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Southwest Airlines is a passenger airline that provides point-to-point, low-fare services throughout the United States. The company operates over 500 planes and provides service to 68 cities and 35 states within the US. The company was founded in 1971 by Rollin King and Herb Kelleher and now has a portfolio of products and services that include domestic flights, arrival suites, a frequent flier loyalty program and online ticket booking services (Southwest Airlines Co., 2011). Southwest has also been recognized by //Fortune// magazine as #1 in their "100 Best Companies to Work for in America" list (McGee-Cooper, Looper, Trammel). This is likely not only due to their strong performance in business operations, but also a strong performance in leadership as well.

Before King and Kelleher started Southwest Airlines, they were working together in a law firm. Kelleher hired Colleen Barrett as his legal secretary and was so impressed by her work ethic that he chose her to be his understudy and to bring her on as an important employee at Southwest. After numerous high ranking positions such as Vice President of Customers, Barrett is now the President of Southwest Airlines. She leads the company in a unique and effective way and is known within the organization as the "Corporate Mom". Barrett believes strongly in forming a strong corporate culture led in a servant leadership style of management (McGee-Cooper, Looper, Trammel). Servant leadership is when leaders focus less on themselves and their self-serving behaviors that may hurt their employees and instead put most of their energy into serving their employees' needs. Servant leaders tend to their employees' needs by being good listeners, showing empathy and exhibiting stewardship among other thoughtful characteristics.

Barrett founded the Culture Committee, originally a group of 38 opinion leaders from all levels and departments, that has now grown to 120 dedicated employees. The committee was formed out of Barrett's commitment to servant leadership. All of the employees that are dedicated the the Culture Committee are volunteers and become Alumni after 3 years of working for the committee. Even after departing from the committee, they continue to be involved by still actively participating and supporting new initiatives. Overall, the company's culture can be described as :Warrior Spirit, Leading with a Servant's Heart and a fun-LUVing Attitude.The Culture Committee is an example of how 'leading with a servant's heart' is lived by the employees of Southwest Airlines as they continue to be committed to the growth of themselves and others and build a sense of community within the company. The main mission behind the Culture Committee is to "Do whatever is takes to create, enhance, and enrich the special Southwest Spirit and Culture that has made this such a wonderful company and family" (McGee-Cooper, Looper, Trammel).

There are some key qualities that Barrett embedded into the Culture Committee that reflect strongly from Barrett's style of management and have produced some incredible results company-wide. One of the more predominate qualities of Southwest's culture is leading with a servant's heart. Barrett works towards uplifting and growing her employees' skills rather than being self-serving. She not only holds herself to these standards and strives to be a model to the selfless spirit but encourages all of Southwest's employees to care for their fellow department or station employees with just the same selfless spirit (McGee-Cooper, Looper, Trammel).

Barrett also exhibits a more employee-oriented behavioral style of management, as discovered by the studies conducted at the University of Michigan. Another key aspect of Southwest's culture is 'customers come second' and therefore their employees come first. From the very start of the company, Kelleher and Barrett knew that their employees could only serve their customers with exemplary and memorable customer service if employees felt they were being treated in the same manner from their leaders. If Southwest's employees felt confident that they were supported in the way that they serve their customers they were more likely to deliver exceptional customer service.

For example, late one night a Southwest customer slipped on the boarding ramp and broke her leg. The gate agent acted quickly to help the hurt customer by leasing a private plane to fly the hurt customer to an emergency care center.The employee was supported and honored by her leaders for making a unique split decision in order to deliver exceptional customer service. If the employee had not felt empowered to make this decision on her own, there may have been negative consequences to this incident. This example also shows how the employee acted in servant leadership. They put the customer's immediate needs before worrying about what was going to happen after making their decision on how to help the customer (McGee-Cooper, Looper, Trammel).

Another quality of the Culture Committee learned closely from Colleen Barrett, is to listen intently with no agenda. However, sometimes while listening to topics discussed while in a meeting, the Culture Committee will need to act upon certain concerns and challenges brought up during the meeting. Much of each meeting is listening to the members address different topics. An opening topic might include a question like, "What problems do we need to address this year?", and members are encouraged not only speak on this topic but to listen carefully to what is being said. All of the top leaders also attend each Culture Committee meetings so that they are present when concerns or challenges are brought up so they can address them before they gain momentum (McGee-Cooper, Looper, Trammel).

