Share Your Secret Sauce — Whiteboard Walks

If there is one universal truth I’ve learned from working across great teams it’s this: Everybody has something at which they are the very best.

We all have a skill where we outshine others — our very own "secret sauce”. This goes beyond feel-good rhetoric. The world is so complex that everyone can’t share the exact same strengths, creating plenty of avenues for uniqueness.

Whether you create a mean slide deck, whip up a kick-ass Excel model, or crack a joke that turns a stale meeting into an engaging conversation, there is that one thing that everyone innately has that nobody else can quite replicate.

But there's a common trap many of us fall into: hoarding our secret sauce. An instinct to keep it under lock and key, closely guarded.

A fridge full of sauces, under lock and key.

Why? There is a fear that sharing your secret might make you dispensable. After all, if everyone could whip up 'Amanda’s Secret Sauce,’ who needs Amanda?

Amanda offering others her secret sauce; they decline because they already have some

Let's debunk this myth. Everyone should share their secret sauce, and here's why:

The secret part of the sauce is YOU.

Your secret sauce is much more than its ingredients.

If you’ve ever tried to replicate Naples-style pizza in your kitchen, you’ll know; even with the exact recipe it won’t taste the same.

The real magic of your secret sauce is you. It's your personality, your values, your experiences — all these ingredients combine to create a flavor that’s uniquely yours and can't be replicated. Not even with the most precise ChatGPT prompt.

Someone jumping in a meat grinder to make their secret sauce.

Sharing makes you better.

It's often the case that our secret sauce feels so instinctive we can't easily articulate it.

Sure, you might make great slides, but could you dissect every decision you make in the process?

By teaching, you’ll start to realize what it is that you do, allowing you to consciously improve.

The distillation process might also help you reframe what it is that you do. Are you really just a great slide builder, or are you actually a strong storyteller?

By actively sharing, you better connect the dots yourself.

Someone spilling a martini into a sauce pan while cooking. The other person tells them that's how you flambe.

You may find new fusions.

By letting people build on your expertise, you’ll unlock improvement opportunities you never would have seen.

Your unique combination of experiences may have led to your strengths, but you are equally limited by that experience-set.

By openly sharing you’re inviting an entirely new universe of capabilities into your worldview, adding new spices to your secret sauce.

Someone sharing Amanda's secret sauce back, but in new flavours.

What does it really mean to share your secret sauce?

If you want to share your secret sauce, the recipe is 3 simple steps:

Ask the people you work closely with what you’re the best at and see where there is consistency.

Look for opportunities to apply your skillset and balance someone else’s gaps.

Sit down and walk them through what you do step-by-step. It will take a few times to get it right, but the more you teach the better you’ll get.

Your 'secret sauce' isn’t diminished through sharing; it’s diversified and fortified. So, fling open the fridge door and let the world in on your secret.