What French Fries Can Teach Us About Leadership Development

Our partners at CoachingOurselves have a way of taking unexpected metaphors, like French fries, and turning them into powerful insights about leadership.

In the blog below, they explore how mislabeled concepts can shape the way we misunderstand leadership development. It is a refreshing reminder that what we call something is not always what it is, and that real leadership growth often happens in spaces that do not look like traditional learning at all.

Read on for their full perspective:

Do you know why French fries are called “French”?

We’ll explain:

During World War I, American soldiers were amazed by fried potatoes they had in Belgium.
They were so shook that when they went back home, they said,
“Wow, these French fries are incredible.”

Why? Because the Belgian soldiers they met spoke French.

They aren’t French.
Just… labeled that way.
Kind of like hamburgers.

(Hamburg didn’t invent them — but that’s another story.)

So what does this have to do with leadership development?
A lot, actually.

Because we do the same thing at work.

We give things names that sound familiar, but that don’t describe what they actually are.

Or what they really do.

Like calling a peer group learning program a “course.”
Or treating leadership development as a content delivery system.
Or assuming that just because people work together, leadership happens naturally.

But here’s the thing:

Peer group learning sessions aren’t just meetings.
They’re not courses.
They’re not there to “teach” leaders in the traditional sense.

They’re spaces.
Where people slow down.
Talk.
Reflect.
Support each other.
And move through the real stuff.

Let’s not mistake the name for the impact.

French fries are Belgian.
Leadership doesn’t come from lectures.
And growth doesn’t always look like learning.

Would love to hear your thoughts.