How Starbucks Drinks Predict Your Leadership Traits
Seun Shokunbi - Editor
Table of Contents Show
The time is here: new and old Starbucks seasonal drinks are now on sale!
Coincidentally, a new Women in the Workplace report is published by McKinsey & Company and LeanIn.Org around the same time each year. Their latest data, combined with my recent obsessive research into how diet affects the brain, sparked an idea for assessing my growth as a business leader.
Black women can’t get a break. We stay ready, with the most degrees and ambition, yet remain the most overlooked for leadership positions. We get invited to the table only to constantly sit underneath it, waiting for scraps to fall our way.
This year, for every 100 men in management only 82 women of color (WoC) got promoted. Worst of all, only five percent of WoC advanced into the C-suite (based on a survey of 40,000+ people working at the 333 companies who participated in McKinsey’s study).
A walk to Starbucks near me is part of my daily distraction from the rage gender politics stirs inside of me. But how interesting was it to find out that my sips go a lot further than keeping me calm.
Here's a fun method I found to understand myself better and use that to climb the corporate ladder, all from the alluring aroma of a white coffee cup adorned with a siren.
How Starbucks Drinks Are Linked to Personality
Plenty of research is available connecting our taste palate to behavioral tendencies. One Oxford University study summarized over 50 years of this research, and found flavor preferences almost consistently predicted which of the Big Five personality traits a person had:
Extraverted vs. Introverted
Friendly vs. Critical
Curious vs. Cautious
Organized vs. Careless
Sensitive vs. Confident
Once I heard this, my nerd brain had to create a top-five list of what the most popular drinks reveal about my career path.
Irish Cream Cold Brew (For No-nonsense Critical Thinkers)
Starbucks describes this drink as “bold” and “super smooth”, but I’d place extra emphasis on the bitterness. Generally, black coffee will taste more bitter due to the natural acidity of coffee beans. According to research, a preference for this taste correlates with a serious demeanor and a craving for constant stimulation.
You’d probably gravitate toward this drink if you’re the kind of leader who likes solving complex puzzles and is excited by an intellectual challenge. You’d feel more comfortable in structured but not predictable environments. To rise up in the ranks, you need managers that give clear instructions from the jump on how your performance is reviewed and measured. The rules for career advancement have to be spelled out, make logical sense, and never be broken. You don’t cope well with ambiguity, nepotism, or reneging.
Jobs in architecture, journalism or UX design come to mind for this profile. In your job hunt, make sure you ask questions about employee promotion policies and salary schedules for specific job titles (e.g. Manager, VP, SVP, etc.).
Sugar Cookie Almondmilk Latte (For the Work Wife/Best Friend)
If this is your go-to morning drink, I’m almost positive you rule by persuasion. Sweet flavors are mostly associated with personalities that are…well, sweet. Two studies conducted in 2012 and 2013 found that people who ate sugary foods had significantly more thoughts about love and romance (hence the whole premise behind Valentine’s Day).
Professionally, you’ve probably read How to Win Friends and Influence People and occasionally go to extremes to follow the book’s advice. You want as many allies as possible, so that leads some of you towards people-pleasing, over-apologizing, and giving people the benefit of the doubt. You mean well and abide by the can’t we all just get along mantra when dealing with office politics.
To rise up in the ranks, you either add more backbone to your kind-hearted anatomy or find a workplace where people don’t eagerly take advantage of you. I used to be here and found the second option hard to find, even in the so-called benevolent non-profit industry. One tip given in the scientific journal I read was to expand your palate (no joke) to include more novel, less pleasant-tasting items. It toughens up the tongue, mind, and spirit.
Jobs in sales, event planning, or digital marketing (i.e. social media) come to mind for this profile. I’d highly recommend going into human resource (HR) management since your empathy could make a huge difference for employees (read: OTHER BLACK WOMEN) who need to feel protected and understood. In your job hunt, ask creative questions about the office culture like
Why do people choose to spend the most hours of their day working for you?
Who is your closest friend in your department and why? or
What would put a smile on my face every time I arrive at your office?
Pumpkin Spice Latte (For the Curious Thrill-Seeker)
Y’all PSLs rule the world, and I’m not mad at it. For one, your go-to is ranked the most popular Starbucks order to date. So there’s a lot of you in every corner of corporate society, like AKAs. On top of that, you go out of your way to ensure you and those around you have a good time.
