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It's Not About the Coffee: Leadership Principles from a Life at Starbucks

Description

“At Starbucks, the coffee has to be excellent, from the sourcing and growing to the roasting and brewing. The vision has to be inspiring and meaningful. Our finances have to be in order. But without people, we have nothing. With people, we have something even bigger than coffee.”

During his many years as a senior executive at Starbucks, Howard Behar helped establish the Starbucks culture, which stresses the importance of people over profits. He coached hundreds of leaders at every level and helped the company grow into a world- renowned brand. Now he reveals the ten principles that guided his leadership—and not one of them is about coffee.

Behar starts with the idea that if you regard employees and customers as human beings, everything else will take care of itself. If you think of your staff as people (not labor costs) they will achieve results beyond what is thought possible. And if you think of your customers as people you serve (not sources of revenue) you’ll make a deep connection with them, and they’ll come back over and over.

This approach has been integral to Starbucks from the start, and remains so today. Behar shares inside stories of turning points in the company’s history as it fought to hang on to this culture while growing exponentially. He discusses the importance of building trust, facing challenges, daring to dream, and other key principles, such as:

• Know Who You Are: Wear One Hat
When organizations are clear about their values, purpose, and goals, they find the energy and passion to do great things.

• Think Independently: The Person Who Sweeps the Floor Should Choose the Broom
We need to get rid of rules—real and imagined—and encourage the independent thinking of others and ourselves.

• Be Accountable: Only the Truth Sounds Like the Truth
No secrets, no lies of omission, no hedging and dodging. Take responsibility and say what needs to be said, with care and respect.

• Take Action: Think Like a Person of Action and Act Like a Person of Thought
Find the sweet spot of passion, purpose, and persistence. “It’s all about the people” isn’t an idea, it’s an action. Feel, do, think. Find the balance, but act.

Behar believes that as work becomes less hierarchical and as the world economy becomes more and more about relationships and connecting, the principles of personal leadership are more important than ever. This book will show you the way.

Reviews

Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2010-03-31
Summary: "Prioritising people in business and leadership"

Howard Behar, It's Not About the Coffee: Lessons on Putting People First from a Life at Starbucks (New York: Portfolio, 2009)

Review by Darren Cronshaw

Howard Behar was the organisational leader who helped grow Starbucks from 28 stores to a world-renowned brand with thousands of stores worldwide. His book is an inspiring story of fostering humanity in an organisation. Behar describes his leadership principles, illustrated with stories of where Starbucks put people first while juggling challenges of exponential growth. It is interesting because it is about coffee but relevant because its principles are applicable to church. Behar prompted me to ask dozens of questions about humanity in church life.

He places a big priority on people, teams, trust and caring like you really mean it: "People come before the coffee. After all, people grow the coffee, choose the coffee, ship the coffee, roast the coffee, brew and serve the coffee - and enjoy the coffee" (p.136). His passion prompted me to see people as more important than my resume as pastor, and to ask how can I cultivate that attitude in others? How can I grow a fruitful church and not compromise my sense of humanity? How can I make a big deal of each person?

He counsels knowing who you are - wear one hat and be clear about your values purpose and goals. Rather than trying to do too many things, it reminded me to ask what will make a church `feel most deeply and vitally alive' and in tune with what God is calling us to?

Behar counsels listening attentively - the walls talk, so keep your ears and eyes open for organisational insights. How do I make space to hear people's hearts, to invite them to share what is on their minds? How can we ensure good communication between denomination and churches, between pastors and members, and between churches and their communities? Starbucks' purpose is to build bridges among people - the fairtrade coffee, trained staff, comfortable seating, ambient music, diverse products and excellent service all enhances that. What do the walls say about the vibe of our churches?

He encourages independent thought in teams - the person who sweeps the floor should choose the broom, so get rid of as many rules as you can and empower people to do what it takes. Similarly in church, how can we empower leaders to transform their communities?

And Behar says dare to dream - to say yes, the most important word in the world to open people up to big goals, joys and hopes. How can we better cultivate in our churches a culture of permission and possibility to resource people in their dreams?

Behar's leadership story at Starbucks is about fostering creativity, energy, passion, mutual care and respect for humanity as part of its organisational culture - inspiring lessons to consider for our churches.

