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Southwest Airlines Servant Leadership Case Study

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Dedicating a career as a soldier in the United States Army has always been fulfilling, educational, exhilarating, complex, and rewarding. However, now that my first career is coming to a close, I have been keeping a keen eye out for a possible future career and a company I desire to work with which will allow me to continue to grow as leader and pilot. Southwest Airlines is one of the top companies to work for in America, and one of the main reasons a job for Southwest is so compelling is the foundation laid by co-founder Herb Kelleher. Mr. Kelleher’s approach to leadership is the epitome of a servant leader, and his success has been measured not just by the accomplishments of Southwest Airlines, but more importantly through the growth, …show more content…

Kelleher as a servant leader. However, most servant leaders are defined by their acts and success based on behalf of other people. One example of Mr. Kelleher’s servant leadership happened when a Southwest Airlines captain came to him discussing the pressure he was receiving from the labor union. Mr. Kelleher told this captain to write to the board of the labor union explaining the blame should be placed on him. This act relieved the captain of the extra pressure and allowed them to buy time to fix the problem. Another great example came when a flight attendant called him personally to explain that her car had been repossessed because her ex-husband stops making payments. The CEO of the most successful airline in the United States took the time to coordinate personally with a legal team, resulting in the return of her car the next …show more content…

Mr. Kelleher’s passion to be excellent and a servant is shared with most of the leadership throughout the enterprise. Therefore, Southwest Airlines is my idea of what an organization full of servant leaders would be. Specifically, the leaders number one job within the company is; taking care of, being interested in, communicating with, and honoring employees. Such as, keeping an open mind and show appreciation to all ideas, and never just saying no to an idea. In fact, Southwest has a policy that dictates the company will reply to all ideas and suggestions within one week and provide reasons to justify their response. According to Mr. Kelleher, “if you scorn an idea, then you will not receive any more ideas from that person (Stanford

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