| Too many times “managers” view empowerment as just another way to get out of things they don’t like to do – which isn’t true. Yes, I will say that I’ve made it my life’s work to help people find what they do well and do more of it as well as eliminating or reducing things they don’t do well or don’t like doing, but that’s not what I’m talking about here. Empowerment embodies both the responsibility and the authority to do something, but too many times managers miss one of those two components which is critical to empowerment. |
| OK – I lied, I said last week that you only had to hand with me on this Southwest Airlines bandwagon for one more day, but I forgot something that’s noteworthy in my study of their culture. Business pundits talk all the time about “managing change.” Equally important is knowing what NOT to change, and how to keep what you want to keep. CEO Gary Kelly managed permanence in the essential qualities of Southwest, low fares, customer service, simplicity and FUN. And it stays the same like crazy. Do you know the things that work and are worth keeping EXACTLY the way they are for a reason? Change for change sake isn’t always good. Like that old Kenny Rogers song, ”ya gotta know when to hold’em, know when to fold’em.” Know the things that are foundational to your success and manage their permanence. |
| Hang with me for one more day while I tout a few of the fabulous lessons we as business owners, principals, managers can learn from the sensitive successes of our friends in the sky, Southwest Airlines. Every Southwest employee gets a set of expectations that include aspects of the “Warrior Spirit” (be courageous, display a sense of urgency), “Servant’s Heart” (follow the Golden Rules, put others first), and “Fun-LUVing Attitude” (don’t take yourself too seriously, celebrate successes). So, I know lots of organizations put out expectations like that. The thing is, Southwest employees can recite them to you! They live this stuff. It’s not just a glossy placard in somebody’s workspace or a fancy picture on the wall in the waiting room – this is the stuff that champions are made of…….whoa, got a little carried away there, but it’s true. You have a culture, whether its official or not and guess who sets it – you do every day when you walk in the door if you’re in leadership. Make sure your “message” is consistent all day, every day with the “message” you want your staff to be putting out as well. Trust me, they’re all sending a “message”, make sure it’s the one you want your customer, both internal and external, to get. |
| It may surprise you to learn that Southwest Airlines is the most unionized airline, with 85% of its employees in unions. Yet the airline has a reputation for amicable relations, and its work rules are remarkably flexible; it’s not unusual to see a pilot help clean a plane to ready it for it snext flight. What’s the deal you say – “Lemme it put it this way”, a union leader told the Wall Street Journal in 1992. “How many CEO’s do you know who come in to the cleaners’ break room at 3 a.m. on a Sunday passig out doughnuts or putting on a pair of coveralls to clean a plane?” Employee relations lie behind the secret to Southwest’s Customer relations. Well-treated employees translate to well-treated customers and over the top customer satisfaction ratings. What have you done lately to let your staff know how important they are? With a little ingenuity its probably easier than showing up at 3 a.m. with doughnuts to clean an airplane, give it a try and see what happens. |
| Ralph Waldo Emerson said it a little more eloquently with “Necessity is the mother of invention”. A weed is a plant whose virtue has not yet been discovered. Southwest Airlines had to pull up its own weed in May of ’72 when a court ruling forbidding out-of-state charters forced the company to sell its fourth aircarft. That plane had been used for charters as well as regular flights. With only three planes to serve 29 daily flights, the airline devloped the 10-minute ”turn” – getting each plane to pull into the gate, perform maintenance, stock supplies, load passengers, and push back in just 10 minutes. The industry average at the time was 30-40 minutes…..and who is leading the way today for quick “turns” as well as adding flights consistently, showing positive growth and having a blast doing it? The weed farmers….Southwest Airlines, a great case study if you’ve not researched them lately. |
| That’s free advertising accordinging to the Southwest Airlines leadership who develped a “personality description model” for their company to craft the character for the airline. Free spirited, maverick, irreverent, sexy – the sauce of sauciness. Man, have they ever lived up to it – much to many a stuffy airline mogul’s chagrin I’d imagine. We sometimes call this our “elevator speech”, our 30-second verbal commercial of who we are and what differentiates us from our competitors. Now there’s a fascinating word – “differentiates” us…..3 out of 3, 10 and of 10…100% of the agents I talk to today tell me they have great service, markets and have been a prominent figure in their “community” as the reason their clients and prospective clients do business with them. Oh really…..and so does everyone else. Take a queue from Southwest’s fabulous success model and set yourself apart, really set yourself apart from the competition by crafting your “personality description model” or even more simpler, your 30-second commercial – and make it a good one! |
| At the executive level, you supervise too many projects most liekly to be involved hands on with all of them. Still, you’re accountable for them. Thus, you must be able to trust yoru team absolutely. If their work is poort, the blame is yours for having chosen them. And your boss won’t care why the work is poor; he or she will just want it fixed. Making a team run smoothly is difficult. Problems arise. You have to re-evaluate decisions and tweak processes. Establish systems and criteria for monitoring your team’s progress or you’re sunk. |
| A top corporate executive made a comment during a plant visit that its maintenance budget looked a little high. The next thing he knew, the plant managers had made drastic cuts – which wasn’t at all what he had intended. To encourage dialogue, some executives deliverately present themselves informally to subordinates. They adopy an ”affiliative” communication style, in which they acknowledge errors and ask employees questions. Senior execs like your boss probably have even less time in their schedules than you do. Don’t wait for your boss to tell you what he or she wants. Use the following three questions to structure your communication: “What” – Which information is most important, in what level of detail and in what format (voicemail, email, memo, etc.) “So What?” – Why is this information important? and lastly “Now what?” – How should you act on it? What are your goals? Give it a try - anything that increases the level and quality of communication has to be a winner. Stats show us that communication breakdowns are the #1 cause for relational failure – of all kinds. Say what you mean and mean what you say. |
| Life Goals Planning System that is – according to “The Next Level Author” Scott Eblin. 1. List your strengths and favorite activities – your actual ones, not the “shoulds” of your ideal world. 2. Identify a few behaviors to repeat regularly in each of four areas: mental, physical, spiritual and relational. 3. Set goals for your home, work and community life. What would you life look like if you were always performing at your best? 4. Review and recalibrate the first three steps of your Life GPS regularly. 5. Maintain perspective. “You are not your job. You are who you are.” |
| Marathoners can run as long and as fast as possible, but in fact executives need to be more like sprinters, putting everything they’ve got into a short burst of speed and then recuperate. When you schedule time in your calendar away from work, you’ll not only be calmer but you’ll also have a chance to refocus on the big picture. Find the zone between being overwhelmed and being apathetic, the state athletes call “flow”. |
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