You may not describe PSL as spicy, but it’s in the name darling, so it is. Opting for spicy-as-in-fragrant flavors correlates with unusual and even risky interests.
Personally and professionally, you enjoy surprises. You need and seek novelty on a consistent basis. You’re not afraid to do things differently, and in fact, encourage others to do the same. You might have graduated from Tony Robbins’ Leadership Academy.
To rise up in the ranks, you’d want an employer that provides ample opportunities to shine. You’d want consistent feedback and, better yet, affirmation from your colleagues and superiors. It’s not that you are narcissistic (necessarily)—it’s that your battery’s charged up when you get confirmation that you’re killing it. And that motivates you to go harder, faster, stronger.
Jobs in public relations, venture capital, and government come to mind for this profile. You’d be an amazing travel vlogger! In your job hunt, consider freelance opportunities or roles that allow you to work with different types of clients/projects every quarter.
Matcha Tea Latte (The “Just Vibes” Crew)
If you’re wondering where I am, I live here. My tastes in drinks evolved with my mood and tolerance for strife. Matcha is of #thatgirl TikTok fame, for the right reasons. Green tea, especially its chlorophyll-packed cousin, contains L-theanine. That is the most chill drug you’ll ever take without breaking the law. Benefits of L-theanine include calmness, improved cognition, and better concentration.
Because matcha is uncommon in most countries outside of Asia, it’s a flavor associated with people who like to explore exotic and eccentric cultures. You’d go for matcha if you find your thrills in clever conscious rap lyrics vs. roller coasters. You listen to lo-fi playlists while you work, take midday naps, and prefer all your meetings to be emails. You can immediately sense the energy in a room, and if it ain’t high vibrational you’re leaving.
To rise up in the ranks, you need to be free. Free to experiment. Free from unnecessary and unrealistic expectations. Free to function the way that seems best for the mood you’re in. Free to get things done when you feel like it, as long as it’s high-quality and doesn’t hinder someone else’s progress. Free to lead when you want to, or sit back and let someone else take control.
Any jobs following the agile methodology or principles of lean management mentioned in this book come to mind for this profile. I worry that commercialism has turned almost every profession into a toxic “fast-paced environment” making it impossible for the Just Vibes Crew to find relief anywhere. I found relatively more leisure in content creation (e.g. blogging, copywriting, video editing) than in other occupations, but only with clients who respect my boundaries and project management style. In your job hunt, follow your intuition and openly discuss hypothetical situations that require clients/prospective employers to reveal if they’re willing to go with the flow.
Chai Latte (For Those Who Play It Safe)
Finally, we have the traditional leader who defaults to the chai latte. Chai, a word derived from the Sinitic word cha, simply refers to the basic standard tea (black tea, in most contexts). That reflects the simplicity of those who prefer it over the 39 other drink options available at Starbucks.
Nothing wrong with that, to each her own! This is all to say that chai latte drinkers are usually reserved, anxious when something’s unfamiliar, and less open to veering away from what’s “normal”.
Chai latte drinkers don’t mind the mundane. They might prefer it. Give them their directions and they’ll follow, with every T crossed and I dotted. You triple-check everything for accuracy. You’re easy-going with everyone, and prefer to stay out of office gossip. No one really knows you outside of your cubicle, and you prefer it that way.
To rise up in the ranks, you’d want to follow nearly the same guidelines as the people sipping Irish Cream Cold Brews (no-nonsense critical thinkers). Look for managers that give clear instructions, preferably in an official employee handbook. Find spaces where transparency is worth more than gold, or power. Avoid companies with a cult of personality complex (i.e. anything Elon Musk owns). And as with your Cold Brew acquaintances, always ask for the career advancement process to be spelled out before you sign your employment contract.
Jobs in medical fields, accounting, and academic research come to mind for this profile. In your job hunt, try to contact at least three people who currently work with the employers you’re considering, asking for their honest opinions about company values and attrition rates.
Summary
Remember, this exercise was 70% dropping knowledge, 20% fun, and 10% a distraction from the existential dread that comes with statistics on Black women’s careers. I’m not qualified to authoritatively ascribe any dietary choices to traits that predict success or chances of joining the highest ranks of company leadership.
What I do know is I shared a lot of basic truths proven to help you advocate for yourself in the corporate world. Leave a comment below this post if you saw yourself in any of these drink orders, or have suggestions to add so the sisterhood’s well-equipped to fight another day against the powers that be.
