Lee Seock-koo, chief executive of Starbucks Korea, knows how to get people just aching to do a good job. His secret weapon? Compliments.

Lee, who tours up to 20 Starbucks stores a week, is known to always carry “compliment cards” on him to write personal notes and memos to employees and executives who are doing an exceptional job on-site.

Kim Chang-won, a manager in charge of Daejeon and South Chungcheong Province, is one Starbucks staffer who recently received an email from Lee containing this “compliment card” from Lee after volunteering to help out underprivileged children.

“I am proud of our Daejeon and South Chungcheong staff, and wanted to extend my compliments. It made me think that our staff are always working and acting for the benefit of our community,” was how the card started out, ending with words of encouragement to all the Starbucks staff to continue with such endeavors. 

“I was totally blown away. Never did I imagine I would receive such an email,” Kim said.

Lee’s compliment campaign plays a vital role in one of his most important business activities: “tour-and-tell.”

What Lee does, and has been doing since he took the helm of Starbucks Korea in December 2007, is take two days out of the week to visit Starbucks outlets nationwide.

The visits are under wraps, and nobody but his closest aides knows where the next visit will be, for Lee doesn’t want to inconvenience his staff. He also wants to keep things “natural,” his aides said.

So far, the CEO has paid more than 5,000 visits, meaning he has been to each store at least 10 times.

At the stores Lee rolls up his sleeves to help out in the kitchen, doing the dishes and cleaning up, or serving the customers.

At times, Lee may find service unsatisfactory, but even then, he makes sure the information is shared in a productive way with the entire staff to make sure employees share the blame.

For Lee, the visits are critical because it’s his philosophy that a CEO must know what’s happening on the scene in order to recognize what the Starbucks customers want.

By Kim Ji-hyun (jemmie@heraldcorp.com)