EntreLeadership - #272: Unstoppable Cultures with Ginger Hardage

Episode Date: June 25, 2018

Former Southwest senior vice president of culture and communication Ginger Hardage knows firsthand that a healthy culture is a total game-changer. Not only does it lead to a more productive and creative workplace, but it also results in a happier, more unified team with significantly less turnover. In her latest venture, Unstoppable Cultures, Ginger draws upon her 25 years of experience at Southwest to help other companies build and sustain cultural greatness of their own. Tune in to hear her easy—and budget-friendly—ways to do the same in your own organization. Ramsey Solutions senior vice president Daniel Tardy also weighs in with five things that every thriving culture must have. We’ll wrap up the episode with Southwest CEO Gary Kelly’s thoughts on why he credits the airline’s now-famous cultural success to Ginger. entreleadership.com/podcast How to Grow a Remarkable Culture from EntreLeadership Harness Your Inner Genius from Infusionsoft Want expert help with your business question? Call 844-944-1070 and leave a message or send an email to [e-mail]. You could be featured on a future podcast episode! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 47 years, we've never had a pay cut. We've never had a layoff. We've never cut health care. We've never done any of those things. Helping business leaders grow themselves, their team, and their profits. This is Andre Leadership. Now, here's your host, Ken Coleman. Coming to you from the Music City, this is the broadcast of leaders by leaders for leaders.

Thank you so much for joining the conversation. We have got some amazing. amazing content coming away. It's chock full. Daniel Tarty, our senior vice president of business and leadership here at Ramsey's Solutions stops by. Ginger Hardidge, she is the CEO of Unstoppable cultures and the former senior vice president of culture and communications for Southwest Airlines. And we're going to bring you a portion of my conversation with Southwest Airlines CEO, Gary Kelly, from the summit stage in San Antonio just weeks ago. We'll also bring you some great free resources. So here we go. Excited to have Daniel Tarty stopped by in the studio here because

he has been on the ground floor in the very early days at Entree Leadership and has grown with Dave and the organization. And so I asked Daniel to come by and talk to us about five keys to developing and sustaining a healthy culture. This is really good stuff. You're going to get a lot from this. Here is Daniel Target. Well, this is fun, dude. I'm so glad you're here because culture. culture, culture, culture, culture, culture, culture, culture. I feel like we do it a lot here on this program. And we should. It's like the catch-all word for every leadership team. Remember how leadership was the... Say culture. That'll be sexy, right? Just throw that out there. You remember leadership 10 years ago was like there was a new leadership book every three weeks.

Now all of a sudden, culture, culture, culture, and we should be talking about it. But we were talking recently about this idea. And you said, you know what? Let's talk about what it looks like here at Ramsey's Solution, specifically at Entree leadership. And so, I said, let's talk about this. How would you have a conversation about it? And I remember you said, well, I think there's five elements. Yeah, right. To a healthy culture and healthy being defined, before we get into the five elements, how would you define healthy? What are the characteristics? Well, I would back up and just talk about why something becomes a buzzword like culture. Okay. It becomes overused because I think when we find a word that represents a strong feeling we have, we start throwing it around because there's something important there. Right. But what we start to miss is like what is the actual thing we're talking about like what are the attributes of that so when i say

there's five elements of this it's breaking it into what are the specific business functions team functions things that we can measure and make tangible that when we're doing them all well it represents a healthy culture right so before we get into the five elements though when you see these five elements when they're addressed which you're going to walk us through then we see healthy but what in your mind how does daniel tardy if you walk into a business how do you know just just by hanging around them, they've got a healthy culture. Well, Ken, you can feel it. I mean, there's energy in the room.

There's positivity. There's human connection. And so I think about it's the same way that a farmer walks out into a field and he can just look and go, it's growing. It's green. I'm from West Texas. I grew up in the middle of cotton fields everywhere, right? And so culture is, it actually stems from an agriculture kind of context.

It's the culture of the soil, right? Agriculture. It's built into the very word. So it really breaks. down into soil, seed, water, sun, and then keeping out the weeds. And each of those things, they transfer certainly in the, you know, the farm, right? That's what farmers are doing all day. But they're the same things going on with the team at any given point. Love that, you know. So how do we prepare the soil of the office, right? So in the workplace,

before we even get ready to lay the seat down, what does a leader need to be doing to create the right soil to grow healthy culture? Well, think about what soil is. It's the environmental condition which the crop exists. Right. So it's the atmosphere in the office. It's everything from the lights, the furniture. It's the values and the mission. It's the, are you present as a leader in the moment coming in and connecting with people? All of these things influence how people feel when they come to work every day. Is it lively and energetic? Do you have meetings that are fun and people look forward to? Or is it, well, you just got to grind it out and do the work?

