Introduction
The leadership style in the company is important, as it can shape the behavior of people in the best interest of the company. Being an effective leader, an individual has to play different roles in the organization to meet goals and objectives. The style of the leadership matters in a firm, as it can also be integrated with the nature of business and behavior or employees. In the leadership process, the big role of leadership is to solve problems despite having complexities. There are many lessons, which are to be learned by the leader through the leadership process.
Individual & Position (Kevin Johnson)
Kevin Johnson is a chief executive officer of Starbuck. Kevin Johnson has shaped the company due to his effective leadership roles. Being a chief executive officer of the company, he has always intended to change things through his leadership. The position of CEO is the key to success in this biggest coffee chain. During my employment with this company, I have observed him quite assertive and aggressive to make bigger changes to meet the interest and needs of all key stakeholders.
Company Description
Starbuck is a prominent coffee chain in the United States of America. This company was founded in 1971. According to 2018 reports the company is operating at 28,218 locations. The main products of the company are smoothies, Coffee, beverages, baked goods, tea, and sandwiches. The company has 238,000 employees in different regions. The company has gained success due to high-quality products and appropriate leadership style. The revenue of the company is US$22.387 billion, according to 2017 financial reports.
Five Factor Personality Model and Leadership Style
Openness
Openness in the personality depicts some new learning aspects and experiences. The individual usually enhances the visibility of learning and makes some big changes. An insightful individual along with several insights can help to engage several people in the process. Interestingly, Kevin Johnson depicts the openness, and due to the wide variety of interests, growth and adaptation have been observed in the competitive coffee market.
Conscientiousness
Some personality traits such as depicting goal-directed behavior, paying attention to details, and integrating with the set structure are streamlined in the Conscientiousness. Individuals who contain high scores usually contain these traits. Being a chief executive officer of the Starbuck Company, Kevin Johnson prepares himself and forces the completion of tasks on time. He always wants to meet goals at a different level.
Extroversion
Emotional expressions, assertiveness, sociability, and talkativeness are prominent characteristics of an individual in this personality trait. The individual may want to engage different people to streamline social integration. Containing emotional and sentimental attachments can help an individual come close to other people as well. Kevin Johnson has maintained a Starbuck family through containing an emotional attachment with people. Even in the decision-making process at the bottom level, he portrays his assertiveness to come up with effective decisions.
Agreeableness
Feeling empathy for others and creating an environment of trust are prominent indicators of this particular personality trait. Through agreeableness, an individual takes a keen interest in others. The contribution to the happiness of others leads towards personal satisfaction. In Starbuck, Kevin Johnson always looks to inspire others through this behavior. In every aspect of the operation or leadership process, he streamlines elements of satisfaction and happiness.
Neuroticism
Getting upset easily, feeling anxious, and experiencing stress are the main features, which can be obtained through the high score regarding Neuroticism. Comparatively, Kevin Johnson scores well in Neuroticism, as he is emotionally stable. Along with the assertiveness, he is quite relaxed
Kevin Johnson, Democratic Leader
Now, based on these personality traits, the leadership style of Kevin Johnson is democratic. The democratic leadership style is also called the participative leadership style, as all decisions are to be made collaboratively. Usually, Kevin Johnson integrates with ideas, thoughts, opinions, and reservations of people in the decision-making process and makes the decision, which can generally be accepted. The biggest advantage that this leader obtains due to the democratic style is the delegation of responsibility. In Starbucks, this delegation is quite visible, as facilitation of members in the decision making has been justified. Due to openness, he empowers the group members and aids the decision-making process. Through assertiveness, emotional attachments, and sociability, he can identify strengths of people and collaboratively tries to solve complex problems. He creates the environment of trust which is suitable when solving complex problems. The democratic approach helps Kevin Johnson make strong teams. He streamlined the business fit through this approach. The perfect example of this advantage is the formation of different corporate social responsibility teams. Working with teams, paying attention to details, and maintaining the focus on work can lead towards better decisions or participation.
Examples of Management and Leadership Roles
Kevin Johnson has to pay a specific management and leadership role. The big management role is to maintain or manage the work in the company effectively and efficiently. However, on the other hand, the role which has been streamlined is making some big changes in the company. For example, Kevin Johnson has invested enough time and connected right people to initiate the change. Change or evolvement is a big role to play by this leader.
Another role of the leadership in this company is to prioritize employees, as far as decision making is concerned. For example, green production of Starbucks Company was possible due to the team engorgement. Green initiatives are taken from the growth of the company. Kevin Johnson, being a leader of the company, has collaborated with these teams to create or identify some measures. Thus, along with the change, team encouragement is another role to play, which justifies the democratic leadership and business fit.
Solving difficult Problem or Solution
The major problem that this company has faced is pricing. It is a fact that customers moved towards the competing coffee shops due to the high-quality coffee products and low prices. Despite having a premium atmosphere for customers, customers are converting. It caused a direct impact on revenue streams and profitability. The new chief executive officer fixed the issue through making separate teams. The pricing issue was in the limelight in the presence of other competitors. People in the company contained different opinions or thoughts, as decreasing the cost of the process might reduce the quality. Kevin Johnson, despite having contradictions, convinced stakeholders to rationalize different concept stores. Examples of these stores are Reserved Roastery and tasting room stores. The cost and price problem were marginalized through retaining the optimal customers. The previous CEO kept the premium product for customers, which hit profitability. Now, with the mutual concern of all key stakeholders such as experts, technical teams, employees, and financial management, he is looking to depict the different coffee experiences for different customers. It seems the big solution to the problem.
Lessons learned from solving problems
There are several lessons, which are obtained from the leader when solving the problem. For Instance, there were many unexpected things such as customer conversion. In the participative leadership style, it was tough to decide due to the immense contradictions. The biggest thing to learn is improvisation with the passage of time. Sometimes, things do not go straightway for the leader, and improvising is a better technique.
Furthermore, the leader may have to integrate with the market when initiating some big changes in the company. The most important thing is to shape the behavior of employees first to meet the needs of the market or customers. New coffee experiences for different customers needed complete homework, and Kevin Johnson did it effectively.
Conclusion
In the end, it is to conclude that Kevin Johnson has made the difference through the democratic leadership style. In the modern business era, the role of leadership seems worthy, and Starbuck Company has justified it. Based on the personality traits, the leadership style is easy to obtain. Kevin Johnson, being an effective leader, can also evolve with time and enable business sustainability. Especially in the problem-solving process, the leader has to learn from mistakes and make improvements for the betterment of the company. Kevin Johnson has contributed through his leadership style to enable growth and sustainability.
+447462439809