7/16/2019 6 Leadership Lessons from Kevin Johnson, Starbucks CEO | Perspectives LTD

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6 Leadership Lessons from Kevin Johnson,

Starbucks CEO
19, April

by Bernie Dyme, Co-founder and CEO, Perspectives Ltd

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Imagine, for a moment, that you are sitting in your kitchen drinking your morning coffee and
watching the news. Only this morning, it’s your company making headlines in the latest
harassment-related scandal. After you choke on your coffee in disbelief, what’s the first thing you
should do as a business leader?

Kevin Johnson, CEO of Starbucks, recently found himself in just such a situation. And his response
is the textbook example of what a business leader should do.
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7/16/2019 6 Leadership Lessons from Kevin Johnson, Starbucks CEO | Perspectives LTD

#1: Take a “non-defensive” attitude. This is probably the

most important thing you can do. It sets the tone and reflects
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which worsens the
situation.

#2: Listen before speaking. Mr. Johnson met with the

affected men and heard their story. “I listened as they shared
their personal experience with me. We had a very constructive
dialogue,” he said. It might be tempting to open your mouth in defense, but a good leader knows
that listening allows for constructive dialogue to take place. Progress begins with dialogue, and
dialogue begins with listening.

#3: Apologize. When Mr. Johnson met with the victims, he apologized. This was not an
impersonal apology or an attempt to pass the blame to the offending manager, but a personal
apology accepting total responsibility. A good leader understands that virtually all workplace
culture problems start at the top, and that culture must be redesigned from the top down. As a
leader, you are a role model and your ability to accept responsibility when things go wrong sets the
standard for the kind of behavior you expect from the rest of your employees.

#4: Widely publicize your commitment to doing what is necessary to ensure that this won’t
happen again. I cannot stress enough how important it is to widely publicize your commitment to
making thoughtful changes to ensure that the behavior doesn’t occur again. To this end, Kevin

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Johnson posted two videos publicizing his commitment to change and outlining his plan for
change. In so doing, he is accomplishing a number of things. First, he is signaling to his employees
that harassing behaviors will not be tolerated. Second, he is signaling to the public that he will not
tolerate such behavior in his stores. Third, he is holding himself accountable both to his employees
and his public. And fourth, he is demonstrating that he takes this seriously, which, although it
doesn’t eliminate any legal liability, does help Starbucks’ cause.

#5: Take meaningful action. Starbucks will be closing 8,000 stores on May 29 to provide racial
bias training to 175,000 employees. Mr. Johnson is also “fully investigating store practices and
guidelines across the company,” reviewing the specific policy which gave the manager the power
to call the police on two innocent black men. By taking these actionable steps, he shows his
employees and his public that he walks the walk, too.

#6: Assess the results and continue to monitor the progress of the initiative. While Mr. Johnson
has not yet had an opportunity to assess whether his actions have had a positive effect on
Starbucks’ culture, he has promised he will. This is very much like Step #2: Listening. Listen to
your results. If the results were not what you intended, try again. One of the worst things a leader
can do is to make promises and not follow through. That only leads to mistrust.

We don’t often see these great examples of leadership in times of crisis. Hopefully you can use this
as a model for your organization and even take steps before a crisis arises to convey the values that
you want your customers to know you for. And it begins by consistently imparting good values to
your employees. Let them know what you believe and provide them with the kind of leadership
that reinforces these values.

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7/16/2019 6 Leadership Lessons from Kevin Johnson, Starbucks CEO | Perspectives LTD

The EAP can support your leadership team in defining, refreshing and nurturing your culture. It is
also a resource for proactive employee trainings on topics like diversity and bias. If you would like
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Jonathan Eisler, Managing Director of Perspectives Organizational Consulting800.866.7556
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312.636.6609 or JEisler@perspectivesltd.com.

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Jason Schwartz Apr 20, 2018

This was an instance where it would have been easy to blame the store manager as
a “bad apple” whose actions were contrary to company values. However, unlike
many organizations, Mr. Johnson recognized that bad apples don’t grow by
themselves. His willingness to own the incident as something rare and admirable

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here. Were I to be critical at all, I would say the first apology that Starbucks issued
was disappointing and read like the $2 “if anyone was offended” apologies we see
so often from many organizations. So perhaps a seventh lesson is that it’s better to
try something new than to double down when the first attempt falls flat.

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