Southwest Airlines: Emotional Intelligence Makes A Corporation Succeed
By Susan Dunn
Southwest is the darling of the industry. For us early-adopters, it answered many needs that were not being met by other airlines from cheap fares, to its own version of refundable airfare, to, for heaven's sake, a sense of humor on the front lines, to the firs casual wear for attendants, which gave us all permission to "get comfy" on those airplane flights.
My gosh. They even freed us from that awful airplane food!
According to their Internet financial report, 2006 marked Southwest's 34th consecutive year of profitability. They became a "major" in 1989, the year they exceeded the billion-dollar revenue mark, and it remains the nation's most successful low-fare, high frequency, point-to-point carrier.
And how they do keep up with what we like! To quote their site, they have now boldly gone where no other and few Fortune 500 companies have gone before - into the blogosphere. Yes, they have a blog, and you can visit it here: www.blogsouthwest.com .
"Blogging works for us because, as a Company, we know we have nothing to hide," said Southwest's President Colleen Barrett. "Our Employees absolutely ooze authenticity, and our bloggers have been able to bring that same SPIRIT to the blog."
AUTHENTICITY is one of the emotional intelligence (EQ) competencies. It works for individuals, it works for civic groups, it works for leaders, and it works for corporations.
On the blog you can take a peek inside the culture and operations of your favorite airline. About 30 employee bloggers (both frontline and behind the scenes), and 'customers' participate, and you can too, if you like. It's called Nuts about Southwest, and there you can share their taglines - the warrior spirit, the servant's heart, and FUN-LUVing attitude.
How fun loving? I got to test it just the other day, flying out of Love Field in Dallas. Dallas, which may rank no. one in weather-hassle for flights, for all I know. Don't quote me. Anyway, middle of a summer plagued by rainstorms, as you've seen on the news (so rare for Texas), I was lucky to make it to the airport because of the traffic accidents, and then discovered all the delays. The agents - letting us know it had been "a week of this" for them - approached it with humor and also
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let us know what it had been like for them. What else can you do? That's authentic. It was exasperating for all of us involved with snarled flights, people cutting in line, screaming children, and so forth.
And here's more of Southwest. If you were an early adopter like me, with ties in Texas, you know all about the "Set LUV free" campaign, battling that peculiar Wright Amendment. Southwest set up a website where you could make your wishes known to Congress, www.setlovefree.com . Finally Love Field was set free, and they've kept the site up, with a link on there where you can THANK Congress for the Wright Amendment Reform Act.
You would think that would be commonplace, wouldn't you, to thank someone who gives you what you've been asking for. But of course it's not.
Others might have an attitude of entitlement.
Emotional intelligence works, from the ground up, and let's just say it begins at home, with the individual.
