Devoted to Managers and those that seek to improve their management skills

Bringing new people in and being open about new ideas presents challenges for having a well defined mission and core values.

Managing and business leadership is never easy, and that's true even when it comes down to our core values. When Herb Kelleher and Southwest Airlines (LUV)had this difficulty, even though they had always been a worker-friendly company.

The problem was they would hire people that had some great ideas. The difficulty with great ideas is they're only great when they fit into the core values of a company.

Inevitably the company always got some people in that wanted to increase revenue. While that's a noble cause, it's not as simple as that. For example, some workers would want to draw in new customers in ways that would have left the core values of the company and raised the costs of the flights.

As Kelleher said, "...whatever reason they have for not flying with us, we can’t change our core values and add higher costs to gain 2% of the market." He's absolutely right.

If market share is attained at the cost of our core values, we're no longer who we say we are. Not only that, but the customers will know it and rebel against it even if they don't know how to define it. All they know is something has changed that they don't like. Eventually the explanation catches up with the experienced dissatisfaction.

The challenge is being sure we communicate effectively what it is we stand for even before we hire good people. Once we hire them, if they don't understand who a company is, they'll offer up ideas that will be rejected, and they'll take it personal because they don't comprehend the reason for the rejection.

What I like about Kelleher when this happened with him, is he told the people that it wasn't their fault and it wasn't Southwest's fault. It was simply the parameters around which the business operated under. Ideas had to flow within those parameters or be rejected.

I think this is one of the major problems in businesses today; the failure to communicate what should be the simple vision, purpose and core values of a company to prospective workers.
 
People need to know what a business stands for so they can know if they are able to work within that vision and guidelines. It's much better for business leaders and a company to do this right up front.

Other Herb Kelleher Sources:

Special Event

Leadership: The Essential Herb Kelleher

The CEO as Brand Guardian

Herb's way

Speeches and Presentations from Southwest Leaders

Southwest Airlines: The Hottest Thing in the Sky

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