First I want to tell you about Southwest Airlines and their approach to employees and teams.
If you’ve ever read any book on business success you would likely have heard about Southwest which - along with Apple and Toyota - is one of the most cited business case studies of all time.
Southwest Airlines has one of the longest streaks of profitability in the airline industry. From 1973 to 2019, it reported consecutive annual profits for 47 years, an unmatched achievement in an industry let alone one known for volatility with airlines bankruptcies as common as cat slaps on tiktok.
One of the pillars of Southwest’s success comes from putting its employees first, a key idea from its legendary founder, Herb Kelleher. He believed that if employees were treated well, they would naturally treat customers well too. Kelleher’s approach was unusual at the time because most companies focused on customers first (and some not even that). But he understood that happy workers would lead to better service and happier customers.
The first most important thing is to hire the right people - and Southwest hired for attitude rather than skills - but sometimes even with the right people you need to help them reprioritse to put the team first, to make all employees and the team the most important part of your business.
I tried to illustrate this in a recent email so this post is a case study which starts with a message from a junior employee that I got when asking about a tile order (not their real names, not the real issues BTW):
Hi,
Re; Tile order, Sorry I haven’t got this done, I followed up a couple of times and I haven’t heard back from Barry. I was hoping to discuss it with him yesterday but he missed our project meeting and I’m still waiting for him to confirm the quantities……I’ll call him again and get it sorted asap
Jane
I wrote to Barry - but actually spoke to him in person first. Sometimes I like to lay out my thoughts before speaking to someone. Then I have a follow up email that I tweak - here is the draft. It started with positive and ended with positive but the message was about being the person that people rely upon and playing his part in elevating the whole team. You also need to make sure you protect the junior team member so you may raise some other issues rather than make it seem like Jane dobbed Barry in.
Hi Barry,
So just want to say that you are an amazing team member and an incredible person
The way you deliver quality work, get things done efficiently and also make customers happy is always impressive.
You are a massive part of this company’s success
But unfortunately your reputation in our office is that you are great with customers but otherwise quite unreliable. You may or not turn up to scheduled project meetings, you might be on time or not. And you might do what you say you would – if asked a few more times and then not anytime soon.
I understand that the reason for this is that you are busy on site and looking after our clients and this is appreciated but we do need to change the team’s perception and the way to change it is for you to reset your priorities
We need you to be the person that enables and empowers others around you – not the person that people are waiting for
If one of the team members is having trouble getting something done – then ideally offer to help, but if you can’t help then at the very least make sure she is not waiting for things from you, this is very disruptive for the team
You are not helping your clients by neglecting the team
And it gets worse – you are also showing others like Jane or Dave or Bill that the team is not important or that their work is not important which I know is not your intention but – your actions are what counts
in this case yes - getting tiles ordered is important but not as important as prioritising the team
Anything the team needs is more important than what your clients need.
Here is a priority list for you to think about:
1. First priority is what your family and close friends need - this is the first most important thing
2. What your team needs is second – resources, systems, safety equipment, tools, emailed responses – give them what they need without delay and hesitation
3. Your customers are important but they come third
And yes it’s a balance and sometimes things have to get moved around – but this is the default – the operating norm – this is the way we build the business and how we all succeed
And yes sometimes I don’t get this right either – but it is what I am always trying to do better and I would welcome your feedback when this happens
By the way the project on Smith St is looking amazing, the incredible effort you’ve put in is getting great results and the client is happy with the quality and that you are keeping within the timeframe promise, thanks again for your efforts
You should be really proud of the outcome
Regards,
I would love to hear your thoughts on this, can you offer any way to improve this?
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