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"Leadership is not a title or position;
it's a way of life."
~Colleen Barrett, retired President and COO, Southwest Airlines
I had the great fortune last week of listening to the wisdom of the legendary Colleen Barrett, retired President and COO of Southwest Airlines, and one of Forbes' 100 Most Powerful Women. She began her career at Southwest as a legal secretary to Herb Kelleher in 1967, and rose through the ranks to become President and COO. Ms. Barrett was the featured speaker at a luncheon I attended last week, and I found her message to be very informative and inspiring.
She spoke of the culture at Southwest. She shared that while planting the seeds of culture has to start at the top of the organization, it is the responsibility of every individual in the company to carry the culture forward. Southwest tells their applicants that "We are in the customer service business first and foremost. We also happen to provide transportation service." According to Colleen, every employee is expected to be a customer service representative, a "marketeer," and an owner and "enricher" of the culture.
So how can you grow the leadership culture you envision for your organization? Whether you have a team of two, two hundred, or twenty thousand, the success of your organization begins with your vision for the culture you want to create. For Southwest, that vision revolves around the mindset that customer service, not travel, is really their core business. The notion that the customer really, truly does come first is deeply ingrained and frequently reinforced. According to Colleen, some of the ways Southwest's leadership team supports this customer first culture include:
- Telling applicants "We are in the customer service business."
- Their emphasis on "hiring for attitude and training for skills."
- Modeling and demanding "golden rule behavior", meaning "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
- Expecting employees to represent Southwest at all times, whether on or off the clock.
- Reminding employees to remember "where they came from" and to remember how Southwest helped them to grow.
- Requiring that all leaders, even the most senior leaders, attend the classes that their employees are required to attend.
Most impressive and moving of all the stories Colleen Barrett told was one of amazing employee empowerment. I won't share all the details in print because it is Southwest's story to tell, but the high level summary is this: A few months ago, a man called the Southwest ticket counter, needing to get home immediately to a dying relative. No fewer than six Southwest employees took it upon themselves to make sure this man was personally helped, as quickly as humanly possibly, through each step of the reservation, ticket purchase, boarding, baggage and flight process. They didn't ask for permission from their supervisors, and they often "bent" or even broke the normal rules in taking care of the situation, because it was the right thing to do for the customer. After the ticket agent booked the man on the soonest flight to his destination, the captain even held the flight because the man was delayed in traffic. If that doesn't demonstrate a solid customer service culture, I don't know what does. Those employees knew what to do because serving the customer had been ingrained in them since the day they first walked in the doors of Southwest Airlines.
What about the culture you are creating in your team or organization? Are you conscious of your vision for the culture you want to create, and are you "walking the talk"? As Colleen Barrett says, "It is ten times easier to create a culture than to change one."
What are your organization's values? What do you stand for? How do you expect employees to respond in times of challenge? What kind of leader are you striving to be? And how do your employees think you are doing?
These are some of the questions all good leaders need to answer as they build and grow their teams and their culture. Whether your team is large or small, the culture you create is what will shape and drive their behaviors both now and in the future. As Colleen Barrett said, "Culture is like a plant that you grow and nurture over time. It starts with seeds." What seeds are you planting in your team?
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