Born in Florence, Giampaolo Grossi is the current General Manager of Starbucks Italy. For those familiar with Milan, he oversaw the opening of the Starbucks Roastery, which has now become one of the symbols of the city. Before taking over the leadership of Starbucks Italy, Giampaolo traveled the world and did many different jobs, dealing with luxury and hospitality. Rare fact among business leaders, Giampaolo loves to write and communicate. He founded the Lusso Gentile initiative, and on behalf of KINDNESSforBusiness, Germana Barba interviewed him to learn about his personal conception of kindness.
Thank you for agreeing to speak to KINDNESSforBusiness. I would like to start by asking you how it feels to lead a foreign business like Starbucks that represents a lifestyle, in a country like Italy that understands lifestyle …
It is an honor. It is a great fortune to represent a company like Starbucks in such a delicate market but which is also an observation point for many professionals. It is also a great responsibility. Starbucks represents a lifestyle, a status symbol, that was built day after day in the company’s 50-year history. Our mission is “To inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup, one neighborhood at a time.” Starbucks is not a coffee company. It is a company of people who serve coffee. People and the relationship with others are at the center of our work.
On the street they stop you and call you “Mr Starbucks” …
When this happens I usually reply that “Mr Starbucks” is someone much higher than me … But of course it’s nice. When Starbucks founder Howard Schultz created this company in the 1970s, he was heavily influenced by his own personal experience. One of the things he did in the 1980s was to offer health coverage to all the company’s workers, well before Obamacare. He did it because when he was little his father, who was a transporter and who was the only one to bring the money home, broke his leg and had to stop working, and in the United States at that time not working meant not being paid. The human and personal dimension always ends up being reflected in organizations.
What is kindness to you?
Kindness is music. It should be the air you breathe. That harmonious morning with the sun outside that makes your soul happy. Kindness is a gift that is given to others and above all that is made to oneself. In fact, giving kindness to others means first and foremost loving yourself. I feel a lot of satisfaction when I see in the eyes of other people the emotion of having appreciated a kind gesture. It is also a skill that needs to be trained continuously. Because we all like to receive kindness but not all of us give it. In Italy there is a tendency to associate kindness with a social positioning. But in reality, kindness is accessible to everyone.
How does kindness move into business? What is gentle leadership for you?
Kind leadership cares about people. It dedicates quality time to people. It doesn’t necessarily mean listening to others for hours on end. But it means doing it in a conscious and careful way, so as to give people the space to express their opinion, to give feedback. It also means sharing one’s vulnerability to empathize with others. People are made up of their abilities and skills on the one hand, and their emotions and feelings on the other. The kind leader must value the skills but must also stimulate the emotions so that people are able to take that extra step that they have not yet taken.
How was this philosophy born in you?
At 6, I lost my mother. My grandmother dropped everything and moved to our house to raise my sister and me. She gave me extraordinary strength because she had the courage to leave everything to devote herself to us. And she passed on her kindness to me because it was her way of being. She taught me that when someone comes to have coffee, you set the table, bring out the good service and the biscuits, and all the attentions. When they ask me who my mentor was, my answer is: my grandmother.
Behind every leader there is always a personal story …
I don’t call myself a leader, it’s not up to me to do it. What I do know is that being a leader is something that has to be earned. You have to train continuously to be able to inspire and guide others. A leader must retain the ability to be as excited as he was when he was a child. When we grow up we forget where we came from and the path we have taken. I get excited to see a dog wagging its tail, the child in the car in front of me greeting me. Develop sensitivity to details and connect details to stories and to learnings. To better understand others.
How does kindness translate into the company you lead? How is kindness “institutionalized”?
Of course Starbucks has processes and systems that practice kindness. When we evaluate people we always start with positive results and only afterwards do we move on to discuss areas for improvement. But it is above all a culture. The culture of recognition of the work done by people. We start every meeting with a coffee, we tell each other how it goes and we share our personal lives. In our meetings we always have 2 empty chairs, one that symbolizes our people (whom we call partners, not employees), the other our customers. And every time we ask ourselves what impact our decision will have on our people and our customers.
What advice would you give to business leaders who want to take a path to introduce kindness into their organization?
A leader must start with awareness. You need to know where you are on the way. Even if it means admitting that you are not where you should be. Secondly, you have to share the vision. If you don’t share the vision of where you want to go, others will have a hard time following you. This is a mistake that I also make. Sometimes I underestimate the fact that others don’t think like me and don’t feel like me. The other consideration is that we must realize that the generations born in the last 30 years have evolved much more rapidly than the previous ones. They are born with technology as an integral part of their being for example. You have to adapt your style taking into account their characteristics.
Sport plays an important role in your life. If you think about sport and kindness, what comes to your mind?
The memory of when I started playing football at the age of six. Especially the moment when you waited on the sidelines – with patience and respect – for another child to invite you to play. And the emotion of overcoming fears through the expression of physicality.
OUR GUEST
Giampaolo, 40, was born in Florence and makes his sporting career a spirit of life that he applies to the world of work. He travels the world with various international experiences in hospitality until returning to Italy, where he lands in Starbucks in Milan. A positive person, determined in his goals, he undertakes the arrival in Italy of the American giant with his coffee, defying all expectations.
“Starbucks is giving me the opportunity to grow professionally but even more importantly on a human level, something in which I invest a lot of my time” – Giampaolo Grossi.
