A Review of Servant Leadership Attributes Developing a Practical Model
There are many horror stories pertaining to the airline industry, merely 1 success story is Southwest Airlines. The airline, originally named Air Southwest, was founded in 1967 past Herb Kelleher, afterward changing its name to Southwest Airlines in 1971 (Southwest 2010). They are headquartered in Dallas, TX and operate mostly in the US. Today they operate 752 aircraft, serve 101 destinations, and utilise more than 60,000 people (Southwest 2010). Southwest'south major merits to fame in the airline industry is that, as of 2019, they had 46 sequent years of profitability (O'Donnell 2019). Ane may enquire, how is this possible? How have they gone that long? Is it luck or is at that place something else going on? Well, it should be known that information technology is the latter. There is something else at play other than luck at Southwest Airlines.
It all starts at the summit with Founder Herb Kelleher. Mr. Kelleher would be described every bit a servant leader by definition. Northouse defines servant leaders as those "who place the good of followers over their own self-interests and emphasize follower evolution. They demonstrate potent moral behavior toward followers, the organization, and other stakeholders" (2016, p.226). He is a lawyer past trade, then he always has had a passion for helping others (Modern SL Website 2017). Furthermore, he truly believes that taking care of employees is a company's tiptop priority (Modern 2017). Recall about that for a minute. He is non thinking of the bottom line or his customers, but the people who work for and with him are his showtime priority. Mr. Kelleher has a reputation for not seeing employees equally a "rung on a ladder", rather views everyone in the organization every bit equals (Modern 2017). One of his many traits equally a leader is the ability to anticipate and think creatively, just he likewise never embarrasses someone who may not be correct or have an thought like his (2017). One of the key aspects of being a retainer leader is developing your followers (Northouse 2016). An example pertaining to Herb Kelleher of this concept tin be found in former President of Southwest Airlines, Colleen Barrett.
Colleen Barrett has worked for Herb Kelleher since the inception of Southwest Airlines (Modern 2017). So, how does a erstwhile legal secretary, with no formal management education, become the president of one of the globe'due south most successful business models? The answer is unproblematic, she was developed into a leader by Herb Kelleher. It also helped that her passion was to pb and serve people. Colleen maintained her position for over 30 years with the visitor by "co-leading" with Mr. Kelleher (Modern 2017). The pairing of these two worked well for then many years considering they both shared common values and morals. Every bit a team, these 2 displayed all of the 7 listed behaviors in the Model of Servant Leadership described by Northouse (2016). Mr. Kelleher was the idea man, or the conceptualizer. They both helped people grow and succeed within the company. The business model created by Kelleher was to put the employees beginning. In fact, Ms. Barrett describes the company in a pyramid (paradigm below), where employees are at the summit. Because these employees are treated well, and accept job satisfaction, they in turn have care of the customers. The happy customers affect the lesser-line, which influences the shareholders (Modern 2017). Ms. Barrett estimates that 85% of her time is spent on employees and delivering proactive customer service to her followers or employees (Modernistic 2017).
Major corporations being led by servant leaders is not a new concept, but the long-term success of Southwest Airlines tin can direct be linked to the servant leadership of Herb Kelleher and long-time company president, Colleen Barrett. Their ability to lead while allowing others to grow and succeed is the reason why this company can continually plough a profit in an manufacture where most practice not. Past putting their employees first, they take empowered them to have that aforementioned mentality to the client. Southwest Airlines fits into the "Model of Retainer Leadership" (Northouse 2016). There is a culture of helping people while existence the best in business organization. The many attributes of the leaders were discussed before. The employees certainly are receptive to this type of culture also. Too discussed earlier was the behaviors displayed by the company's leadership, which in turn, has a positive outcome of follower operation (Colleen), organizational performance (profit), and societal impact. Many countries today have an airline modeled after Southwest. There are as well numerous companies in other industries that carry Southwest'south business model (Modernistic 2017). This makes society better in the long run.
References:
Mod Servant Leader Website. (2017, May xiv). What is Servant Leadership? Retrieved from http://www.modernservantleader.com/servant-leadership/.
Northouse, Peter G. (2016).Leadership: Theory and Practice(7th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
O'Donnell, P. (2019, Baronial 23). Southwest Airlines' almanac tradition: It'due south sharing $544 meg in profits with employees. Retrieved from https://www.dallasnews.com/concern/local-companies/2019/02/xiii/southwest-airlines-annual-tradition-it-south-sharing-544-million-in-profits-with-employees/.
Southwest Airlines Website. (2010, August 18). We Weren't Just Airborne Yesterday. Retrieved from https://spider web.archive.org/web/20100818010355/http://www.southwest.com/swamedia/swa_history.html.
Source: https://sites.psu.edu/leadership/2020/04/06/southwest-airlines-servant-leadership-creates-organizational-success/
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