Gary Kelly: Background
Gary Kelly has been the Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer and President of Southwest Airlines Co. Southwest is the world’s biggest low-cost airline and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas. He started with the company in 1986 as Controller and made his way up through various positions. Of particular interest was the Principal Accounting Officer, Vice President of Finance and lastly served as Executive Vice President and CFO from 2001 to 2004. From here on he took on the charge of the President and CEO. Before he joined Southwest Airlines, he was auditor at Arthur & Young Company in Dallas and Systems Center Inc., which is a computer software provider. Besides his role at Southwest, he is also an independent director of boards of several corporations and trade associations. He has received many awards and honours; among them is one of the best and influential executive in America. Also, he is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and had done BBA in Accounting from the University of Texas at Austin. He is also Business School Dean’s Advisory Council and a member of Accounting Department Advisory Council. In addition, he is also a member of Advisory Council of its McCombs School of Business.
Leadership Style and Philosophy, and Alignment with Culture
Corporations in America are full of examples of great empathetic leaders. They typically like to roll up their sleeves and inspire young leaders by walking on the floors and listening to their concerns. Such empathetic leadership traits are also found in the current CEO Gary Kelly of Southwest Airlines, which is considered to have one of the happiest flight attendants in the skies.
His leadership style includes shoring up morale by giving raises. Also, he would rather let attrition trim the workforce, than retrench. When it comes to running the organization, he doesn’t believe in being penny wise and pound foolish.
Personal & Organizational Values
The personal values of Gary were greatly influence by the time-tested Southwestern brand of good moral values and integrity inculcated by his father; with whom he had developed a very special father son relationship. These qualities, which he brought with him to Southwest helped in daily work and also permeated the organizational culture. Therefore, he has been successful in defining himself as a leader. He was resolute about “Bags Fly Free” policy of the company. This step allowed him to step out of the shoes of his predecessor, Herb Kelleher. In same vein, Herb Kelleher, described him as “To be an excellent leader, you have to be a superb follower, Gary has provided great leadership. We transitioned for three years, and then he took over everything that I normally did. I’m very, very pleased and proud of his accomplishments.”
The no baggage fee policy, which defined the industry convention, was a shining example of typical Kelly and Southwest value of being unconventional, brash, and unabashed. This intelligent risk taking attitude allowed him to successfully challenge the Wall St. experts. Further, this approach of friendly service has enabled to overcome deficiencies elsewhere. For example, their punctuality at departure was only 76% of the time. This was worse than United and Delta, and around the national average. Yet, the number of complaints by their passengers was less than that of other airlines. This speaks about the leadership values of Kelly, and how it influenced the corporate culture in general.
How Values Influence Ethical Behaviour
Gary’s values have impacted Southwest’s culture in many ways. The four major values would be; achievement, honesty, concern for others, and fairness. All these are aligned to the value of Gary Kelly. With regards to honesty and concern for others, these values are omnipresent in the organization. In a step in that direction, employees are motivated to treat others with as much respect and compassion, as they themselves would expect. Another good example would be the company’s mission statement, which is “The mission of Southwest Airlines is dedicated to the highest quality of Customer Service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and Company Spirit”. It is not just a mission statement, but in essence the values of Kelly and the employees. Further, he has ensured that the environment is relaxed and efficient at the same time. According to one HR consultant, it is in Southwest’s culture to communicate to its employees to bring to work their own personality and your sense of humor. Other values that Kelly has been instrumental in bringing are; honesty, independence, open-mindedness, cheerfulness, and imagination. These values have facilitated employees in achieving their goals and meeting their objectives. In fact, the walls of his office testify to his passion. It is lined by photo of Lone Star history, the University of Texas (his alma mater), aviation and family.
Greatest Strengths and Weaknesses
Like any human being, Gary to possesses vices and virtues. The positive qualities that made him what he is today are his values, positive attitude and upbringing. It is believed that it is these very qualities that were instrumental in pushing to this current stature. Among his other greatest strengths are hard work, honesty, humility and concern for others. This is all the more important, when in the corporate world, these very value are often seen as a sign of weakness. His values went against the conventional wisdom in corporate world that a nice guy cannot win. However, there isn’t much known about his weaknesses.
