How Leadership Helped Create Customer Centric an Organizational Culture at Southwest Airlines

How leadership helped create customer centric an organizational culture at Southwest airlines

In a 2013 in depth interview, legendary founder and long-time former CEO Herb Kelleher talked about the organizational culture he helped create at Southwest Airlines. The discount carrier is well known for its unique culture. This culture was ingrained from its inception by founders who wanted to create an affordable, customer centric business. Rather than focus directly on the customer, Southwest came up with the innovative approach of focusing on their employees instead. The rationale is that if you take care of the employees, they will in turn take care of the customer. “Put employees first” became a mantra of the Southwest culture. When asked about the company’s success Kelleher says, “Well, the people did it. I just stayed out of their way.” Using the three levels of analysis, let’s examine the Southwest culture that Herb Keller worked so hard to create.

Individual

At the individual level, organization culture begins with hiring people who fit the organization’s values. James Parker, CEO from 2001 to 2004 who succeeded Kelleher, explains, “We at Southwest put a lot of effort into our selection process. We received over 100,000 applications every year and hired a very small percentage of those people, maybe 2,000 or 3,000.” There are three company values which they search for and strive to further develop in every employee hired: a warrior spirit, a servant’s heart, and a fun-LUVing attitude (Southwest’s spelling of “love”). The warrior spirit means having bold employees and giving them the tools, training, and autonomy to solve problems without fear of reprisal or second guessing from management. This kind of delegation is often talked about in business, but requires great trust in the employee to actually implement. A servant’s heart means being genuinely concerned for customers’ comfort, convenience, and well-being, treating them how you would want to be treated. Finally, a fun-loving attitude is also very valuable to the culture. Southwest wants a light hearted enjoyable workplace where folks don’t take themselves too seriously. Keller relates a personal message he once received from an employee, “one ramp agent - I have not disclosed this- sent me a note one day which I've never publicized, and I think you'll understand why. He said, ‘Herb, I finally got it. You're making work fun, and home is work.’” Southwest has been extremely successful, in no small part due to their culture. They are consistently highly ranked on Best Places to Work lists such as Business Insider (#42, 2016), Glassdoor (#40, 2015) and Fortune (Most Admired Companies, #7).

Group

Hiring compatible people is just the start. At the group level, the culture must be developed and ingrained.