Vida Fisher

OGL 375
Professor William Erwin
Paper 2- Interview with Significant Others
September 4, 2021

Section 1

This week’s assignment was personal and inspirational at the same time. I contemplated for a
while who to interview for this assignment. I knew my husband, Lance would be ideal because of his
honesty, and knowledge about me but the other interviewees, I was clueless. At first, I was hesitant to ask
such personal and honest questions to anyone at Starbucks. I was never comfortable to hear about me nor
get feedback about my performance. Soliciting feedback has always been a mortifying ordeal but I knew
the impact of those feedback.
I had the great opportunity to interview my husband, Lance, and Brian, a previous Starbucks
partner of five years. The set of interview questions I asked Lance was different from Brian’s These
questions were chosen based solely on the degree of my relationships with the interviewee. Lance and I
have been married for eleven years, and he knows me more than anyone. Brian worked for me for five
years and our relationship has grown over the years from being his mentor at Starbucks to being his friend
today. My relationships with each one of them would define the questions I wanted to ask. I was curious
to know what key learnings and experiences Brian had while working at our store and how does our
relationship change over the years. With Lance, I wanted a robust, honest, and open dialogue about me.
As I asked the questions during the interview, one thing was clear, there was pure, and the
uncharacteristically honest conversation was being shared. The information I heard about me was not
new. They were a validation of what I thought of myself as a partner, as a coach, and leader at Starbucks.
As a partner of twenty-two years, my core value of always putting my partners’ first was something I
learned from Howard Schultz. He taught me that our Starbucks journey cannot be accomplished alone.
Gathering a company of people who are committed to the same goals, inspiring them, galvanizing them,
and tapping into their inner drive, miracles can happen (Schultz, p.337)
After the interviews, one of the most considerable takeaways were that all of the three
interviewees felt my passion for my partners, and Starbucks. Howard Schultz instilled in me that the
partners I meet along my Starbucks journey are the most important people I’ll ever meet. He was right. I
learned a lot from these partners. In my many years at Starbucks, this year has been the most educational
and inspirational of all my time at Starbucks. The paths and experiences my partners have had this past
year had taught me the true meaning of leadership. And I will share some of those meanings in Section 2.
Effective leadership has always meant the same thing to me. That is, being an effective leader
means that my team have the courage and integrity to do their work and achieve their goals because they
are inspired and confident to perform their tasks and whatever it is they want to achieve. Being an
effective leader is more than just teaching my team new skills. It also means following up through
coaching. It means encouraging them to challenge themselves and reach for higher goals. Effective
leadership means I will be right beside them, working shoulder to shoulder, to figure things out together.
IAs Howard Schultz said, “the passion and devotion are our number one competitive advantage. Lose it
and we’ve lost the game.” (Schultz, 138).
After the interviews, I have learned that my values as a partner and as a human being, are the
same. I value integrity, hard work, and love for others. These things have helped me in being my most
authentic self. These values are the values I want to teach and leave my children, Julian and Larkyne,
with. Starbucks has opened many doors for me, and the most important door was the door to acceptance
of who you really are as a person. I was nineteen years old when I first came to Starbucks. I lacked
experience with dealing with people. I didn’t know what hard work meant except staying up all night
finishing my term paper for my high school English class. Integrity to me then, meant that I had to be
truthful to my parents and to my elders. I had no idea how these core values would help me become the
leader I am today.
The person that I am today has become more intentional, more vulnerable, and more courageous.
I learned that as a Starbucks partner, it’s not always about me, but it is also about the people around me,
and the partners who are seeking to learn from me. These responsibilities have enormous weight, yet they
are real, and they are crucial, especially as a Starbucks store manager.
Being a Starbucks store manager has been the biggest honor and privilege of my professional
career. I meet amazing partners, develop talent within my district, share my knowledge, and learn from
leaders like Howard Schultz, and Rosann Williams, Starbucks President.

