At the core of the “Starbucks experience” is a good cup of coffee. To make it great, you can add an extra shot, a sweetener, milk, cream, soy, caramel, chocolate, spice, whipped cream or a host of other things. Good coffee is still at the core – the other things move the experience to great by customizing and personalizing. We want things our way; we want things that match our tastes and preferences.

Now to the workplace. At the core is a good employee well suited to his or her job. But to help move the good employee to a great employee, you must customize and personalize the job.

Here’s why. What activates our best (good to great) performance is the emotional connection we have to what we do; when our passions are activated, we perform better (see research presented in Human Sigma by Dr. John Fleming). And each of us have a unique combination of things that fire us up – that activate our passions.

Great management in today’s intellectual workplace must first hire the core (great) employee (the great cup of coffee). Then, to make the experience exceptional (because this activates performance), the manager must know the employee well enough to know how to customize and personalize the job around the employee’s talents, values, interests and passions. This is what inspires the best performance.

Some examples:
o A salesman who loves to teach could create new product education for employees and customers.
o A customer service employee who is great at connecting to others may be interested in creating employee spirit events for the company.
o A company employee may be very socially aware and want to engage the team or department in Habitat for Humanity, work in a soup kitchen or in an animal shelter.

Start with good employees and move them to great by customizing and personalizing their jobs. Activate their passion for performance.

Link to BizTalk Radio interview.