The world (and your clients and your staff) judge you by what you do, not what you say. This is really important to understand as a leader, and when you do understand it, being an effective leader actually becomes easier. The path becomes clearer.
Howard Schultz, founder of Starbucks has stepped down as CEO only to watch his company decline and then returned to right the ship successfully. He has done this act a couple of times. In his book ‘From The Ground Up’ he describes how the company’s slide in 2007 was so obvious to him especially whenever he walked into stores. The rich aroma of freshly ground coffee had become weak to undetectable. Sometimes all he could smell was burnt cheese from the new breakfast sandwiches they were selling. Operationally the company had made lots of poor decisions about store locations, what products besides coffee to sell in their stores, how they trained their baristas, and how they packaged and stored their roasted coffee beans. The accumulation of these decisions led to a watering down of the in-store experience and the Starbucks brand.
Schultz expressed his concerns to the senior leaders at the company: “We desperately need to make the changes necessary to evoke the heritage, the tradition, and the passion that we all have for the true Starbucks experience. Let’s get back to the core. Push for innovation and do the things necessary to once again differentiate Starbucks from all others.”
Schultz outlined seven priorities: be recognized as the undisputed coffee authority; engage and inspire our partners with better training and new benefits; reignite customer’s emotional attachment to our brand; expand our stores around the world, but try to make each one feel like the heart of the local neighbourhood; be a leader in ethical sourcing and environmental impact efforts; create new, relevant products to help grow revenue; operate a more efficient and profitable business model. These are all inspiring and laudable words and intentions but what actually counts is all the actions that he took to make it happen. Words are cheap.
Actions take commitment. During the next two years new products were introduced, store interiors were re-imagined and updated, all espresso machines were replaced with versions that were more attractive and visible to customers and much more.
To me the most impressive action he took was on one day in February 2008, he closed 7,100 stores in the US at the same time to retrain their baristas in the art of making espresso. Shutting stores simultaneously did two things. First, it efficiently taught 135,000 baristas how to correctly pour espresso and steam milk, which improved the quality of millions of beverages immediately. But the mass closing also made a statement to the staff and the world: Starbucks was serious about being better.
Everything you do as a leader is symbolic. Every action makes a statement. If you are being judged by your actions ask yourself, are you really serious about getting better, about being more passionate about eyewear, about attracting the right clients, about creating an environment where your team can thrive and wow clients? Like Schultz you literally have to put your money where your mouth is if you want to inspire and lead your team to the vision you have for a better version of your practice.