For the Culture Committee meetings to be effective in the workplace, the top leaders needed to act upon what they learned. If the top leaders, including Colleen Barrett did not follow up on what they learned from their employees then they would not be able to their trust. Trust is a key attribute associated with Barrett and she believes it is something that must be earned every day. Barrett earns trust from her employees from consistently being reliable in her follow-through (McGee-Cooper, Looper, Trammel).

One action Colleen Barrett took recently was conducting a thorough employee satisfaction survey throughout Southwest. After analyzing the results, Barrett formed cross-functional teams to address any issues that were discovered from the survey. Another result of the survey was to address each issue point-by-point in the company-wide newsletter. For employees to see that top leadership is taking their issues and satisfaction seriously, more employees will trust that the survey is a safe way to provide their honest feedback (McGee-Cooper, Looper, Trammel).

Leadership at Southwest Airlines From organizational behavior, we have learned that leadership is the ability to influence a group towards the achievement of goals. At Southwest Airlines (SWA) the heart and culture of leadership comes from a long time serving woman: Colleen Barrett. From the trait theories of leadership we can say that she displays conscientious and emotional intelligence traits. She is very conscientious in the sense that she knows what she is doing. She is well aware of her emotions and is able to identify others’ emotions. Gender and Leadership The theory for gender and leadership says that women are more social leaders and display democratic or participative leadership style. This is displayed by Colleen Barrett that with the Culture Committee she created she involves people from all levels of the company to express their opinions and at the same time give valuable insight to the company. Behavioral Theory The behavioral theory states that leadership is a skill set and can be taught to anyone, so proper behaviors must be identified to teach potential leaders. Unlike the trait theories of leadership that claims that leadership is inherent and must identify leaders based on their traits, the behavioral theory has a different approach. Leaders can be trained to achieve success by influencing other people. Colleen Barrett is an example of the behavioral theory. Although she only earned a two-year associate’s degree, later on she demonstrated her capacity to keep learning from everyone around her. She integrated other people’s knowledge with her own qualities. Behavioral Studies If we were to define the leadership at SWA with the behavioral studies conducted by Ohio and Michigan University, we can say that Ohio will define it as consideration style where SWA listens to others feeling. As mentioned before, the culture committee is dedicated to listen to employees from all levels of the company. Michigan University will define the leadership style as employee-oriented. . For example, in their leadership training programs, the instructors talk to each potential leader to ask them about their future goals and where they see themselves in years ahead. This demonstrates the interest in their employees and where they want to be in the future. House’s Path-Goal Theory The house’s path-goal theory states that leaders are there to provide followers with information, support, and resources to help them achieve their goals. This theory says that leaders can display multiple leadership styles. We found out that Colleen Barrett displays the directive leadership style when she looks at what needs to be done and takes ownership. To help Colleen with her leadership, as it is explained by the path-goal theory reformulated, where it takes into account the role of intrinsic motivation and empowerment, one hallmark of Colleen’s genius is finding creative ways to honor people on a very scarce budget. Colleen is known internally for her “Bible,” a growing list of words, terms, and writing guidelines approved by her for internal and external documents. This includes correct spelling, punctuation, and words to capitalize for example People, Employees, Customer, Leader, and Company when referring to SWA. Also with The Culture Committee, Colleen inspires the vision, empowers employees at every level to become a family. Transformational Leaders Transformational leaders inspire followers to transcend their self-interests for the good of the organization. Colleen Barrett is a good example of a transformational leader. With her leadership she has the capability to encourage others, to create an enthusiasm for their job as well as to gain the trust from subordinates. Servant Leadership As mentioned before, a leader can display multiple leadership styles, but if there is one way to describe Colleen Barrett’s leadership style that will be the servant style. As defined, servant leadership increases service to others rather than oneself. They want employees to develop their careers and help in the organization development. With The Culture Committee, Colleen models the servant leadership and gives recognition to others. A clear example that she displays the characteristics of a servant leader is that she holds herself and others accountable. She has always strived to model the selfless spirit of service that she believes grows a strong culture of service. Another characteristic is that she as a unique gift to listen with no agenda. As mentioned before, The Culture Committee meeting is about listening to the members. We think that the most important characteristic of a servant leadership is the commitment to the growth of people. SWA has countless examples of leaders who began in entry-level positions and are now senior leaders. This could not have been done without the commitment to the growth of people from Colleen Barrett. Trust in leadership A customer come second is an important aspect for SWA because since the beginning they knew that employees could only serve their customers with memorable service if their employees were confident they were supported in the same way. In some cases customers are abusive and Colleen believes that leaders need to be behind their employees to have their trust. “Treat others as you want to be treated,” the Golden Rule. This is what Colleen Barrett believes in when it comes to the employees and the customers.