The international success of the coffee chain, Starbucks begins with a promise: To inspire and nurture the human spirit--one person, one cup and one neighbourhood at a time.
Employees (known as partners) at Starbucks seek to deliver on the company's promise at every customer contact point; thus, building a high performance organisation operating through a lens of humanity.
While passion for the product may not be necessary for sales success, it certainly differentiates sales leaders from most of their competition.
Additionally, employee passion for the product fuels the emotional engagement of customers and facilitates sustainability.
Starbuck's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Howard Schultz explains the transference of passion slightly differently: "You can walk into any store and you can feel whether the proprietor or the merchant or the person behind the counter has a good feeling about his or her product." In short, Starbucks leaders have produced diverse tools to help Starbucks partners develop or deepen a genuine product passion.
In essence, what Howard is saying is that the Starbuck leaders are constantly coaching and working with their employee’s to ensure they are focused on the product, the culture and the customer.
Aristotle once said, "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is not an act but a habit."
While the celebration and communication rituals in your business will certainly differ from those of Starbucks, isn't it worthwhile to examine the habits, rituals and messages that you deploy?
Is, ‘this is the way we do it around here’, i.e. your culture, a healthy one? Do people want to work here because of the ‘positive vibe’?
Are the habits, rituals and messages facilitating emotional connections, a sense of community, and product passion excellence?
By effectively building authentic rituals into your business, you will also define unique aspects of your culture, build engagement from all employees and reinforce the broader purpose of your business, particularly when the rituals are supported by enriched experiential learning and a congruent business strategy.
Reference: Joseph Michelli: Leading the Starbucks Way: 5 Principles for Connecting with Your Customers, Your Products and Your People
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