Leading Up Through Redemptive Imagination: Interview with Abigail Covington

What comes to mind when you think of a flourishing leader? If you’re like a lot of people, you might imagine the leaders who are front and center: directors, executives, presidents and vice presidents of large organizations. But what if we are getting it wrong? What if flourishing is less about the position you hold and more about how you hold it, regardless of title or level of influence?

Here at the De Pree Center, we think a lot about flourishing and have come to measure it by different metrics. We see flourishing as engaging in the deep inner work that God does in and through you, whether you’re a first third, second third, or third third leader. That’s why we’re excited for you to get to know Abigail Covington, senior manager of Digital Crisis and Brand Reputation at Starbucks. Abigail is an exceptional example of what it means to flourish as a first third leader. Whether it’s leading up through serving others, speaking to people in ways that honor who they are and where they are, or by leaning into courage to communicate bold truths, Abigail has learned how to steward well any position she occupies—professionally and personally—by looking to Jesus to shape and transform her redemptive imagination.

Where do you work and what do you do at your organization? How did you get into this type of work?

I am a senior manager of Digital Crisis and Brand Reputation at the Starbucks Coffee Company. I work in corporate communications with a really brilliant team of strategic communicators. My specific lane is our digital conversation online as it relates to brand reputation and managing crises—the trickier, more problematic conversations that are happening. We focus on making sure that the brand reputation remains intact, and then understanding when there are threats, weaknesses, or other opportunities that we can leverage as a company.

When I started in college, I thought I wanted to do broadcast and digital journalism. And then I quickly realized that was not for me. I was very interested in the business of media and in how we disseminate messaging. In other words, how do we craft the narratives that consumers see? And what does that do to both persuade and inform the public? But after I got my master’s in media management, the pandemic hit. Following the pandemic, I went into change management and communications consulting in a smaller firm that was women led and based in Chicago. We really focused on helping companies navigate through change. Whether that was about returning to work or vaccinating employees, our role was helping them figure out how to message that and disseminate that messaging. After that, I began at Starbucks and eventually moved more specifically into digital crisis.

As a first third leader, how do you find ways to “lead up” in your organization? What encouragement would you give to other first-third leaders who want to influence their organization but don’t know how?

As a first third leader, “leading up” or “managing up” looks like doing the thing that nobody wants to do. I know that doesn’t sound great, but I really think that’s where that Christian mentality of serving carries over. So when we think about Jesus washing his disciples’ feet—and not just his disciples’ feet, but Judas’s feet—he never said, “I’m going to wash everybody but Judas.” Jesus demonstrated doing the thing that’s most counterintuitive.

Jesus demonstrated doing the thing that’s most counterintuitive.

In doing the thing that no one else wants to do, you oftentimes end up getting the most experience. I can remember being an intern and doing mundane data entry work that was really essential to the actual analysis and strategic planning and strategic communications work that we were going to be doing, but the data had to be entered first. In the end, my managers would be so grateful that it was done because it had to be done. I think leading up is figuring out what my managers or leaders need. I think having that servant and leadership mentality helps you to steward your role well. And once you start to serve first, you start to like it! You end up building new relationships, and you get exposure. And it doesn’t mean you have to do it all the time forever. At the most basic level, I ask, “What am I being called to do right now? How do I steward that? And how can I take a servant leadership mentality to the work that I do, so that ultimately my team can benefit and function at the most optimal level?”

What have you found to be the advantages and challenges of working in a non-faith-based organization? How do you stay within professional boundaries while living out your values as a believer?

I love working in a non-faith-based organization! There’s something so rich and valuable about being around people who have different thoughts and beliefs, come from different walks of life, and have different experiences.

In a lot of ways I feel like Paul—called to the Gentiles. When you are out in the world, you understand Paul at the Areopagus and how he’s able to talk to people in a way that the people could understand. But then he’s also able to go to Asia Minor and relate to those groups and speak the language of the people there. If I can’t do that—if I can’t relate to you or speak your language or communicate in a way that you understand—I lose opportunities to not only spread the gospel, but to be a walking emulation of Christ.

One example of how I lived out my values was through a coffee tasting. Every Monday, we have what’s called campaign meetings, which has about 80 plus people and includes the entirety of the Corporate Communications and Corporate Affairs teams. The meeting starts with a coffee tasting led by someone on the team who picks a coffee, drink, or tea of their choosing and then grounds us in a story or announcement. After, we all get a chance to taste the drink. I got the opportunity to lead a coffee tasting. Being in the Doctorate of Global Leadership program at Fuller, where my particular cohort is focused on redemptive imagination in the marketplace and bringing flourishing to the individual spaces we occupy, I chose to bring in a conversation around shalom as traditionally defined in a Hebrew context and connected it to what it looks like to flourish as coworkers, or flourish in our company, or even what it would look like to bring complete wholeness to the work that we do.

I got so much great feedback. From my coworkers, but also from Jewish colleagues who loved how I brought that in. I have coworkers who are agnostic and aren’t looking for Jesus in any specified way, but who started to consider, “How do I steward my job well enough so that we can all flourish this week?” It was reorienting for them. I like finding those organic intersections where I don’t have to throw Jesus at people.

I have coworkers who are agnostic and aren’t looking for Jesus in any specified way, but who started to consider, “How do I steward my job well enough so that we can all flourish this week?”

