星巴克前掌门爱的练习

    财富五百强企业的首席执行官被解雇后还能赢得雇主赞许的情况非常少见。然而，星巴克（Starbucks）创始人霍华德•舒尔茨解聘了吉姆•唐纳德，亲自出山、重新担任首席执行官一职后就出现了这样的情形。“他是世界上最宽容善良的人，”舒尔茨在他所著的关于星巴克转型的《前进》（Onward）一书中对唐纳德大加赞赏。“他善于跟组织内部各层级的人建立良好关系，在这方面他是个天才。”舒尔茨写道，这些品质，再加上“心地、良知和情商”，让唐纳德即使是在销售额下滑、投资者希望公司做出改变的情况下仍然受到了星巴克公司上下的一致拥戴。

    事实证明，舒尔茨于2008年决定重返首席执行官职位是明智之举【《财富》杂志将其评为2011年度商业人物（2011 Businessperson of the Year）】。然而，对于唐纳德来说，他似乎注定要迎接另一个挑战。过去四年中，我一直与他保持着联系。他虽然处于公众视线之外，但一直忙于教学和咨询，并且先后执掌了太平洋西北连锁食品杂货公司（Pacific Northwest）和食品连锁品牌Haggen。他刚刚被任命为公寓式酒店连锁公司Extended Stay Hotels的首席执行官。这家连锁酒店公司年收益10亿美元，拥有9,100名员工，2010年刚刚摆脱破产保护的阴影。公司目前由私募基金中桥合伙公司（Centerbridge Partners）、保尔森基金公司（Paulson & Co.）和黑石集团（Blackstone Group）所有。

    对唐纳德来说，酒店业是一个全新的领域，因为他一直以来从事的是食品零售业。【他曾经受雇于沃尔玛（Wal-Mart）创始人山姆•沃尔顿，是沃尔玛超级购物中心发展壮大的先锋人物。】现在他正在进行新的尝试。上个月他对我说，在斟酌不同工作机会的同时，他还坚持每天写一个小故事来磨练自己的创造力。他说，2012年到现在为止，今年他已经写了13,000字，大多数故事是关于如何用爱心领导他人。他如此总结自己的管理哲学：“人们期望知道自己的表现如何，如果你告诉他们，他们可能会更加卖力。”

    唐纳德认为，99%的人“都会尽力去做正确的事情，要对他们给予肯定。”下文是他写的一个小故事，关于一月份某天他前往Extended Stay Hotels公司总部、也就是他现在的东家面试时，在夏洛特国际机场（Charlotte International Airport）的亲身经历。

爱的外卖

作者：Extended Stay Hotels公司首席执行官吉姆•唐纳德

    去吧，不要吝啬自己的爱心。因为赠人玫瑰，手有余香……

    我从机场的“哈德逊新闻”便利店（Hudson News）拿了份《华尔街日报》（the Wall Street Journal）和《今日美国》（USA Today），结账时，店员塔奎娜对我说：“请您尝尝这种巧克力脆饼吧。”

    我回答：“谢谢，不用了。”

    她仍然坚持：“尝尝吧，您会喜欢的。”我勉强尝了一口，一边嚼一边含糊地说：“味道还不赖，但我得再吃点伯强格斯（Bojangles）的炸鸡才能咽得下去。”可巧的是，结账通道对面就是这家炸鸡店。

    塔奎娜说：“带上我们一块去吧。”

    “好啊，大伙儿把店关了，我们一起去！”我朝店里所有的六名店员喊了一嗓子（其实我知道他们是不可能当真）。

    走到通道的对面，我回头看了一眼，发现我刚才的话在店内激起一阵兴奋的骚动。随后我开始排队买晚餐，打算要一只鸡翅和一块鸡胸。

    突然，我的良心跳出来质问我：“你怎么回事啊？这么多年来，你总是告诉人们‘要赞美别人为了让这个世界变得更美好所做的每一件小事’。塔奎娜可能是头一次出来推销，她不厌其烦地向你推销巧克力脆饼，而你不仅没掏钱还戏弄她。”

    It's a rare case when a Fortune 500 CEO gets ousted, and then the guy wearing the boot divvies out praise. But this is what happened after Howard Schultz fired Jim Donald as CEO of Starbucks (SBUX) and replaced him with himself. "You cannot meet a kinder human being," says Schultz about Donald in his book, Onward, about Starbucks' turnaround. "A natural talent for building relationships at every level of an organization"--plus "heart, conscience, and emotional intelligence," according to Schultz--made Donald a popular chief inside Starbucks, even as sales flagged and investors wanted change.

    Turns out, Schultz was wise to reclaim Starbucks' reins in 2008 (Fortune named him 2011 Businessperson of the Year), but Donald, whom I've kept in touch with, seemed destined for another challenge. After four years below the radar--teaching, consulting, heading a Pacific Northwest grocery chain, Haggen--he was just named CEO of Extended Stay Hotels, a $1 billion-a-year, 9,100-employee chain that emerged from bankruptcy in 2010. The company is now owned by private equity firms Centerbridge Partners, Paulson & Co. and Blackstone Group (BX).

    Hotels represent new territory for Donald, whose career has been in food retailing. (Hired by Sam Walton, he once spearheaded Wal-Mart's (WMT) early foray into superstores.) Now Donald is in stretch mode. Last month, as he was weighing various job options, he told me that he was testing his creative muscle by writing a story a day. He's written 13,000 words so far in 2012, he reports; most are about leading with love. "People want to know how they're doing," he says, summing up his philosophy. "If you let them know, then they might do more."

    Donald believes that 99% of people "try to do the right thing. Recognize them for it." Here's his story about an encounter at Charlotte International Airport one January day when he was interviewing at Extended Stay's headquarters--now his corporate home.

Buy Some Love by Jim Donald, CEO, Extended Stay Hotels

    Go ahead. Buy some love and make someone's day. It might even make your own day...

    "Try the brownie brittle," Taquana told me as I checked out of Hudson News with the Wall Street Journal and USA Today.

    "No thanks," I replied.

    "You'll like it," she repeated. Giving in, I mumbled as I crunched, "Not bad. But I need to wash it down with some Bojangles fried chicken." Coincidentally, a Bojangles was across the terminal hallway.

    "Take all of us with you," Taquana replied.

    "Let's go. Lock this place down," I yelled to all six of the Hudson News employees (knowing it would not/could not happen).

    As I walked across the hallway, I looked back at the excitement that I stirred up and got in line to place my order for a two-piece dinner--a wing and a breast.

    All of a sudden, my conscience popped up on my right shoulder: "What the ???" she said to me. "All your working life, you tell people to 'celebrate the little things that people do to try and make a difference.' Taquana, probably in her first retail gig, went out of her way to sell you brownie brittle, and you not only stiffed her, you teased her as well."