Manager Herbert Kelleher’s Leadership Qualities Research Paper

Introduction

Herbert D. Kelleher is the founder of Southwest Airlines Co. Kelleher is highly talented, energetic, and hard-working. He is highly talented and has natural talents and capabilities of successful leadership, though entrepreneurs can be born and trained. Kelleher had good leadership qualities also he was both facilitator and inspirer with good vision, strong beliefs courage, and focused results with teamwork.

All leaders need strong personality traits to control proper functions and to influence. Kelleher is one of the topmost American leaders of our times. Management is a difficult field that needs full co-operation from the managers and the management, Kelleher has the ability to understand, and learn, he also has mental vigor and firmness these are the qualities of good managers. Kelleher employed the skills assumed by Kouzes and Posner along with the management strategy aligned with his leadership style to motivate the workforce and create a culture that enables the organization to succeed with its corporate culture and management style, Southwest Airlines was voted Fortune magazine’s best place to work in America.

Herbert Kelleher the exemplary leader

Herbert David Kelleher was the youngest in his family in New Jersey his older brother Richard, was killed in combat in 1942 and his father died in 1943, being the only child at home he formed a special bond with his mother. Kelleher studied at the Haddon Heights High School he was the class president, and also the football team captain, he attended Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut where he was an Olin Scholar and graduated cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in English and philosophy. Kelleher is known for his dynamic leadership and management qualities, Kelleher believes that the skills of the leader are the contributing factors towards an organizations success with his positiveness, his ability to separate important from unimportant, and ability to set goals

Herb Kelleher is one of the top leaders; is identified as an Exemplary leader as he possessed the main five qualities which are essentials of an Exemplary Leadership,

1. Model the way, leaders decide as to how the workers should be treated and the way goals are to be achieved, Kelleher explains “Employees come first; if they are treated right,they treat the outsiders right and the companies products are used by the world, thus that makes the shareholder happy;
2. Inspire a shared vision, Kelleher envisaged the future, he strongly believes that leaders can make a difference by helping the people to see exciting possibilities for the future;
3. bear the process of challenge, organizations are constantly on the lookout for new ideas,they experiment and take the risk for betterment;
4. Enable others to act, mutual respect creates trust and dignity which enhances capability and power which is necessary for teamwork;
5. encourage hope, it is hard work to keep hope and determination alive, Kelleher always treated his workers as heroes and shared rewards for their hard work; Kelleher had all the qualities of a dynamic leader, his primary contribution was in good ideas, then to support the ideas, and take the risk to get new ideas to produce focused results, (Kouzes and Posner) they say if these qualities are found in a leader he is at his personal best. (Robert Heller & Tim Hindle, Essential Manager’s Manual, 1998, pgs340-379); leadership is the inter-action between managers and the working people, Kelleher adopted the five exemplary qualities.

Kouzes and Posner say, “To lead you must look inside and clarify your own values. This is only true to lead within the domain of values if you want people to behave in accordance with accepted values”. Kelleher had all the natural skills and the capability to start new ventures he and a partner founded the Southwest Airlines Company in1967, in Texas under his leadership it has become one of America’s top airlines, the company has a record of 30 years of straight profitability and, Herb Kelleher today is known as one of the best leaders in America.

About The Southwest Airlines

Southwest Airlines in its early days was regulated by the government, Kelleher and his partner came up with the very attractive idea to provide low cost and point to point service as people had to change planes to reach their destination but with Southwest Airlines people could travel directly, nonstop, saving time and money.

The company had to survive many legal battles, Kelleher being the legal representative had to fight 30 separate injunctions and lawsuits filed by other airlines to break Southwest before it started, finally, Kelleher’s perseverance and determination won the long legal battles and the company took to the skies on June 18, 1971, with three Boeing737 aircraft serving three Texas cities Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio today Southwest operates more than500 Boeing737 aircraft between 64 cities. (Southwest Airlines –Fact Sheet pg 1-7) the company soon gained a solid reputation for its low-cost commuter service, eventually, Kelleher became the company’s chairman, CEO, and president in 1982, soon it maintained steady growth, it is the only U.S. airline to have over 30 consecutive profitable years even after the terrorist attack of Septenber11,2001, which damaged the airline industry. In 2003 Southwest operated 2800 flights a day to 60 airports in 30 states and employed 33,000 people.

That year the company had annual revenues of $6 billion and net profits of $442 million, Southwest became a major airline in 1989when it reached its target of the billion-dollar revenue mark. Yearend results for 2006 were the 34^th consecutive year of profitability (Southwest Airlines Fact Sheet pg 1-6), Kelleher cultivated a loving and caring attitude towards his employees, he worked along with them like loading baggage, ticketing customers, mixing drinks, people working for him all worked together even the pilots helped clean the cabins the workers loved their job and the loving environment, he arranged a barbecue party for his night shift workers who could not attend company celebrations.

The airline gave good, generous compensation and benefits to their employees, In 1974 Southwest became the first airline to offer a profit-sharing plan; its employees owned 13% of the common stocks of the company, the high performance of Southwest Airlines mainly depends on the relationship between the management and labor, the airline developed a loving and caring culture, Kelleher is always there for his workers, to greet them and also helped them with their families, all the concerns of the workers were dealt with as his own. Kelleher received many awards for his work at Southwest including CEO of the Year from Chief Executive magazine in 1999 and Fortune magazine in 2001.

He was proclaimed the CEO of the Decade in the Airline industry for the 1990s by Financial World, and Texas Monthly selected him as its CEO of the Century. In 2001 he started to think about retirement and he retired as president and CEO of Southwest Airlines, remaining chairman of the board. Kelleher now was most concerned about finding a successor who would respect the Southwest culture and would carry on his work; the company’s counsel general was chosen to succeed him as CEO and Colleen Barret his legal secretary became the president.

I would advise him to first write a book about leadership as he has appointed his long time workers to key positions who are well aware of Southwest culture, the acquired culture can cultivate proper attitudes and skills that can ensure the continuation of the leadership, as these attitudes and skills can be learned and used as properly to drive the organization.

References

1. Stephen P. Robins, David A. Decenzo (2005) Fundamentals of management essential concepts and applications, third edition reprint, Delhi, published by Pearson Education (Singapore) Indian branch, 482 F.I.E. Patparganj India.
2. Harold D. Koontz, Cyril J. O’ Donnel (1955) Principles of management an analysis of managerial functions, third edition, Tokyo, published by Kogakusha company Ltd.
3. Kathryn M. Bartol and David C. Martin (1998) Management, 3^rd edition, International, The McGraw Boston, Massachusetts, published by –Hill Companies, Inc.
4. Herb Kelleher: South Airlines Public Relations 2007. Web.
5. Robert Heller and Tim Hindle (1998) Essential Manager’s Manual, London, published by Dorling Kindersley Limited.