You know that you have made a positive difference in people’s lives (as well as their pocketbooks) when you receive a standing ovation at annual shareholder’s meeting. As reported by Joe Nocera in the New York Times, such adulation was accorded to Herb Kelleher co-founder of Southwest Airlines on the occasion of his last meeting as a chairman. Put simply, Kelleher is a legend; for more than three decades Southwest has been the darling of an industry that in recent times has known mostly hard times. How Kelleher did it is a lesson in leadership.

Have a good idea. Legend has it that Kelleher, an attorney whose firm did work for Braniff, sketched the idea for Southwest on the back of a napkin. The airline would fly point to point; later that idea was refined to including flying a single type of aircraft, the Boeing 737. Point to point eliminated the need for creating costly hubs and using one aircraft streamlined training and maintenance for pilots, crew and mechanics. Southwest has also made an art of hedging fuel prices; Kelleher told Nocera that Southwest is paying $51 a barrel for 70% of its fuel.

Surround yourself with good people. At Southwest Airlines, the default assumption is that the employee is always right. This may be counterintuitive to a consumer service operation but within the Southwest culture so much attention is given to employee hiring and training that the company trusts the people who represent it. Southwest’s customer-service focus is reinforced by the employees who deliver it; it part of the airlines culture.

Have some luck. Nocera quotes former American Airlines executive, Richard Crandall, as saying that Southwest benefited enormously from the use of Love Field in Houston. That gave the airlines convenient and easy access to the downtown Houston market which was critical to the airline’s early success. [Luck did not spare Southwest from having to pay millions in fines for flying aircraft that did not meet FAA standards for safety.]

There is something else about Kelleher that may be the secret of his success. Kelleher is a people person and loves to have a good time. That personality contributes to his belief that work should be fun and the culture that he and his team nurtured reinforced that mindset. People actually enjoy coming to work and that positive spirit reflects well on customers.

Herb cultivated the spirit by diving head-first into the employee activities. He met and mingled with employees frequently; he also socialized with them. Spending so much time with front-line employees gave Kelleher a first hand view of what worked and what did not. Employee ideas for improvement were always welcome. Kelleher’s personal management style demonstrates that the success of Southwest depends as much on executive direction as employee participation.

Source
Joe Nocera “The Sinatra of Southwest Feels the Love” New York Times 5.24.08

When you delegate a job to someone, ask him to brief you on his goals and objectives. That’s a great way to check for understanding.

Question: How do I motivate the people on my team?

Solution: Create conditions for individuals to motivate themselves

Action Steps:
- Communicate what must be done and why
- Give people responsibility to do the job.
- Grant individuals authority (and resources) to complete the assignment.
- Recognize achievement.

“But I told him what to do. Why didn’t he do it?”

That comment is so common, that if we lived in Elizabethan England, we might label that it, “The Manager’s Lament.” Lamentations such as these, however, lead to acrimony and dysfunction in the workplace. And even while they are common, they can lead to serious consequences such as missed deadlines, blown budgets, and even derailed careers.

Communication is the glue that holds organizations together. Everyone agrees it is vital. And in fact, one research study from the Institute for Conflict Prevention said that managers spend from half to three quarters of their time communicating. Yet for all that time invested, it certainly seems that few dividends are delivered. More precisely, employees are unclear about what to do and why and even worse they have little faith in their senior managers. So what’s a good manager to do?

Tell people what’s going on. People want to know the big picture, that is, how what they do fits into the grand panorama of the organization. For example, if you are a purchasing manager, let your people know that your insistence on abiding by cost guidelines is one way to help the company deliver a good return. At the same time, tell them that squeezing costs too much will squeeze good suppliers so hard that they will soon say, “See ya later.” So keep folks up to date and informed.

Check for understanding. Saying it does not mean communicating it. Communications, by nature, is a two way proposition. You speak; people listen. They speak; you listen. When you listen, make certain that what you have said is crystal clear. How can you tell? Ask them to state what you’ve stated in their own words. The military has a term for this: the brief back. Make use of it.

Tune your antennae. Ever ask a teenager about something one of his friends may or may not have done? Chances are, if the question begs a revelation about a misdeed, you will get a non answer so non committal F. Lee Bailey would be proud. Well, same things happen in the workplace when people do not feel safe to talk to their managers. Colin Powell is famously quoted as saying, “If your troops are not coming to you with their problems, you have a problem.” If you are not hearing things that you know to be true then someone somewhere is not telling the truth.

Good news is that, according to a study by Watson Wyatt, companies whose executives communicate well with employees report higher levels of engagement, that is people know what is expected of them and they get to it. Communication is too important to take for granted, or on a personal level to say it once and forget it. Do what good politicians (yes, there are some) and good executives (yes, even more good ones) stay on message. Again and again. And listen. Again, again, and again.