Starbucks Barista’s: Self Leadership and the holiday season

The phone rang very late last night. It was my sister concerned about a high powered friend of hers that she could not track down. She was concerned that she may have lost her job. She said almost everyone she talks to is very nervous about their jobs and the best thing she knows to do is to support them by checking on them.

I love that about her. She has mastered the skills of caring and connecting with those she loves.

Well, this morning, I was at my local Starbucks drive through and they were featuring a new holiday drink. I asked what was in it and they offered me a sample. It was some gingerbread something or the other.  I thought I would get a tiny, tiny taster cup but I did not. Instead, I got a whole espresso sized cup of the drink as its base was espresso. Well, I am not a coffee drinker: I went for chai tea but, if I were, I would have loved that drink. The server at the window told me the name of the barista who prepared my drink and pointed her out to me. I asked them to write her name down and I went to their website and of course, I have not figured out how to give her a great recommendation but I will.

Starbucks may not call it that but they allow their employees to practice self-leadership by giving them the power to make such decisions. It is truly a great innovative company in many ways.

As I did that, I thought, wow, I am hopefully adding to her job security as I do this and yes, that is the type of cheerful, out of the box, customer service focused individual that I would like to put my energy into supporting.

Fast forward to Twitter. I love this social networking tool. I have met some of the most wonderful people on Twitter. I find so many juicy tidbits as we all love to share on twitter. So someone tweeted ( oops, twitterspeak – twitter language) Jeremiah Owyang’s blog and for the first time, I understood the excitement around a tweetup. More twitterspeak. It is where people in the same area that have connected on twitter meet up and get to know each other. Jeremiah put together this tweetup and his authenticity shines through the entire post as it became a way for prospective employers in Silicon Valley connected with those looking for jobs.

This is leadership at its very best so I know he has developed strong self-leadership traits.

What can you do to support those around you that are going through job uncertainty and economic issues? Let us expand the mindset of helping others by giving gifts this holiday season and be creative so that we are helping others in ways that are more meaningful to them?

Gift giving is wonderful and perfect. I am not knocking it. We are all doing it this Holiday season.

However, with others being so concerned about the economy, how do we help them increase their happiness.

I want to know how creative we can all be in supporting others?

Apple gets Dolphin award for being one of my people.

I have been wanting to write this post for a long time. One of my favorite books is The Wealthy Spirit by  Chellie Campbell. It is a neat daily devotional that deals with the gremlins that attack mental financial wellness. It is a great book. Check it out. One of the things she pays attention to are “Dolphins” and “Sharks.” Dolphins are people that you want to deal with that are supportive and are your type of people. Sharks are out there to get you and make money from you. She says it is OK to deal with sharks – just know they are sharks.

Being the animal lover that I am, I love dolphins. I even have a picture on my wall of a dolphin kissing me on the cheek in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. One of the highlights of my life! Inevitably, I have started keeping tabs on the Dolphins in my life and the Sharks. Here are some of my Dolphin experiences.

I eagerly awaited the Iphone 3G after using the same phone for three plus years. I did not like that I had to stand in line at the Apple store but, I was standing in line with a bunch of other dolphins. The most amazing thing happened. All the Apple employees were wearing these turquoise-shirts and one of them got in line behind us. We knew he was an Apple employee by his t-shirt. When we asked him why he was in line, he said he just clocked out, his shift was over and he wanted to buy the phone and was hoping there would still be black ones by the time he got to the end of the line.

He talked about how Apple employees do not get preferential treatment. They have to stand in line just like everyone else. He said he believed in the product so much, he was willing to stand in line. He stood in line for over an hour and a half with us and discussed the phone with everyone. He continued in his “Apple employee mode” for the entire time. By the time we got into the store, they had run out of the black phones and he ended up having to get a white phone. Amazing.

While in line, Apple employees brought us bottles of water and allowed us to play with the new Iphone and test it and ask them questions. It was an unbearably long line but it was overall a pleasant experience.

Of course, I had issues with AT&T and had to go to the AT&T store to get it resolved. I put a lot of time and energy into the process. Well, believe it or not, the AT&T rep bad mouthed Apple for not working with them seamlessly and said that Apple is not in the telecom business. I thought that was bad customer service. I clearly understand that there were issues between the two companies for this event but it is amazing how different the customer service experience has been.

I vote Apple as Dolphins. I would not say that AT&T were sharks but they are not my people. They are not quite Dolphins.

Other Dolphin companies in my life: Whole Foods and Starbucks. Whole food employees are happy people. They have an international and eclectic group of employees and they make you want to buy good healthy food. Not everything in the store is healthy but that is fine with me.

Starbucks has amazing Chai Lattes. That is the only thing I drink from there. The employees have health insurance and it is just a coffee shop. In my neighborhood, it has become a cool hang out.

I like the way I feel when I walk into these establishments. It feels like I belong and that I am special.

I like that our corporate citizens are paying attention to how customers feel about their business. I enjoy studying the leadership of these companies and I enjoy seeing how the values of the visionary of the company trickles down to the employees – that is influence and leadership.

Your company can be like that. You can influence your own employees to the point that they believe so much in you as a dolphin that they are walking advertisements. Working with an effective coach can help you express your values in your business.

Tell me which companies you like and why.