Servant Leadership in Action

Chapter 33Treat Your People as Family

COLLEEN BARRETT

One of the most enjoyable writing experiences I’ve ever had was coauthoring Lead with LUV: A Different Way to Create Real Success with Colleen Barrett, former president of Southwest Airlines. The airline industry, in its history, has lost money. But Southwest Airlines, year after year, has turned a profit. Why? Because Colleen and founder Herb Kelleher have always had servant leadership in their veins. You’ll see it in the way she insists on capitalizing words such as Mechanic, People, Customer, and Leader! This essay is about Southwest’s servant leadership story. —KB

OVER THE YEARS, all of our Leaders at Southwest Airlines have tried to model Servant Leadership. Herb Kelleher, our Founder, ...