As someone skilled in communication, how have you learned to communicate through conflict or differing opinions within your team or organization?

One thing I’ve learned—slowly, but have learned—is it’s not my job to make you agree with me. I’m not the head leader. My position is typically giving options on how we could potentially approach a solution. And so oftentimes my job is to help someone understand their decision logic so when they do make a decision, even if it’s different than the decision I would make, they know why they are making it and can stand on the authority of that.

So I have to start with reorienting myself to that goal. If I’m having this deep discrepancy with others, I have to say, “What is the point here? What am I ultimately responsible for? What is the person or the people I’m disagreeing with responsible for?” And then consider, “How do we get to a solution?” It reminds me that it’s less about me being right or me wanting them to see that I’m right, and more about us making sure that we’re achieving the goal that we seek to accomplish.

Our theme for this quarter is flourishing. Through our research, we’ve found that flourishing leaders are oriented by hope. What does it look like to work and lead with hope in the work you do as a digital crisis communication manager?

I look to Christ as the ultimate example of hope for relational management. Being in digital crisis, you’re seeing a lot of stuff online. My hope is that through my work, if we’re really intentional and strategic about what we do, we can be authentically bold with our values. And then when people disagree with our position we can do that a little bit more civilly.

I look to Christ as the ultimate example of hope for relational management.

I have seen the worst of people online. I think we’re really far from civil discourse and civil disagreement. And right now, that polarization is growing. I think younger people need community that’s also in-person because I think that’s the first place you learn how to be civil and have civil discourse. But as for brands and organizations, if we’re not careful, we can become part of that uncivil back-and-forth. And so part of the hope is that, from an organizational perspective, we can be intentional to say something like “this is unjust” and be bold about that. Even when we know that that might be contentious. We can show people what it looks like to stand firm in something that is good.

For me, Christ is the example of facing hostility and still being bold in the midst of it. One of the things that I have found interesting in the Gospels and Acts is how Jesus didn’t feel the need to respond to every single question that he received. Sometimes he responded back with a question. Other times, knowing that people wanted to manipulate his response, he wouldn’t answer their question. And still other times, he’d respond with a parable. He always gave different responses to different questions, accusations, and situations. Jesus shows us that we don’t have to have the exact same response every time, but we should always respond with wisdom.

What is one leadership skill you are currently working on? What are the growing pains and benefits you are experiencing as you work on this skill?

Influencing over telling. I really started focusing on that when I got to Starbucks. Coming from consulting, people are asking me immediately, “What’s your opinion? What should we do?” And then I would tell them what to do. But in this scenario at Starbucks, the people I was working with would say, “We’re not asking for change. We just want the problem solved.” And so I had come in with a plan of “you need to do this.” And it worked sometimes for certain people who didn’t want to have to stand behind their decision-making. But not for others, specifically those who have been with the company for twenty years, who’ve had a legacy there.

My former manager, who’s just one of the most influential people I’ve ever worked for, helped me understand how it really comes down to the ways you influence people to think for themselves to arrive at the place that you’re already seeing. Instead of telling and dictating to them what they should be doing. And for a company like Starbucks, I really do that through our mission and values. If there’s one thing that people are deeply rooted in, it’s mission and values. So because of that, I’ve used that as a tool to say, “Okay, let’s go back to the mission values. If we do this, we are directly out of line with what we just said we were promising to do.” And because that’s such a big deal in this company’s culture, it’s really effective. So, it’s really getting someone to a slow yes instead of a fast one.

What is one verse or biblical story that helps keep you oriented toward Christ in your work and leadership?

Oh there are so many. But I think the one that comes up in conversation the most for me is John 4, the woman at the well.

In the story, Jesus is by himself having this encounter with a woman. Growing up, when I would hear this story preached and taught in churches, there was an emphasis on Jesus somehow being kind of shady. Almost like he was attacking her for her history of having five husbands. But when you read the text, there’s no exclamation point, nothing that denotes that he said anything to her differently than how he was speaking to anyone else in a regular conversation.

I find this interesting because a lot of times people use this story to show how Jesus called out sin and that’s what made her change. But actually, he sat with her and had a conversation with her—someone who other people wouldn’t speak to simply on the basis of her being a Samaritan woman. Then Jesus says “I’m here asking for a drink, but I’m inviting you to come abide in me. I’m inviting you into this relationship with me.” And he doesn’t even take away her free will. Instead, he starts posing these questions. And I think it is the very demonstration of evangelism that we’re often lacking.

Something that I say a lot is that having a zeal for Christ is not an excuse for condescension. And I think so often in Western and American Christian cultures, people feel like other people are compromising and therefore they think that they have to become more condescending and condemning. Like we need to take this firm stance against sin. But we need to have enough curiosity and enough compassion for people to just sit with them—where they are—and then let the Holy Spirit do the work. I’m not the 4th member of a Trinity. I don’t have any jurisdiction. And if not for grace, I too could be a woman at the well. And so I look at that interaction of Jesus with the woman at the well as an opportunity to think about how we treat people who are different from us, in belief, race, and background. And it’s also an intimate invitation to examine myself in relation to Christ, and how I can be more like him in how I interact with and work alongside others.

But we need to have enough curiosity and enough compassion for people to just sit with them—where they are—and then let the Holy Spirit do the work.