Darren is a Baptist pastor at Auburn Baptist, and enjoyed a Frappuccino while writing this review which may appear in The Witness (Sep 2010).

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Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2010-02-06
Summary: "Leadership Principles In Which To Be Grounded"

It's Not About The Coffee: Leadership Principles from a Life at Starbucks by Howard Behar is an excellent book for today's busy leader. It is easy to read in spurts, but it also goes very quickly. In a mere 165 pages, Behar takes readers on a journey of insight from the time that he spent running the operational side of Starbucks for Howard Shultz. I don't mean to trivialize Behar's work, but it all has its root in a simple principle of honesty. He starts the first few chapters by dealing with being honest with oneself first. It meant a lot to me reading about the idea of "Wearing One Hat". It is tempting for many reasons to try to be something other than what you are in your profession. Knowing what you enjoy and what you stand for sound like simple ideas, but they are harder to follow through on than one might expect. Then he moves on to being honest with others through empowerment, caring, listening, and being accountable. As he says, "Only the truth sounds like the truth." I've experienced listening to a presentation or reading a memo that I know is total nonsense. People can spot a phony almost every time, yet I would love to have a dollar for each occurrence for a single day. I know that I want to work for people who follow the kind of principles that Behar discusses, and that is why I hope that I am able to carry them out as a leader myself. I hope that I can look back on my career and describe similar things when the time comes. You will not be a worse leader for having read this.

Overall: A

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Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2009-09-21
Summary: "Leadership Advice That Works"

When it comes to leadership, there's no shortage of "how to" books. But the difference between books that offer laws, factors and rules, and Behar's quick read is that It's Not About the Coffee pinpoints the one thing on which every organization must focus to reach success--the people.

The book is a collection of learnings from Behar's career as a senior executive at Starbucks. It was here that he helped establish the company's culture, which stresses the importance of people over profits. Behar coached hundreds of leaders at every level and helped the company grow into a world-renowned brand.

A few of his key principles:
* Know who you are: Wear one hat. When you know who you are and remain true to yourself, then you wear one "hat." And when you do that, everything becomes easier, even the things you dread doing.
* Think independently: The person who sweeps the floor should choose the broom. Organizations naturally apply rules to help with efficiency. But those that thrive encourage employees to bring their unique perspectives to the job and take charge. Explain to people what you expect of them, then step back and let them surprise you.
* Be accountable: Only the truth sounds like the truth. Being truthful must start with you first. If you're not accountable--both in words and actions--then you can't expect others to be.

It doesn't matter if you're a company of one or one million, success lies in, and within, people. I recommend this book to anyone at any level and within any industry who cares about building trust, facing challenges and dreaming big.

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Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2009-05-15
Summary: "More than a one hat kind of book..."

Although this book will tell you that in life and business we all need to be wearing only one hat, meaning fulfilling one role, this book wears many hats, and wears each one with style and attitude. Within the chapters of It's Not About the Coffee you will find a self help book, a business book (for small and big companies), and an exciting read. It's Not About the Coffee is about the human spirit and how we can push forward with only our values and instincts to guide us.
The Ten Principles of Personal Leadership that the book follows are all based in knowing yourself, respecting and learning from others, while challenging the societal norms that don't make sense. Of the Ten Principles, some of the most valuable lessons are "Only the truth sounds like the truth," or "Care, like you really mean it," and maybe the most simple, while at the same time the most revolutionary "The person who sweeps the floor should choose the broom." All of these lessons, that seem to be grown from the seeds of the golden rule- do onto others as you would do onto yourself- might at first seem obvious, but in reality they are the forgotten truths of childhood, and they desperately need to be reintroduced to our adult schema.
There's never been a better time to bring It's Not About the Coffee into your mind set, because no matter what goal any reader is trying to achieve- college admission, a promotion, a new business start up, even just facing the every day, literally, any hardship or challenge we face, can be met with the sound advice from a sound source in this book. No matter what you think about Starbucks and it's global impact this book will help you prepare mentally and physically for almost anything.

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Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2009-04-28
Summary: "Great Book!"

This is a perfect book for any businessman hoping to make it in this economy. A great buy and a great read.