As a district manager, dad, volunteer softball coach, and active member of the Alhambra Chamber of Commerce, Ben has his schedule planned out a month in advance. He oversees 10-15 locations across six cities in the San Gabriel Valley, including the six we have here in Alhambra! Come along with him on a typical Monday in the life of a Starbucks District Manager.
5:30 am – Jumpstart the day with a cup of coffee
Ben wakes up early with his wife to have some extra time before his kids — two daughters — wake up. He drinks 3-4 cups of coffee every day, starting with an Americano first thing in the morning. His go-to? A cup of Starbucks’ Pike Place Roast, black.
6 am – Set priorities for the day
“I check my email just to see what kind of priorities I have to help me start the day and determine if any big things happened over the weekend that I need to take action on,” he says. He also does a business review of the last week and checks communications from corporate to disseminate to the stores he oversees.
7 am – K-pop in the car
He puts a pause on the work and helps get his kids ready for school. They have a quick breakfast, then get in the car. His kids get to DJ, so Ben gets to listen to Rosé and Bruno Mars’ “APT.” and Jennie’s “like JENNIE” on repeat, in preparation for the BLACKPINK concert in July.
8 am – Dive into deep work
Ben oversees a dozen stores, making sure they align with business metrics and keeping up with his store managers and employees — who they call “partners” at Starbucks. Morning rush hour between 7-10 am is the busiest time of day for a Starbucks, so he uses this time for a deep dive into business reviews and report updates, then takes some time to connect with other local district managers for quick check-ins.
10 am – Hop into the first call of the day
Now is when Ben starts talking to his store managers. “I try not to bombard my store managers with phone calls during the morning commuter traffic, so I open up phone calls and connects between 10 and 11,” he explained. If any store manager needs support, this is the time for them to troubleshoot issues with Ben directly.
On Mondays, he handles his morning work from home or goes into the Starbucks regional office in Burbank to avoid disrupting his store managers from their work, but throughout the rest of the week he’ll go into each store to check on them in person.
11 am – Share updates in his regional meeting
By this call, Ben is sipping from his second cup of coffee as he gives an update on his district in a regional call with corporate headquarters. Mondays set the tone for the rest of the week, giving him a list of priorities to discuss with his team for the rest of the day.
11:30 am – A break, if there’s time
During this break between calls, Ben makes sure that his store managers are doing okay and that there are no other urgent tasks requiring his attention. If there aren’t any issues, he’ll take a break.
“I do a lot of sitting, so when I have a break I like to get up and take a quick walk around the house. That quick 15 minutes of making another cup of coffee on the espresso machine really helps out. It’s what keeps me going,” he says. He doesn’t often get to eat a full lunch, but he’ll snack on the candy he keeps at his desk.
1 pm – Hop into a district area call
At 1, Ben has his next meeting, an area call with all of the district managers in the region to talk about priorities, weekly recaps, things to focus on, and what they’re working on in their markets.
“Mondays are for strategizing, like ‘how do we win this week?’” he says. Altogether, they cover about one hundred stores and use the time to share what’s going on in each district.
2:30 pm – Hop into a district huddle
At 2:30, Ben brings all of his store managers together for a district huddle. During this time, he likes to share recognition of things done well and wins from last week, opportunities, what’s working or not working, and anything big that needs to be discussed.
“It could be community activations, where our team can support with volunteering or coffee donations like during Teacher Appreciation Week, or something that didn’t perform well in the previous week. It’s time for just communicating to the teams, because you have to be very intentional with that,” he says.
3 pm – Connecting with store managers
Ben connects with each store manager individually every other week, switching them out every Monday, to make sure they’re thriving and supported in managing their stores. Ben places a huge emphasis on building a strong company culture, so these one-on-ones are important — the success of the store manager leads to a more successful store.
“We talk about what the store manager is working on: we’ll recognize the wins and discuss the opportunities, how I can support them, and what to expect to see in their stores when I visit. Building a strong culture includes allocating time to connect with the Store Manager and let them present their business and support them to be the best leader through conversations that support their development,” Ben says.
The rest of the week, he’ll visit stores based on what he and his store managers talk about in these connects. It’s one of the highlights of his job, “When I’m in stores, I get to connect with partners, see how they’re doing and get to interact with them.”
5 pm – Recaps and reports
To wrap up his work day, Ben sends out recaps and follow ups from his meetings throughout the day and reports on his portfolio of business to upper management.
Reports are recaps of the business and highlights where his district is at and what they are working on. This also includes following up with facilities items in stores and what needs to be looked at for the week.
6 pm – Family time and dinner
When he’s not coaching his eldest daughter’s softball team, he’s playing with his kids at home, helping with homework, and making dinner for the family. Tonight, they enjoy a big bowl of spaghetti. “My girls love spaghetti, and it’s easy to cook,” he says, “but when there’s more time, we’ll grill steak and broccoli, add some eggs. Or, like a broth and noodles, like Chinese beef noodle soup. It really depends on what the girls want.”
10 pm – Winding down for bed
After putting his kids to bed, he chats with his wife, checks on all the texts he missed during the day, looks over his schedule for the rest of the week, then checks in on his friends through his Instagram feed before going to sleep.
