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

How do you make it all happen?

Kelleher was asked one time on how the operational side of things worked in reality at Southwest Airlines (LUV). It was one thing to talk about the values and strategies Kelleher and Southwest believed in, it was another thing to make them operational.

Of course when you get into operations, you're talking about training.

Here's how Kelleher responded:
 
"We bring experienced people in to work with the new employees hired for that station. They actually do real work while they are there, but their primary role is to mentor the new people. And they will stay there as long as that process is needed. There is no finite timeline on their assignment. So they may be there for a month, or they may be there for six months. It all depends on what is needed. The interesting thing is that often times, it won‘t be our mentors who will decide their work is done, but the new people at the station who will speak up themselves and say: O.K. we’ve learned everything they have to teach us, we’re ready to go on our own."

What I really like about his answer is the way he said there is no timeline on the training. I've heard other great company leaders say the same thing. Some of the really good ones won't even open a store, regardless of a projected date, if the training of their people isn't to their standards. They'll just keep on training and practicing until they get it down. And this isn't considered a negative by the company, but vital to their success.

The other thing so valuable is he didn't say something like we give them this training manual...etc. I'm surprised at how many big companies don't really have a training program in place operationally. Oh they have the book saying it's in place, but I've seen how it's run - there is no program many times.

I've seen the computer training stuff where workers sit in front of the screen taking their tests, passing them and then being put out on the floor to do their jobs...basically clueless. What they do is run around looking for anybody that can tell them how to handle a situation. It's a joke.

If we don't have a real training program in place, we need to make it one of our key priorities. Mentoring is by far the best way to do it in my estimation and experience.

Let your training program then dictate your company growth. Why grow and get new business if the people aren't trained to handle it? What good can that do? Usually what happens is your customer service reputation goes down the drain because of the rush to put warm bodies out there.

To me there should be a solid, mentoring/training program in place that lasts as long for the employee as is needed. Kelleher and other great leaders have done it, and have been considered some of the best companies in their industries. Wegman's grocery stores is another that comes to mind.

Once you get this type of program in place, you can then start to measure it in a way that you can determine what type of growth the company can endure without sacrificing quality service. You can also measure the people it would take to mentor the new hires while getting average times it takes to turn them into great workers for the company.

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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