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

"It pays to take turns at the hard jobs."

An area that is always difficult to overcome in any company, is in how people do or don't empathize with those that do their jobs which impact them.

One of the things Kelleher did to help solve this problem, was to have people work in others' jobs - especially difficult ones - so they would understand what it meant when people struggled to come what with what needed to be done in specific instances.

It's surprising how much this helps a workplace, as people begin to understand what it means to those responsible for an area to get the job done.

Working on the jobs of others is a form of communication far better than only talking about it. There's no way someone can understand expectations until they walk in someone else's shoes. So doing is the best way to communicate what it's like.

The importance of this is it takes away those invisible boundaries that can be erected between departments while taking care of daily business. There is a natural building up of enmity between people that don't understand what a request may mean for their fellow workers, and what takes to get it done.

While all of this is unseen, as far as how it helps a company, the good will created by understanding coming from experiencing someone else's job, pays off in the long run, as a much better flow emerges out of the caring that comes from empathizing with what a fellow worker must do to accomplish their tasks; specifically the more difficult ones.

This is something to definitely work into our businesses, especially in departments that have a lot of interaction with each other, and potential for misunderstanding. Let them walk a mile in each others shoes, and a lot of tension, misunderstanding and false expectations will drop out of the business, as people begin to understand what it takes to perform their requests.

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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