Section 2
Interview # 1
Person Interviewed: Lance Fisher
Relationship: spouse
Question 1. What are some of the things you respect or admire the most about me? Can you give me an
example of one thing that I do that you respect the most? Why do you think that?
Lance shared that kindness, compassion for people and not just family but coworkers and
friends, and motivation. I show kindness by caring for others, by helping someone who’s going through
hard times. I help without hesitation. It’s my ability to recognize those moments of not being asked for
help but jumping to help right away that Lance admires. He loves the human nature of it. He strives to be
able to find those moments in his own workplace and being able to recognize those moments to help
without hesitation. He respects and admires my motivation, my dedication to my work at Starbucks, and
to always want to improve and gain new skills. With those skills, I evolve and use those skills to help
others. Another thing he admires is that I am always moving and going. He gets inspiration from my
energy because it’s something he doesn’t have. An example of kindness, compassion, and motivation he
gave was my decision to go back to school, at Arizona State University, and be a SCAP scholar.
Balancing work, school, family, dogs, and the enormous amount of extra work I do with friends and
family, it takes a lot of mental capacity to be able to do all of it and my limits have no bounds.

Question 2.
What are some examples of how I have earned your trust? What specific characteristics and behaviors
come to mind when you think of me as an individual and as a leader? Why?
Lance started to with how easy it was to talk to me. People, like my partners tell me personal
things because they trust me. I take the information that people willingly give to me and use that
information to help them. People trust me because the information they share don’t get shared with
anyone else. I build trust with people by showing them that they can share intimate details about their
personal struggles, and I will seek help for them without betraying their confidence. Lance has seen in
many instances where trustworthiness is present, and I don’t take the trust given to me for granted. My
actions and behaviors build trust. The trust between myself and others is developed over time even the
trust I built with my pets, Riot, Duke, and Bella.

Question 3. I
f you can suggest three human relation skills, what would they be? Why those skills?
Lance thinks that human relation skills are so interconnected, and one thing came to mind was
building relationships with people, candor, and compassion. With building relationships with people, it is
improving those existing relationships I already have. Relationships mean seeking to understand others
before reacting or before taking action based off of one conversation or one comment and being able to
communicate about it. With candor, it’s about being comfortable with the uncomfortable conversations
and saying those uncomfortable things to better understand one another. I take some situations shared by
others very personally and because I take them like I was the one experiencing it, I tend to get frustrated
and emotional about it. With compassion, as much as it is my strength, it is also something that I need to
continue to work on especially when it’s a situation I don’t agree with nor familiar with or even someone
who has exhausted my compassion scale, I tend to say things without seeking to understand completely of
what was really going on.
Question 4.
When you think about my relationships with my partners, customers, friends, and family, what are some
adjectives or phrases that might be good descriptions of my approach?
My animated behavior through my responses and stories are what stands out. I make jokes, I try
to lighten up the mood when it’s a bit dreary, I have fun and enjoy those conversations. It’s not always
business even with conversations with Starbucks people. I bring light-heartedness into my relationships
which is enjoyable and fun. It is a huge driver in life when I include fun because when I find those
opportunities, people are more comfortable and not afraid to share their stories. Another adjective Lance
mentioned was vulnerable. He shared that vulnerability means that I let my defenses down and being
transparent, honest, and open with somebody. I allow my true self to be seen by other people. I let my
guard down and it’s something that he is still learning. He loves that I laugh a lot. He admires that every
conversation I had, always ended up with laughter. I never end a conversation knowing that the person
feels bad or is hurting.
Question 5.
What would you consider to be my strongest attributes as a leader?
Lance believes that my strongest attribute is my straightforwardness. I am straight to the point
especially with work. I’m not callous nor rude, I am just direct. I deliver this direct, straightforward
attribute in a compassionate way. My approach to understand before saying anything, is admirable. I
don’t beat around the bush to address some things, but I make sure that I have the facts and the
understanding before I jump into the conversation. My radical candor is another attribute he thinks is my
strongest. It means that I care, and that this conversation and experience might get uncomfortable, but it is
because we will learn and grow from it. I am good at giving uncomfortable feedback and that is the
definition of radical candor. I have honed it over the years and are able to do it with people. In addition,
Lance stated that I am driven. It means that I find solutions or work around the issues or obstacles and to
be able to move forward in achieving those goals. Lastly, my endless pursuit to keep learning. I want to
always develop and learn new things and in return, teach those to others. I am the subject matter expert in
all Starbucks, yet I am still reading, and finding ways to learn about Starbucks. People seek my advice
because I have become the subject matter experts in multiple fields of Starbucks. My ability to influence
others because I continue to learn and develop myself is something I ought to be proud of.

