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

"Recognize and encourage individuality."

There are times when we hear a lot of talk and conversation in business about teams and team building, that the value of the individual can be lost. In truth, a team is really the end result of individuals giving their input, where something bigger than the individual in created.

When that something comes forth out of a team, that bigger thing can blur the fact that a number of people offered input that ended in the results.

Sometimes people think individuality can destroy the value of a team, but the opposite is true: a team is a group of individuals brought together for a certain purpose. The value lies in drawing out the specific, unique insights each person on the team has.

What is the real enemy of a team is independence, not individuality. Independence, in the context of what we're talking about, refers to not being willing to defer or cooperate in the context of a team or corporate experience.

To encourage and recognize individuality is to truly understand what can develop into and make a great team. It's understanding a company wants and values of individual people have to say, and what individual people have to say in a team setting.

Individuality is great when it's brought together with other individuals in a shared purpose. Someone that is independent in the sense of only wanting their own way, no matter what the cost, is the one that can do great harm, as they are only concerned with themselves and not others.

That's not individuality, that's selfishness; and selfishness is the enemy of teams and groups working together.

For Southwest Airlines (LUV), their continual valuing of and encouraging of individual input and communication makes them a great company. That's what also leads to the creation of great teams, as people know when they get together, there would be meaning in it, not sitting down and being force fed what they needed to do without giving their input.

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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