Hey, happy Monday!
It’s summer, and you may be preparing for a physical and well-deserved trip. And doing it with those you love is the most important thing.
But let me share the stages of another journey, which is not yet over, and that is that of the STRTGY Meeting which on Monday, July 12 at 6:30 p.m. will have another important stage.
We have already talked about Influencer Marketing, about Business Strategies, of Strategic Copywriting, of Design Driven Innovation, and 🥁 next Monday we will talk about Leadership.
Of a particular kind of Leadership, the kind that is needed at this particular moment in history, Gentile Leadership.
STRTGY Meeting No.11 with Giampaolo Grossi – RSVP
Who do you need to build the future?
We know that if we put our minds to it we can do things faster and better than our team could do them. But doing so would not build the future, you would probably solve a problem, overcome an obstacle, but you would not build the future.
To build the future it takes people.
And people are the basis of everything.
Also of our STRTGY Maturity Index, but this is a story you have already heard.
What doesn’t emerge from charts, frameworks, management books… is love.
Love for people.
Love for people who decide to follow the leader.
Because without people the leader would not be a leader.
And without love he would not be able to do this:
“[…] to better profuse your goals, which must become theirs. You have to offer more sharing, because you need everyone.”
These are not my words, these are the words of Giampaolo Grossi, Starbucks Italy’s Employee No. 1 and General Manager, who you will have the opportunity to meet.
Love vs. Profit
When campaigns go wrong, the agency tells you it is “branding.” Some things simply don’t have the return we expect. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
But love, which to be true you have to build on respect, sincerity, vulnerability … is an asset with a sure return.
It may seem at odds with the annual budgets, the goals to be achieved, the economic targets, yet there is love behind the extraordinary results.
Think about it…
There is no denying the deep love for Design of Mauro Porcini who stayed an extra hour to answer all questions. To his love for the planet, which in business is called “sustainability,” and which drives PepsiCo’s innovation projects.
Or to that time you may have turned down a better paying job for the love of yourself, your family, your challenge.
The strategic importance of kindness
Kindness seems like a common thing. Often, however, it is just professionalism.
Professionalism occurs when there is bureaucracy, and bureaucracy feeds in the fertile soil of fear and distrust.
There is not much arguing these days in the office, on the other hand, with much professionalism, they invite you to politely follow the procedure.
You can hear it right away from the vocabulary that people in the company use.
Some people call people “resources” because they are closely linked to the income statement and their own performance. And what is the opposite of resource? Disadvantage, debt, cost–you never want to be one.
Some instead call them “functions.” Until … they no longer work.
There are no leaders in these circles because no one has decided to earn leadership.
There are those who can manipulate, but not influence.
To have leadership you have to be competent, no doubt about it. And being professional is not enough. You have to be kind. That is, to treat others with love.
On Monday the 12th we will have the honor of meeting Giampaolo Grossi, to talk about how precisely kindness has been of strategic importance to the success of Starbucks in Italy.
I would be happy if you decided to be in the room with us.
STRTGY Meeting No.11 with Giampaolo Grossi – RSVP
Good work!
Make yourself heard.
