Leading an organization is as much about soul as it is about systems. Effective leadership finds its source in understanding.
I think my greatest moment in business was when the first Southwest airplane arrived after four years of litigation and I walked up to it and I kissed that baby on the lips and I cried.
It takes nerves of steel to stay neurotic.
Your people come first, and if you treat them right, they’ll treat the customers right.
The people of Southwest have always been my pride, my joy and my love. Their indomitable dedication and esprit de corps have taken Southwest from a three-airplane dream to a 500-airplane reality.
The Wright Amendment is a pain in the ass, but not every pain in the ass is a constitutional infringement.
I forgive all personal weaknesses except egomania and pretension.
We have the best customer satisfaction record, based on Transportation Dept. statistics, of any airline in America, the fewest complaints filed per 100,000 passengers carried. So you’re not just getting low fares, you’re also getting wonderful customer service.
The more time I spend with our people, the more I find out about our business.
Succession planning has been a major priority at Southwest for quite some time. We think we have come up with a winning combination of talent for our company reorganization.
You have to have the service mentality in the sense that you subjugate your own ego, and you subjugate a large part of your own life to really helping other people, being successful on their behalf.
People with different personalities, different approaches, different values succeed not because one set of values or priorities is superior but because their values and practices are genuine.
Positions and titles mean absolutely nothing. They’re just adornments; they don’t represent the substance of anybody. Every person and every job is worth as much as any other person and any other job.
Keep costs low and spirits high, and the people of Southwest Airlines will keep LUV in the air.
One piece of advice that always stuck in my mind is that people should be respected and trusted as people, not because of their position or title.
Everybody in Texas would tell me that they thought I was nuts trying to start Southwest Airlines. There probably weren’t 10 people in the state who would have given a plug nickel for our chances of making a dollar. So sometimes, you need a little courage, too, just to buck popular opinion.
If you don’t treat your own people well, they won’t treat other people well.
It is my practice to try to understand how valuable something is by trying to imagine myself without it.
The business of business is people.
Sometimes you need a little courage too just to buck popular opinion.
The clear, unmistakable sign of a bureaucrat is somebody who worries about whether he has a window.