Southwest Airlines Leadership: Gary Clayton Kelly - Essay Example

Southwest Airlines leadership: Gary C Kelly Southwest Airlines leadership: Gary C Kelly Southwest Airlines is one of the largest low-cost airline companies. The company has rapidly grown and expanded in the last previous years. The leadership of the company has greatly contributed towards the succession of the company. Gary C. Kelly the CEO of the Southwest Airline, Chairman of the Board and President of Southwest Airlines has dedicated more than 25 years to the company. Gary C. Kelly began his career in the industry in 1986 as a controller in the company (Sperry, 2013). He held various positioning in the Southwest Airlines, such as Principle of Accounting Officer, Vice President of Finance and finally the Executive Vice president and CEO of the company in 2004. The leadership traits and strategies of Gary C. Kelly persuaded the company to expand its operations yielding higher profits. However, he graduated as an accounting student from the University of Texas Austin (Gallo, 2014). He has been working as a corporate in the different corporation and trade companies. Before joining the company, Gary C Kelly was a computer software provider and worked in different organizations. In addition, he is a member of advisory of the McCombs School of Business (Gallo, 2014). Gary C. Kelly Leadership and Value Gary C. Kelly possesses unique leadership style than the other CEOs in the airline industry. He has a charismatic personality that makes his leadership different from the other CEO. He believes in working in a flexible and friendly environment, where every individual remains focused and dedicated to his or her work. He is more inclined to construct a happy working place that can allow the employees to work open heartedly. It is evident from his career experiences that Kelly has been dressing up casual and often fancy during the occasions like Christmas, Halloween, etc. One of the articles from New York Times commented on the personality of Gary C. Kelly as, ‘Mr. Kelly is little crazy… and perhaps the kind of person others might want to follow into battle (Gallo, 2014).’ He has been brought up in the traditional southern culture that has nurtured his personality of high moral and integrity. The essence of his personal values is evident in his day-to-day conducts and activities. One of core organizational values defined by Gary C. Kelly is, ‘Effectively supporting your team of Employees (Hackman & Johnson, 2009). The core value that Gary focuses on the working environment where individuals can enjoy and have fun and at the same time remain dedicated to their tasks done. The four core values that can be identified in the culture of Southwest are ‘Achievement, concern for others, honesty and fairness (Sperry, 2013). The organization is focused to develop understanding and concerns for each other, through helping each other, and remaining dedicated to working. Honesty and concern are the dominant aspects of the organizational values at Southwest Airlines that emphasize on respect and compassion for each other. However, providing highest quality of service to its customers remains a fundamental element of the values the company’s mission statement defines ‘Southwest Airlines is dedicated to the highest quality of customer service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride and company spirit (Griffin, 2002)’. Therefore, it can be identified that the company follows the combination of laid back and efficient work environment. It is one of the major reasons that the employees at Southwest are greatly encouraged to bring their styles, sense, open-mindedness, cheerfulness, imagination and humor to work. It allows the employees to achieve their goals in their way rather than being directed (Klein, Ziegert, Knight, & Xiao, 2006). Gary’s leadership style: Strength and Weaknesses Gary C. Kelly has great potential and charismatic personality that has influenced the performance of employees at Southwest Airlines. However, there are certain weaknesses that every human possess. One of the major strength for Gary C Kelly is his charismatic personality, values and positive attitude that has allowed every individual to admire his ideas. His cheerful and friendly way have allowed the employees to be independent and concentrate on their work effectively. It has also encouraged the individuals at Southwest Airlines to work in their ways and explore new ideas for the accomplishment of the task. In addition, core values of the company have persuaded the organization to incorporate high values, such as concerns for others, honesty, hard work, and humility. These are values that are considered as the major strength of Gary’s leadership. However, at the same time these values are considered to be very soft. The individuals are more likely to take advantages of the laid back attitude of the leader due to which employees may be distracted at work. It is essential for a friendly environment that the managers and workers remained focused to the given goal and task they are assigned. Thus, strict monitoring, benchmarking, and evaluation have to be integrated in the practice (Griffin, 2002). However, in the corporate world too much comfort and fun environment is perceived to be one of the major obstacles for the business. One of the famous quotes in the corporate world is, ‘nice guys do not win ball games, which highlights that the leadership that has many high values and concerns can often mislead the focus on the organizational goals. Therefore, Gary’s fun and enjoyable leadership can bring a negative impact on the company. The researchers also highlight that the current leadership practices of Gary C. Kelly have not brought any negativity and appear to be a major strength of the company. In addition, too much independence of the employees can make them least concern of their duties and responsibilities. It becomes difficult to maintain a balance among the employees if they are concerned about others, and it shall cast adverse affect on the effectiveness of the organization. One of the greatest weaknesses that can be pointed out in the leadership of Gary C. Kelly is the lack of focus among employees that shall overall cast a negative impact on the organization. Key Strength of Gary C. Kelly Success One of the major elements in the leadership of Gary C. Kelly is his knowledge and intelligence that is often overlooked in the corporate world. Despite the fact that Gary C. Kelly is fun loving and often stupid but as a leader he maintains a balance between the fun and objectives of the organization. The main objective of the Gary C. Kelly’s leadership is to provide sufficient independence to employees and create a happy environment that shall eventually allow them to work effectively. Researchers show that the psychological and mental peace of the employees can increase the productivity and innovation (Mikulincer, 2010). In addition, the intelligence and knowledge of Gary C. Kelly that are his weapons from his early time have developed excellence in his works (Dransfield, 2010). Gary knows well how the make use of the appropriate thing to motivate employees and keep them happy. It is one of the major reasons that Gary C Kelly has been able to make greater skips in his professional career from a controller to a CEO of Southwest Airlines. In addition, as a leader Gary’s career itself is an example for individuals to acknowledge his leadership traits. His vast career and dedication in the company is an essential element that has developed boarder perspective and knowledge of Gary. Therefore, he is aware of the psychology and needs of the individual in different stages. Gary’s knowledge and strategies are the core elements that have allowed Gary to be a true leader. Group Dynamics The leadership strategies at Southwest reflect the leadership style of Gary Kelly that has provided the company achievement and success. It is evident from the practices of Southwest that an effective communication has paramount importance in the organization. Effective communication has been incorporated in the business practices of the company that has eventually allowed the company to deal with the group dynamics. The company has been focused to listen, understand, and find possible suitable solution to every individual working in the company. It is ensured that the employs are heard. The high ethical standards that are maintained in the company, due to which the employees of the company remain more dedicated to their work. The essence of truthfulness, honesty, and faithfulness are highly regarded in the company that is evident from the actions and performance of more than 40,000 employees at Southwest Airlines. The company remained focused to encourage its employee and empower them to ensure that the every passenger that is traveling through Southwest is pleased. It is only done through continuous encouragement of employees. Motivation of the employees is one of the major aspects that the company greatly emphasizes, that the company attains through establishing effective communication. Respecting, valuing, and friendly environment at Southwest does not only keep customers happy but also its employees. Gary believes that ‘as much as the employees are happy the more the passengers are happy. Hence, group dynamics at the company are dealt through providing sufficient attention to each of its employees. It is also evident that the employees are not just motivated through monetary aspect but also non-monetary aspects (Gallo, 2014). References Dransfield, R. (2010). Human Resource Management. London: Heinemann. Gallo, C. (2014, January 1). Southwest Airlines Motivate its employees with a Purpose Bigger than a Paycheck. Retrieved from Forbes. Griffin, D. (2002). The Emergence of Leadership: Linking Self-Organization and Ethics. New York: Routledge. Hackman, M., & Johnson, C. (2009). Leadership: A communication perspective. Long Grove: Waveland Press, Inc. Klein, K. J., Ziegert, J. C., Knight, A. P., & Xiao, Y. (2006). Dynamic delegation: Shared, hierarchical, and deindividualized leadership in extreme action teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 5(1), 590-621. Mikulincer, M. (2010). Human Learned Helplessness. New York: Springer . Sperry, L. (2013). Effective Leadership. New York: Routledge. Read More