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Wilson 2

Wilson 2

Herb Kelleher

Sharonda Wilson

Linda Hoffman

Indiana Tech

Herb Kelleher

A leader can be defined as a person who holds a superior position in a business and has a certain degree of control over others. Normally, a leader provides knowledge, information, and methods that lead to the fulfillment of a vision and others or rather employees follow him or her willingly. In my opinion, leaders possess captivating personalities and are focused on ensuring that people surrounding them have understood the vision and have embraced it.

For one to be a successful leader, he or she must have good listening skills, sound judgment, ability to take note of the most important things, broad knowledge, and a good education. Moreover, a good leader must also possess a certain type of behavioral leadership style. This paper is going to look at Herb Kelleher who was a former leader of Southwest Airlines and go into details about his leadership style.

Southwest Airlines is a successful airline based at Love Field in Dallas. It began operations in 1971 with a lot of challenges from its competitors in the industry. However, Herb Kelleher, the CEO then and founder, together with his workforce seem to have steered the company through the tough industry to be one of the most successful airlines in the country (Starkman & Webber, 1995). Because of this, Kelleher is considered to have been one of the very successful CEOs of their time and this fact can be backed by the various honors he received. He seemed to have put a lot of his effort in making sure his workforce was well taken care of and well-motivated for the success of the airline. Unfortunately, Kelleher died this year on January (20 Reasons why Herb Kelleher Was One of the Most Beloved Leaders of Our Time).

When it comes to what type of behavioral leadership style that Kelleher practiced, one can say that he was people-oriented. The man was well known for his core value of doing good to others, he not only focused on his customers but also cared for his employees. While running the company, Kelleher was able to stay in touch with employees via effective communication and this enabled him to know what was going on and he was able to solve a problem where there was one. In addition, Kelleher was quoted saying that fun is a stimulant to people and that workers should not sacrifice their individuality to work for Southwest airlines. This clearly shows how he was people-oriented since he really cared about people’s individualities and he strongly felt that no one should lose their personality while working for the airline.

Kelleher also advocated for a family spirit within the company. For instance, he championed for a voluntary catastrophe fund which raised half a million dollars to be distributed to other employees of Southwest who required the help. Kelleher also encouraged his employees to go an extra mile when dealing with customers. He believed that by treating his employees’ right, they would in turn provide exceptional services to the airline’s clients. Actually, one of his quotes is that “If the employees come first, then they’re happy, … A motivated employee treats the customer well. The customer is happy, so they keep coming back, which pleases the shareholders. It’s not one of the enduring Green mysteries of all time, it is just the way it works” (Gaille, 2013).

The path-goal theory of leadership can be described as a theory whose foundation is based on specifying a leader’s style or behavior that best fits his or her employees and the work environment in order to reach goals and objectives. This basically means that a leader works an employee to set certain goals and then motivates the employee and helps him or her to solve any obstacles that might arise and hinder the attainment of the goal.

Comparing Kelleher’s leadership style with the path-goal theory of leadership, it is clear that he fits into this theory. One of the things that show this is that first and foremost, Kelleher encouraged people to keep their personalities and not lose them as they work. He believed that individualities could not be changed but rather leadership and management could be taught. Therefore, based on an individual’s personalities, the person can be trained for the position that they would best fit in the organization and then work towards making the company better. I think this is very motivating because an individual gets to work somewhere, he or she really fits thus achieving the goals that are set.

Considering the fact that Kelleher motivated his employees to take Southwest Airlines to higher levels and worked with them to achieve that, I would describe him as more of a transformational leader than transactional. Many people would say that Kelleher was a servant leader since he always put his employees first then his customers. During his time as a leader he would communicate with his employees something that gave birth to the exchange of ideas that helped the airline to grow and increase customer satisfaction. Therefore, Kelleher was a transformational leader since he made strategic decisions with support from his people thus the success of the airline.

Kelleher was an effective leader in that he was able to create a clear vision and influence his employees through good communication thus gaining support. He has also been able to create a certain calling that provided inspiration to his employees, he made them feel appreciated and cared for and this made them strive towards accomplishing their goals. As accomplished and successful as the man was, it is very difficult to find any fault with his leadership. He was a great leader that helped his employees achieve a lot.

References

“20 Reasons why Herb Kelleher Was One of the Most Beloved Leaders of Our Time.” (2019). Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinandjackiefreiberg/2019/01/04/20-reasons-why-herb-kelleher-was-one-of-the-most-beloved-leaders-of-our-time/#1e889f38b311

Gaille, B. (2013). Southwest Airline’s Herb Kelleher’s Leadership Style. BrandonGaille. Retrieved from https://brandongaille.com/southwest-airlines-herb-kellehers-leadership-style/

Starkman, J. E., and Webber, P. (1995). Southwest Airlines (A): Leland Stanford Junior University

McShane, S., & Von Glinow, M. (2015). Organizational Behavior (7th ed.). McGraw-Hill. ISBN: 10: 0077862589