Starbucks
Brews Culture Change Toward Servant Leadership with Creative Leaps
What’s
the relationship between acknowledging vulnerability and achieving
success? How can we handle negativity with grace and integrity? What
does it mean to be fully present and
in the moment with our peers…and how can that enhance workplace relationships
and leadership skills? |
The performing artists
and change agents of Creative Leaps International recently unveiled
a new Concert of Ideas™, THE LEADER’S CHALLENGE,
for more than 5,000 store managers and personnel partners of the
Starbucks Coffee Company at
national conferences in Florida and California. Based on the company’s
desire to introduce Servant Leadership values into its culture from the ground
up, THE
LEADER’S CHALLENGE is a unique performance event, made up of virtuosic
musical and theatrical interludes, developed by Creative Leaps International
to
address Servant Leadership (and the ‘Five Ways of Being’ identified
as its building blocks by author and consultant James Autrey) through the
power of the
arts. According to Autrey, being authentic, vulnerable, present, accepting, and
useful in the workplace is the first step in becoming a successful servant
leader, and speaks not only to professional development but also to a person’s
values, perceptions, and beliefs.
THE LEADER’S CHALLENGE was
positioned as the principal learning tool for the Starbucks conferences, and
acknowledges the connection between the public role we assume as leaders and
the more personal nature of our authentic selves. What’s the relationship
between acknowledging vulnerability and achieving success? How can we handle
negativity with grace and integrity? What does it mean to be fully present and
in the moment with our peers…and how can that enhance workplace relationships
and leadership skills?
After experiencing THE LEADER’S
CHALLENGE and subsequent workshops on Servant Leadership, a select group of
attendees at each conference collaborated with the Creative Leaps team to build
a culminating performance based on their individual learning and insights from
the conference. (Creative Leaps calls these concluding events “Harvests
of Ideas,” and considers them a vital part of the learning process). The
resulting performances included full participation by the conference attendees
and focused on such areas as team development, identifying personal values, and
accepting diversity in the workplace. These culminating events celebrated
shared values of leadership and personal development; and they were full of
lively and heartfelt affirmations of commitment, dedication, and personal
growth.
THE LEADER’S CHALLENGE was
developed with the generous guidance and support of Richard Smith, senior
educator and consultant on the subject of Servant Leadership.
In the next issue of NEW HARMONIES: Interview with Servant
Leadership Senior Educator Richard Smith
|
