Southwest Airlines | Hard Lessons

Why Employees LUV It

Year after year, Southwest Airlines makes one or more of the various “Best Places To Work” lists. In some years (e.g., 2009), they are #1—THE best place to work.

In addition to being a great place to work, Southwest has been profitable for 40 consecutive years. Unlike all its major competitors, it has never filed for bankruptcy, and like all its major competitors, it is heavily unionized.

There are a lot of reasons for Southwest’s success: strategy, focus, execution, and so on. A big part of their success is a simple leadership philosophy that founder and chairman emeritus, Herb Kelleher, recently summarized in a Fortune interview:

“Be there when they’re [employees] having problems, and stay out of the way when things are going well.”
“Power should be reserved for weightlifting and boats…leadership really involves responsibility.”
“…if you regard being a CEO as important because it’s a powerful position, you’re always going to regret that at some point you have to step down.”

(From Still Crazy After All These Years, Interview by Jennifer Reingold, Fortune, 1/14/2013. The next time you hanging in the airport news-stand, pick up Fortune; it’s always worth the price.)

It is unnecessary for me to add to what Kelleher had to say. All of us would be better leaders if we took his words to heart at work, home, church, wherever.

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