The Old Boy.

In early 2008 Starbucks was reporting negative daily comps—meaning sales were down compared to the same day a year earlier—in the double digits. Sales were in a free fall. Every day around the country, fewer and fewer people were coming into Starbucks stores. And those who did were spending less money than in the past. This was the worst period in Starbucks history. Things looked bleak and it seemed that Starbucks had lost its magic.

Starbucks needed a leader, and that leader was Howard Schultz, the original visionary behind the company. He would comeback to return as the CEO and rekindle that magic that had been lost.

Howard Schultz is a transformational leader. He leads employees by aligning employee goals with the leader’s goals. He uses charisma, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration to influence his followers. He leads employees by aligning employee goals with his goals. Thus, employees working for him start focusing on the company’s well-being rather than on what is best for them as individual employees

Howard Schultz uses the four tools of a transformational leader.

Charisma: Once he returned to Starbucks the first thing he set out to do was build confidence. He took the blame for the failure of Starbucks and rather than blaming others he focused on moving forward. He said “the number-one priority in the next weeks and months was to instill confidence in our future. Without confidence, people could not perform.”

Inspirational Motivation: When confronting competition, he did not back down from his original vision to compromise with the other low cost coffee competitions such as McDonald's or Dunkin' Donuts. He stuck to his vision and stated “We cannot allow competition to define us. We have to play offense, proactively defining ourselves by sharing the full story of Starbucks' value proposition: Behind every cup of Starbucks is the world's highest-quality, ethically sourced coffee beans: baristas with health-care coverage and stock in the company: farmers who are treated fairly and humanely; a mission to treat all people with respect and dignity; and passionate coffee experts whose knowledge about coffee cannot be matched by any other coffee company.” “ If we can't do all that, then same on us and they deserve to take our business.” Howard Schultz stuck by his clear vision and thus gave motivation to the thousands of workers that Starbucks is special and that they are working toward a valuable goal.

Intellectual Stimulation: Employees at Starbucks have the opportunity to learn more about coffee. They are trained how to make the perfect coffee, and if they complete a course they can get the famous black apron and become a certified Coffee Master. There is no extra pay for those who get a black apron, but this does provide intellectual stimulation for employees and thus encourage motivation and hard work.

Individualized consideration: When he was 7 years old his father, an uneducated war veteran, had fallen and broke his hip and his ankle. His father lost his job, had no worker's compensation, no health-care, and no severance. So, in one of the most famous examples of individual consideration Howard Schultz offers health-care coverage and stock options to his workers even though many are part-time workers He believes in creating an engaging, respectful, trusting workplace culture.

Howard Schultz uses Charisma, Inspirational Motivation, Intellectual Stimulation, and Individualized Consideration, and this makes him a transformational leader.

by 

Brodie Monical