then after about six hours of cooking, so about halfway through, you're going to remove the cheese cloth using a pair of scissors taken care of not to cut the skin of the turkey, take the cheese cloth off and continue to cook the turkey. From that point on every 30 minutes. You want to base the turkey with the heated mop mixture. So you want to keep that warm on the stove and every 30 minutes you're going to base the turkey with that. And then once it reaches turret temperature that hundred 80 degrees Fahrenheit tested in the middle of the breast. Remove the turkey from the smoker. And you're going to let it sit for about 15 minutes before carving. And then you can serve it with barbecue sauce on the side. Again, you're going to get a nice crispy skin, a juicy, flavorful meat. And it's called worth the weight Turkey by Cheryl. Cheryl alters Jamison and Bill Jamison. And if you want that recipe, well again, I run a Facebook group called smoke and ash. And out there me and all of my friends are all into outdoor cooking. And we share recipes. And I'm sure there's gonna be a lot of talk this week during Thanksgiving, about what we plan on doing Thanksgiving and into the weekend. What we're going to be cooking, and these recipes that I share here on the tech leaders toolbox are all posted out there that smokin ash Facebook group. If you don't like Facebook, you want a copy of the recipe, just send me an email at Paul at boldly lead.com and I'll be glad to send that along to you. Alright, so we talked this week about the difference between thankfulness and gratitude. thankfulness is an expression of verbal, verbal expression. Gratitude is an action. And so we're going to talk about putting things into action and showing our gratitude for others. And I strongly suggest you start that gratitude journal. By the way, if you're listening to us on an app, one of the ways you can show gratitude for this podcast is if you're listening to us on a podcast app or podcast directory service, leave us a really good review so that other people can find us You can share this podcast with other people and help us extend our reach. Well, that's all we got for this week. Hope you have a great Thanksgiving. Until next time, go out and be the leader. You were meant to be.