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Leadership and the Dirty
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The airline, Jet Blue, has been
featured in many magazines as a new company that has hard great results and
success so far. A lot too has been mentioned about the challenges they face
ahead and about the culture they created at the start and are working hard
to foster now. One of the many things that sets Jet Blue apart is their
focus on teamwork. Here's one example. They have no cleaning crews - every
employee on the flight (including pilots and those not working but on the
flight) cleans up the plane. This saves time and money - both things very
important to any business.
When I say everyone helps clean, I mean everyone - including the CEO, David
Neeleman. Neeleman helps the flight attendants hand out snacks and helps
clean up. This takes Neeleman's words about teamwork and turns them into
action. He is quoted as saying, "You can't ask employees to do something you
aren't willing to do yourself."
I learned this lesson from my father growing up on a farm. There were many
tasks I was asked to do - some of them much more unpleasant than picking up
newspaper and snack wrappers on a plane - but all of them were done knowing
that my Dad had done them and was willing to do them still, even if he had
higher priority work to do.
This is an extremely important lesson for us as leaders. Being willing to do
the grunt work, the dirty work (call it whatever you want - on the farm
there was some VERY dirty work) builds commitment and shows that all of the
work in the organization is important.
As a leader, please don't push this off saying you want to delegate and make
people responsible for their own work. Delegation and ownership is important
to be sure. If you always delegate the unpleasant stuff, but always want to
help with the more glamorous tasks, your comments of delegation will fall on
deaf ears.
Help. Show up for clean up. Be a part of the team. These actions will make
you a better leader.
About the Author
Kevin Eikenberry is a leadership expert and the Chief Potential Officer
of The Kevin Eikenberry Group (http://KevinEikenberry.com), a learning
consulting company. To receive a free Special Report on leadership that
includes resources, ideas, and advice go to http://www.KevinEikenberry.com/leadership.asp
or call us at (317) 387-1424 or 888.LEARNER.
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