4 Howard Schultz Leadership Style Commandments

Although Howard Schultz was not yet a part of Starbucks when it was started in 1971, his leadership style is attributed to the continuous success of the coffeehouse chain around the world. The Starbucks CEO is known for being a transformational leader, a person who motivates his team by encouraging them and ensuring respect, honesty and trust are practiced in the company. Here are some of the principles commanded by Howard Schultz at Starbucks:

1. Think Of The Welfare Of Your Employees.

Howard Schultz is known to be the CEO who knows how to take care of his employees and this is not only for how he gives rewards and perks to members of his team. Aside from given them comprehensive health insurance, he also offers them the option to earn stocks and give them tuition benefits. As for listening to the grievances of his people, he sees to it that these are acted upon like the case in which an employee forwarded a complaint about work schedule and shared it via an interview. Right after this was known, he immediately talked with the store manager to stabilize the shift schedules of employees.

2. Hire The Right People For The Team.

For Schultz, getting the right employees is more important than telling people what to do. Although he believes in inspiring and motivating managers and team to be more driven, he also believes that hiring the right people to be part of the company is equally important. This is why for Schultz, the choosing process plays a significant role in the success of the company because it takes less time to enhance the skills of competent people than teach skills to people who are not really fit for the job. He does this by being a good communicator as a leader.

3. Learn To Respect And Support Diversity.

The CEO of Starbucks is aware that having regional offices means having to deal with people of different ethnicities and cultural background. This is one of the reasons behind the design of his stores being made according to the preferences and practices of the community and the suppliers as well as customers. What he does is to identify the needs of the market and base the list of products on these needs. This is why there are still some food items offered in one regional store and not offered in the other.

4. Ensure Quality And Consistency In All Products And Services.

It might be true that among the 22,000 stores of Starbucks around the world, there are different sandwiches, food items and coffee blends being sold. However, all their products taste the same regardless of the location of the store as well as their coffee blends. The Mocha Frappuccino you can get from a Starbucks in New York tastes the same with the one you can order in an Asian country. This is because he has the principle that customers around the world deserve the same service and product quality and that includes consistency in the taste and service.