058 Howard Behar | What Starbucks Will Teach You About Company Culture

Have you ever wondered how Starbucks created and sustained their culture throughout their skyrocketing growth? Our guest for today's show is the man who knows, Mr. Howard Behar. Howard is the former President of both Starbucks North America and Starbucks International. He was at the helm when they went from 28 stores to 15,000! On today's show, Howard share lessons he has learned about why culture matters in every organization, what employees really care about and want to see from their leaders, and much more! This is an absolutely riveting conversation about the necessity of a healthy company culture. Listen to this episode and discover: · What is a company's culture reflective of? · Why you must be intentional about the culture you create and live by. · Why it's all P2P, and what that means. · What doesn't work in terms of an employee reward structure? · What happens when an organization says one thing, and does another. · And so much more! Episode Overview All companies and organizations today know culture is important. But if everyone knows this is true, why isn't every work environment thriving? Clearly, mistakes and misconceptions are still out there about what it takes to not only have a culture, but implement and sustain it. When I asked Howard what some of those mistakes and misconceptions are, he said one of the most common is companies hiring a consultant to "give" the company a culture. Consultants are there to help along the journey but they can't give culture. Culture exists in every organization, whether or not it is defined. Culture is living within every company, it just may be unintentional. The other misconception he touches on is the culture of conflict. This happens when a company says one thing, and does another. They say they uphold certain values and principles, but the behavior of the organization's leaders say they do not. If the leadership doesn't live the principles of the organization, neither does the rest of the organization. The opposite is obviously true as well: when the leadership lives up to its promises, so does everyone else. Leadership sets the standard for the rest of the team. This also applies to the rewards and compensation structures of any company. Howard shares the green apron book from Starbucks as a rewards example. It is a book that outlines the values and how those values come to life within the company. Based on that book, little cards were created and distributed to everyone. The cards had all of the values from the green apron book and they had blank lines on which a person could write something specific. People were encouraged to catch their fellow employees doing something that exemplified the values on those cards, to write a note on the blank lines about the person's actions and then give that card to the person as a token of appreciation. These cards were given out to anyone by anyone within the company, as long as it was for a specific reason. Those reasons could be anything from treating a customer like a friend to giving back to the community they work in to helping a struggling co-worker on a project. Howard says people would receive these cards and put them up around their offices and cubicles. You'd often see 10-15 cards spread out around the person's work space, and it was a reminder of the good things people were doing and the good that Starbucks represented in the employees' lives and the customers' lives. On this episode, Howard shares another personal story about building a team from scratch and how he knew the right person for the right role. He also gives one piece of advice for fostering a positive culture in your organization. You'll hear that and more on today's Grow My Revenue!