Interview # 2
Person Interviewed: Brian Clark
Relationship: friend/previous employee

Question 1.
If you could suggest three things I could do to improve my professional effectiveness, what would they
be?
Brian shared that I need to take a deep breath when I feel the stress is reaching maximum levels. I
am incredibly caring and supportive, but sometimes in the heat of the moment my directions for my
partners can come off as harsh. Second, shut off occasionally. Brian knows that this would be very hard
for me. I don’t turn off work when I’m home. I don’t need to do the store orders or any work-related tasks
on my days off or on vacation. Brian believes that taking the time off and being away from work might
help with me feeling more refreshed when I am back at work. I can do anything and everything, because I
am Wonder Woman, but I don’t have to do everything all the time.
Last, I need to keep setting goals. I am so incredibly talented. I could meet expectations without batting
an eye, but don’t stop pushing. Brian was constantly amazed by how we kept improving as a store, even
in areas that I thought we couldn’t improve yet we did. He shared that I should not get complacent, don’t
get discouraged, and keep finding the next area for improvement especially outside of Starbucks.
Question 2.
What do you see as the most powerful ways in which I support you (or the organization)?  How could I
improve my level of support / helpfulness?
I am an incredible advocate for my partners. I put their well-being as people above everything
else and I am always there to help them grow. I listen to what they are going through, and to what they
need. The most powerful way I support my team is by connecting with them as people and not as
employees. I supported Brian when he was attending ASU. I made sure that he had time to finish
schoolwork and still be able to work so he can afford his apartment. I was there when he needed me the
most and that was when his father was hospitalized after being diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer. I
gave Brian the time off to be with family and I also sent a basket of goodies with blanket, board games,
and snacks for the family to use while waiting in the waiting room.

Question 3.
Would you comment on my approach and success at providing recognition and support to others around
me?  How can I further that?
You do a wonderful job of providing recognition. You were always commending partners for what they
were doing well. You do a great job of pushing people to improve, either in their role or expanding to a
different role. When people succeeded, that effort was always recognized. I remember when I would greet
customers in our drive thru. I spoke with usual greeting, and you recognized how effective it was because
customers were responding back to my greeting. You shared with the team that’s how you wanted
everyone to greet the customers. Not with a scripted greeting but authenticity and genuine excitement to
welcome customers. It felt great being recognized.
Question 4.
What would you consider to be my strongest attributes as a leader?
My ability to connect with people. Brian said I care deeply about our customers and about our
partners. People feel that. It is an incredible motivator, because it brings the employees together and
makes them feel like a team. I remember when I invited you to one of the most important day of my life,
and that was my wedding day. You accepted my invitation, and you brought your husband along. You
danced with us and enjoyed the best day of my life. Brian loved that about me. You show people how
much you care by exhibiting it in every possible way you can. He appreciated that so much.
Question 5.
When am I most enthusiastic and excited?  When am I most at peace?

I am most enthusiastic when you have a new challenge to overcome. Whether it is a new job or
promotion, a performance goal, or integrating a new partner. I love challenge of doing something
different but also making a difference in someone’s life like a new hire barista. I am most at peace when I
get the chance to sit down and connect with people one on one. I bring out the best in people when they
are allowed to share how they feel about work and when that is fostered all the time. You gave us a voice
that we didn’t think we have. Our development conversations were not just happening biannually, it was
happening every day.