True to the tradition of Southwest’s executives, he participates in their Halloween party. Over 24 years he has been with the airlines, he has dressed up as all sorts of character at the party. This has allowed him to feel one with the party. Among other of his strengths were to turn around the airlines in the wake of competition. In wake of competition from new low cost carriers, such as, JetBlue, AirTran, and Frontier, they were flexible enough to take corrective steps. Unlike start-up airlines, their setup was older, inflexible, and had more employees. They didn’t have advanced ticketing system and their workforce was getting older and expensive. Therefore, it required Gary Kelly’s great strength to inspire the organization to turn around and meet the growing challenge.
Quality Contributing to Success
The main secret of Gary’s success, which has been overlooked by many people, is his intelligence. Another of his secret weapon is his ability to use that intelligence to his advantage. It is this quality that helped him excel in studies during his younger days in college. As a result he was among the top in the class when he graduated in accounting at the University of Texas. Again, it was these very qualities that enabled him to get a good job at Arthur & Young Company. Also, as he was assigned to Southwest account, this opportunity placed put him in a very advantageous position to use his intelligence for the benefit of the company. As an ex-outside accountant of the company, he had the insight and the intelligence to analyze the future of the company and see all the indicators that pointed towards a bright career, which was ahead of him.
It is this intelligence that allowed him to take a strong stance against the 1979 Wright Amendment. This amendment prohibited Southwest from flying beyond Texas and the neighbouring states. In response he chose to use political support the company had nurtured over the last 25 years. He expressed his resolve in the following statement, “I am not expecting that we are going to have any extraordinary legal fees and lobbying efforts to undertake here. We have got resources, so if need be, if we have to mount a more serious fight, we have got the wherewithal to see this fight through.” This allowed him and his company to break free from the shackles of the amendment and provide better connectivity and service.
Influence of Communication & Collaboration and Power & Politics on Dynamics
At Southwest Airlines under the leadership of Gary Kelly, it quite obvious how communications and collaborations along with power and politics have influenced the group dynamics. This is particularly true for the company’s decision making process. As a result all the employees are aware of the company’s mission and also firmly believe in it. This is reflected in individual’s actions, even though there are more than 40,000 employees. In similar vein, at Southwest Airlines, power and politics translates into empowerment of each and every employee, which allows them to make on the spot decisions. This has been consistently true, example after example. It is this corporate culture and mindset, which Gary brought, helped produce an effective communication and collaboration with the organization. It helped in keeping it moving all the thousands of employees across the nation as organization 24/7. In conclusion, Gary and Southwest have a lot to teach aviation, and corporate world in general.
He has been a full supporter of his employees, and pilots in particular. When it came to Supreme Court’s ruling against employing pilots above the age of 60 years, he openly spoke in favour of his experienced pilots. He was quoted as saying, “The 1950-era age 60 rule, coupled with the FAA’s rigid implementation of it, arbitrarily deprives Southwest Airlines of some of its best pilots at the peak of their careers.”
Not only pilots, he has also been a great supporter of aircraft mechanics. He agreed to a three year extension of contract with the aircraft mechanics. The outcome of the negotiations pleased everybody from the CEO to the frontline staff. He was benevolent enough to praise the role played by the aircraft mechanics staff. He quoted that their visionary and entrepreneurial mechanics had shown that they are prepared to lead Southwest Airlines through the unprecedented turbulence that faced the industry. By treating his aircraft maintenance staff as visionary he has shown respect to the employees, and speaks volumes of the company’s internal dynamics.
References
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Karlgaard, R. (2009, 10 15). Four Styles of Leadership. Retrieved from Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/1102/opinions-rich-karlgaard-digital-rules.html
Levine, G. (2004, 12 06). Kelly: Southwest Airlines Vows To Fight 1979 Wright Amendment. Retrieved from Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/2004/12/06/1206autofacescan03.html
Levine, G. (2004, 09 15). Kelly: Southwest CEO Lauds Mechanics In Three-Year Deal. Retrieved from Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/2004/09/15/0915autofacescan10.html
Miranda, J. (2013, 09 21). Leadership Secrets of Gary Kelly, Chairman CEO, Southwest Airlines. Retrieved from Trade Secrets: Simple Ideas Behind Great Business Success: http://tradesec.blogspot.ca/2013/09/leadership-secrets-of-gary-kelly.html
Noon, C. (2005, 05 02). Southwest CEO Kelly Backs Pilots in 'Gray Skies' Case. Retrieved from Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/2005/05/02/0502autofacescan08.html
Whelan, D. (2011, 06 29). All Grown Up. Retrieved from Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2011/0718/features-southwest-airlines-gary-kelly-midway-grown-up.html
