I became a leader late in my life. One of the reasons I never sought to run anything is that I had always felt a powerful need for control. That sounds like a good reason to become a boss, but I always imagined it would be nearly intolerable to have others do things their own way, rather than mine. Nearly a decade ago, at the age of 50, I launched my own company with a handful of employees. In the early days, it was mostly about me. I delivered keynotes based on a book I'd written, ran seminars, and did nearly all of the selling myself.

Howard Schultz, the CEO of Starbucks, is not an empty suit. It's not just that Schultz doesn't favor suits (at the talk I heard him give last week, he was wearing a cardigan sweater) but also that he has a heart, which he is willing to wear on his sleeve, and a mission in life that's not limited to profit. What makes Schultz a different kind of leader is his recognition that any company today must see itself as part of a larger community, serving a universe of stakeholders far beyond its immediate shareholders.