Walk The Talk

Every CEO of every organisation in the world will tell you how great they treat their employees. Claims that will not withstand a one hour scrutiny of their HR departments' policies and procedures or they way these policies and procedures are administered. Statements made for public consumption.

I always maintained that an airline, more than any other business in the world, is about people. It is never about airplanes or assets. It is the employees and how they interact together and with the passengers. A work ethic that every work group in the organisation is equally important and that an employee once trained is trusted to do what, in his best judgement, is right for the company's best interest at a given situation.

Very few airlines or organisations really "Walk the Talk".

One that shines is Southwest Airlines (SWA), 35000 happy employees (mostly unionised) who helped SWA carry 101.9 million passengers in 2008 (in 2008, the second carrier was AA at 92.772 million passengers) on board 544 B737 narrow body aircraft (AA has 608 including a large portion being wide bodies). More so, 2008 marked the 36th consecutive year of profitability at SWA since its inception on 18 June 1971. Pretty impressive, huh.

What is really impressive, is to hear Ms Colleen Barrett, President of Southwest Airlines talk about the employees being the highest priority and that she spends 85% of her time delivering "proactive customer service to the employees" (click here to hear Colleen Barrett on "Servant Leadership" from KnowledgeAtWharton) and if everyone else does their job right you have success.

WOW, 85% of the President's time delivering "proactive customer service to the employees", go figure. And darn it, it works very well at and for what is definitely the most successful airline in the world.

That is really Walking the Talk.

No One Wins Alone

No One Wins Alone, such a true statement but not so simple. Everyone says success has many fathers/mothers and failure is an orphan. So where do we get all these people to support and help ?

They could be close family members who usually give unconditional support unless you have the envious and jealous variety, otherwise one has to assemble a team for support regardless of whether it is a professional or personal goal. Considering that most people want to be winners by their own right, and do not see the value of supporting anyone. Confusion reigns, all these conflicting desires and ambitions.

People including family have to be convinced that the only way they can win is through you. One has to show leadership and team building abilities, that applies to everybody in any position in life or in an organisation and not necessarily to CEOs and Senior management. One has to nurture and support back, being supported and being a supporter are not mutually exclusive.

Winning is about leadership and team building, about sharing a vision and a dream and most of all being attentive and supportive to the needs of one's supporting team.

Then everyone is a winner