Question

answer the following questions

1-Leaders who use conceptual skills use a variety of approaches including creating a vision or strategic plan to make a company better. How did Howard Schultz use a variety of skills and also show that he was a conceptual leader?

2-How does creating a constructive climate contribute to employee productivity? How did Schultz encourage this at Starbucks?

3-What do you find appealing about Schultz’s leadership in terms of his traits?

Chapter two focuses on important leadership traits. One of those traits, integrity, is a very principle based (Northouse, 2015) trait. Howard Schultz, in addition to being the current executive chairman and former CEO of Starbucks, is also somewhat an activist who stands strongly for his principles and leads by them. Howard has actively driven for societal change in many problematic areas that our country faces, including the student debt crisis (Foroohar, 2015). Howard also puts his money where his mouth is. Through a partnership with Arizona State University, Starbucks offers full tuition coverage toward a bachelor’s degree for all of its eligible full and part time employees. This offering shows that Howard Schultz both lives and leads by his principles.

Schultz also has the confidence to take on controversial social and political topics, the sociability to meet with groups of people to discuss the issues, and the charismatic leadership traits that have some media outlets suggesting he may someday be a presidential candidate (MLA 8^th Edition).

Chapter 5

            This chapter focuses on two major elements of the behavior of leaders – attending to tasks and attending to relationships. Howard had his focus on meeting goals in life, making him a more vibrant leader who wanted tasks accomplished through his will. This was evident when he suggested changes to Starbucks with the aim of transforming the company’s economic value. As much as his directors were not in support of his moves, Howard never minded their take and moved on with his plans. The move prompted him to come up with II Giornale and later bought Starbucks (Biography.com, 2018). This is an example of Howard attending to tasks as discussed in chapter 5.

            Additionally, Howard must exhibit the second leadership behavior from the text: attending to relationships. An example of this is when Howard attended a job fair and interviewed young job seekers, getting to know them and hiring many without ever revealing that he was the CEO (Stein, 2017).    

Chapter 6

Chapter 6 discusses development of conceptual, interpersonal, and administrative core leadership skills. In the late 1980’s, Schultz was able to get Starbucks and multiple locations, as one of the first steps in his ambitious expansion of the company, (Business Insider 2017). Since Schultz has taken over, he has executed his strategic business plan and expanded to over 27,000 Starbucks locations in 75 countries. This is an example of Howard using his conceptual skills to set a vision for the future, and then bring that vision to life.

Schultz also demonstrates this chapter’s interpersonal skills to both interact on level with his many managers at town hall meetings while graciously fielding their questions (Meyers, 2005), and sit down and interact with prospective baristas without revealing his identity (Stein, 2017). Additionally, the ability to successfully interact and direct his managers as well as interview and hire baristas shows the administrative leadership skills of this chapter.

Chapter 8

Workplace environment contributes to the employees’ productivity since individuals are motivated by the level of interaction in their line of duty. Performance is determined by the kind of leadership in place, making it necessary to evaluate different styles implemented by different leaders. This paper focuses on how Howard Schultz implemented his leadership approach and the kind of impact he created for the Starbucks Company in relation to what chapter eight demonstrates towards climate construction. These discussions aim to help the reader in making crucial decisions when determining the future of an organization.

            Creating a conducive climate at the workplace demands proper analysis of various factors. Companies that are pro diversity encourage employees and motivate them to increase productivity. Howard communicated the structures of the company to other stakeholders with the aim of clarifying his moves. The norms were clear to any person who could observe the operations and the kind of decisions that he made to help in the success of the company. The practice could be visualized through the rate at which the company opened stores on a daily basis. As much as his approach yielded good returns, it is also vital to note that his support to gay marriage played a significant role in the challenges that faced the organization. When put to task to explain his motive he was arrogant and directed those uncomfortable with his belief to sell their shares and seek a better option. According to chapter 8 of the book, climate construction plays a crucial role in determining the future of the company where norms are defined, and different structures explained to employees (Northouse, 2015).

Chapter 12

            Chapter 12 is about overcoming obstacles. One strategy is known as path-goal strategy which dictates how leaders can help others to overcome these roadblocks. Path-goal leadership lays out seven major obstacles: (1) unclear goals, (2) unclear directions, (3) low motivation, (4) complex tasks, (5) simple tasks, (6) low involvement, and (7) lack of challenge (Northouse, 2015). Howard Schultz has created a culture at Starbucks that helps to minimize, if not remove, these obstacles from occurring in the first place.

            One of the ways that Howard Schultz ensures his employees avoid the issue of low involvement is by letting his managers know that they can act as leaders. He also encourages pushback, according to Susan Tardanico who is the CEO of the Authentic Leadership Alliance (Lebowitz, 2016).

Howard once closed his stores for 3.5 hours one day to retrain all of its baristas (Starbucks lingo for employee) to ensure quality products were being delivered to customers despite the fact that this move cost the company $6 million because of those closures. This is an example of both clarifying goals, quality of the end product, and overcoming low motivation by making sure his baristas were adequately trained and feeling competent in what they were doing.

            Starbucks has created a culture that allows its employees to feel like they’re making a difference in their everyday lives. They have a culture of inclusion, prompting their employees to want to be involved and challenged. They have clear directions and follow specific guidelines for how to act and they are all expected to behave according to those guidelines. This culture created by Schultz helps overcome low motivation as described in the chapter.

Answer 1

Answer 1:

It is true that leaders who use conceptual skills use a variety of approaches including creating a vision or strategic plan to make a company better. Talking about Howard Schultz, he used variety of skills including integrity, maintaining relationships, interpersonal, and administrative core leadership along with conceptual skills to make company better.

The manner he used his conceptual skills is a lesson for management students. After Schultz has taken over Starbucks, by executing his strategic business plan he has expanded to over 27,000 Starbucks locations in 75 countries. This demonstrates how he utilized his conceptual skills.

Answer 2:

It has been observed in many studies that by creating a constructive climate employee productivity can be increased. Howard Schultz also implemented this philosophy. By analyzing various factors that contribute in creating conducive climate at the workplace, and introduced necessary factors that were required for motivating employees.

He communicated the structures of the company to his stakeholders, he made clear the norms relating to operations, transparency was maintained in his decisions. The results were visible by the growth of the company.

Answer 3:

The most appealing that I praise in Schultz’s leadership is his prime focus on integrity and his vision. He visioned success and made it possible by ingratiating all its employees, policies, stakeholders. He moved towards success by making his own path.