Leadership of Howard Schultz Essay

† Howard Schultz for President? â€Å". Howard Schultz, who is a founder & CEO of Starbucks has showing concern about the future of Americans. His recent activities including boycott the political donations, until Washington, D. C coming up with some â€Å"real effort† to reduce the debt ceiling. Disappointing with the U. S political leaders as they failing to act appropriately while America’s confidence is faltered. By looking at the past, the Starbucks CEO has indeed achieved a remarkable milestone, from a sales person in Xerox Corporation in 1979 and to today, a massive green giant astonishing leader. All this footprint certainly is not coincidence or miracles. In the past, economy volatility, US recession, consumer demand instability struck his business beyond all recognition. Despite all this pitfalls, this premium coffee maker able to embrace the resistance and continue serving quality coffee every corner till today. Looking at his context ,all these demonstrates that his business understands the concept of â€Å"ostrich syndrome†, meaning by burying their head in the sand when facing criticism. And such, Howard now challenge the leadership style adopted by the U.  S government by not hearing the heart of the Americans. The question here is, â€Å"Can his leadership style fit perfectly in the political field†? Many critics claimed this is total different ball game, not just about coffee bean. As Howard apparently lack of political experience, this has put his entrepreneur leadership into challenge. Howard’s leadership however substantiated by evidences, well, at least from business perspectives. In his business history , this captain well aware that customer response and satisfaction is the best business performance thermostat. But to achieve this corporate desire , will require tremendous effort, starting from top management down to every barista in Starbucks. In such circumstances, to him, everything matters, and this is not something hard to observe. This modern leadership are well played by Howard and his team throughout Starbucks business. Sourcing from Joseph Michelli- Starbucks experience, â€Å"this coffee business having the capability of motivating people through powerful, emotionally engaging visions and reconciling the people needs around their organization†. Starbucks management has even establish a Mission Review Committee that govern leadership behaviors and ensure commitment by their partners by listening their concern. They makes a point of listening and responding to the ideas and suggestions of partners. Clearly, Howard adopt â€Å"Situational Leadership† here, whereby attend the perception of the followers and to indicate how efforts directed towards wider organizational goals could align with calculations of follower self-interest. His leadership style, changes our perspectives towards leadership. Is the U. S President not doing sufficiently to address the needs of his people? Don’t get me wrong. Both also are transformational leaders, is just that Howard Schultz is practicing authentic leadership, this largely due to his father losing jobs because of medical problems, since then he became passionate about a company’s need to care for its employees. On the flip side, President Obama has proved to be a very good Senate majority leader by convening committees to do the work and intervening at the end. One of this strength is tends to see issues from several vantage points at once, so maybe it is natural that he favors a process that involves negotiating and fudging between different points of view. But particular in this debt ceiling settlement, he seems to be passive. Further from the above, so what setback is facing by the President? According to the award winning author, John Kotter, in his book â€Å"Our Iceberg is melting†, somewhat is similar to President Obama of failure in producing short-term wins. Failure in creating some visible, unambiguous successes to his fellow Americans all these while. This eventually causing Americans losing faith and trust in his leadership. This weakness of President Barrack Obama allowing Howard Schultz leadership ability become more prominence. Howard now ultimate intention is to create more job opportunities inside U. S, which he believe will turn things around. This similar challenge faced by all the leaders around the world, no exception of the increasing unemployment rate in my country. In my opinion, to resuscitate the economy, unparallel creative leadership style is needed. Perfect example from Sternberg’s propulsion model of creative leadership, â€Å"Re-initiation† leadership style, â€Å"whereby a leap in the dark from the familiar to meet perceived opportunity, and findings ways of removing constraints to uplift current country economic condition†. This is certainly not easy. Especially the effort of satisfying the needs of millions citizen in Malaysia. Perhaps, respective leaders need to learn from the green giant leader on how to â€Å"surprise and delight† like what he did to his Starbucks customer. This is what we hope from our leaders, an effort to put a smile on everyone’s face.