From Worst to First: Behind the Scenes of Continental's Remarkable Comeback

Chapter 7. Success Has No Autopilot

Through the Go Forward Plan, we addressed all of Continental's major problems—marketing, finances, product, and employee morale—and wouldn't you know it, it worked.

And so... then what?

Well, I have to tell you that it's a lot harder to keep things going great than to get them going great in the first place. When you're turning a company around, at the start you have all that wonderful energy and excitement—each month something new happens that shows people that, by God, it's working. It's exciting and people are high-fiving each other and the world is your oyster. You can all go through tough things—a round of unavoidable layoffs, a postponed wage hike—together without too much ill will because you know that the alternative is immediate and terrible failure.

But once you're moving well, you get a few good quarters behind you, and your ship is stabilized, things change. Continuing to work at the same level of intensity is harder, because that wolf isn't quite so close to the door anymore and the consequences of slowing down don't seem so dire. People who have put in long hours willingly during the crisis can start to relax a little, enjoy the success, and maybe figure that they're good enough, unless they get more motivation to keep getting better.

Naturally, part of your planning must be to give your employees that increased motivation—to up the ante in their bonus pay while your company is improving, to up their base pay as soon as you can so that ...