The Snack Trap: What Elementary Teachers Know That Managers Don’t

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In the business world, snacks are love. We bring donuts for meetings, muffins for morale, and coffee by the gallon. It’s well-intentioned — a way to show appreciation and boost energy.

But imagine doing that in an elementary classroom.

No teacher in their right mind would mainline sugar into the veins of a bunch of 8-year-olds. We know better. What goes in affects how kids focus, behave, and feel.

So why do managers — who also want focus, good behavior, and positive energy — often choose snacks that do the opposite?

What if we borrowed from the classroom playbook instead?

1. Sugar crashes morale

Donuts feel amazing for 15 minutes. Then everyone is tired, distracted, irritable, and craving more sugar! Teachers avoid sugar before lessons because they’ve seen the crash — and it’s real. Although grownups don’t usually get a sugar high, they do crash, and productivity suffers.

2. The best treats feed focus, not fatigue.

Fruit, nuts, veggies with dip, and tea energize without derailing concentration. A bowl of blueberries says, I care about your health, not I bought whatever was near the register.

3. Modeling matters.

Elementary teachers model habits we want kids to adopt. Managers can do the same. When leaders choose mindful snacks, they signal that wellbeing isn’t a side note — it’s part of the culture.

Try This:

Next time you plan a staff meeting or appreciation day, skip the sugar and try a “brain food” spread — fruit, veggies, hummus, nuts, green tea.

See if your team feels sharper, calmer, and more focused afterward.

Extra Credit:

What’s the healthiest team snack you’ve ever seen at work?

Share your ideas — or a photo — in the comments to inspire other leaders to rethink their breakroom tables.

How Empowering Housekeepers Transformed our Lodge

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Our housekeeping team staged a quiet revolution.

It began when we challenged them to improve their department. Simple idea, right? But the results blew us away.

Our housekeeping manager embraced the classroom-style approach we used in orientation and ran with it. She taped a giant sheet of paper outside the laundry room, stacked a pile of Post-it notes nearby, and told the team, “If you spot a problem or have an idea, write it down.”

Within days, the wall began to fill up. Within two weeks, it resembled a crime investigation board — complete with color-coded ideas, overlapping notes, and arrows pointing to who-knows-what.

After cleaning shifts, the team gathered to sort through ideas, workshop solutions, and prepare a presentation for leadership. Yes, a presentation.

We turned it into a whole event — food, ice cream, the works. Managers attended, and the housekeepers ran the show. They stood at the front and explained their ideas with the confidence of a Silicon Valley startup team pitching to investors.

Some wins came fast. They asked for a tall table to make folding sheets easier — we found one in storage the next day. Other ideas, like new carts and shock-proof handles, went straight into the Amazon cart. They even created a color-coding system for Twin, Queen, and King linens, which eliminated the daily “what-size-is-this?” guessing game.

The result? A team that felt heard, empowered, and proud. They weren’t just cleaning rooms anymore — they were improving systems, solving problems, and leading change.

Soon, we were ranked #1 among all the lodges in housekeeping scores. (Not that we’re counting. Except we definitely were.)

The housekeeping manager learned that leadership isn’t about having all the answers — it’s about asking better questions and trusting your team to find the answers themselves. Like a good teacher who flips the classroom and lets the students teach each other. It takes courage to hand over the chalk, but when you do, the results can be extraordinary.

The new color coded system – a huge success!

Key Takeaways

  • Autonomy sparks innovation. Give people the freedom to think and act, and they’ll surprise you.
  • Community strengthens engagement. Collaboration turns ideas into ownership.
  • Trust unlocks potential. The best leaders create space — not instructions.

Your Assignment

This week, give your team ownership of one small project. Let them identify a problem, propose a solution, and present it. 

Extra Credit

When have you seen someone on your team step up? Share your story in the comments — or an idea you’d like to try.

Welcome to Elementary Leadership

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Fourteen summers.

That’s how many seasons I spent in Alaska managing hotels, lodges, and tour companies — building new teams from scratch every May and saying goodbye every September.

It was chaotic, exhausting, and somehow, I loved it.

Then the world shut down.

So I left Alaska, moved to Taiwan, and became a teacher. Over the next few years, I taught everything from pre-K to high school freshmen. It was the most challenging job I’ve ever had — and the most transformative.

Teaching didn’t just change how I saw kids. It changed how I saw people.

In the classroom, success came from structure, clarity, repetition, and the occasional extended recess. From giving students autonomy and celebrating growth over perfection. From knowing when to lead — and when to step back.

When I returned to management in Alaska after a six-year break, I applied what I’d learned from elementary education to leadership.

First, I ran orientation like a classroom:

  • Breakout groups instead of slideshows
  • Common agreements instead of rules
  • Kahoot! instead of boring lectures
  • A property tour turned into a photo scavenger hunt — also a great way to find out who’s secretly funny
The classroom style of orientation
Who says grown-ups can’t play Kahoot?
Instead of a boring meet and greet, we gamified itroductions

By the end of the first week, our team was communicating, laughing, and solving problems on its own. Not because I gave orders, but because they felt ownership — the same magic that happens in a good classroom.

Once we opened, guest service scores skyrocketed — up 56 points from the prior May. We went from the lowest-rated Princess lodge to second.

Here’s what I realized: leadership and teaching are the same craft. Running a hotel in Alaska is a lot like teaching fourth grade — except the tourists throw way worse tantrums. Both are about creating environments where people learn, grow, and take pride in what they do.

Looking back, I realize I’d been leading my Alaskan teams like an elementary teacher all along — focusing on growth, celebrating effort, and occasionally wearing a banana suit to keep adults from acting too serious.

Employee appreciation party. My boss bought me a banana suit. At first I resisted, then I embraced my weirdness and it made me a better leader.

Assignment

Leadership is better when we learn from each other. Share your thoughts, tips, or funny stories in the comments — let’s build a little Elementary Leadership community right here.