And so as leaders, we got to constantly monitor, do we have the right values in place? Do we have the right mission? Do people feel great when they're showing up coming in? Are they excited about being here? Because those are the seeds that are going to germinate and turn into the crop. And if we don't have the right soil conditions to start, then the seeds come in and they're just going to die. They don't do their thing. And so soil conditions with the team initially, it's get the right environment set up and be disruptive if you have to.

If the environment, if there's not energy there, come in and make it. Make the changes you got to make. Leaders are always changing things to make them better. All right. So that leads to, we've got the soil ready. Now we plant the seed. What is the planting process for a business? I think the seed is a combination between the right team and the right opportunity. What harvest are we really going for here? We will make a lot of money. Well, great. But how are you going to do it? How are you going to get to the marketplace, to your customers? Yes, you're going to have a crop that you've got to harvest. But what is that seed that goes in the ground that actually produces that, the work and the energy that goes into that crop being a reality?

Well, it's the great people showing up who are hungry, who are humble, who are smart, who are excited about the work? They're qualified. They're a good culture fit. So this environment you're creating in the soil, they're the kind of seed that wants to grow in that environment. Are they getting to work on a winning team that has a track record for winning that they're going, man, I want to fly with these eagles, man. These are the kind of people I want to be around. So you got soil and then you get seed, which is the team and the opportunity that you're given those players. You know, Southwest does this really well.

They say, we take care of our people. We treat our people like family. And they're going to treat our customers like guests in our home. That's what it's about. So now you've planted the seed. And obviously the first thing, we all know this, any of us that have dabbled with home landscaping, which I love, by the way, got to water them. As soon as I get them in the ground, I am watering those plants or those seeds. What's that look like in the office?

The whole idea of watering the seed is giving it what it needs to grow. First of all, it starts with clarity about what your job is. What are your key results areas? What do we expect you to be responsible for? And then is it written down where you can actually point to it and go, okay, here's your plan. This is what you're supposed to be working on. And we can actually check back in and go, are you doing the things that we consider to be winning and holding them accountable to that?

And then you've got training. What if they don't know how to do all that? Well, are you taking the time to slow down and teach them? You're watering. You're pouring into them going, look, here's how we do it here, how's we do this job? Do they have goals? Do they have the ability to keep score and track against? Am I winning?

If so, how do I know? If I'm not winning, how do I get back on track? If they don't have a system for that, then we're not watering that seat. We're not developing them, and they're just going to die. Well, we all know how important water is, but if we go back to second or third grade, we remember learning about the simple process of photos synthesis. I can't even say it. I don't think anyone says it.

No, nobody ever said it well, right? but that's where the sun comes in and this is the light. The sun provides light. What is the analogy here for leaders? Look, man, the thing that's true of every human being, regardless of your personality style, is we crave validation and significance and being celebrated for a job world. Not patronizing. Not rah, raw, but if we're working hard, we want to know if we're winning. And as leaders, you can't delegate celebrating people. That is our job as leaders. to recognize, hey, you're winning. I love it.

I noticed. You're amazing at it. Let's do more of that. Here's a high five. Here's a $50 handshake. Here's a handwritten note. Depending on the situation, if you're in touch with your team,

and let's say they're not winning. Let's say they had a tough personal situation at home. They put a low point on their weekly report that says, just found out a close friend has a diagnosis that I'm really concerned about. As a leader, when you stop by their desk and go, hey, I saw that. I'll be thinking about you. Let me know if it can help.

That's photosynthesis. man. You bring light into that situation. So sometimes it's just being aware and having empathy when they're having a hard day. And then a lot of times it's when they're winning. Bring the light, bring the energy, bring the money, bring the enthusiasm. You're connecting people to the mission, connecting them to, hey, we're winning and it's a result of you guys doing a great job. So soil and seed and water and sun, these are fun topics, right? Farmers love conversating around these areas. But then there's this fifth and sometimes forgot about it. area weeds. They are always going to find a way to surface. Now, through hard work and vigilance,

we can pull the weeds, I guess. Yeah, we can pull the weeds. Let's think about why a weed is a problem in a field. It does two things that hurt the crop. First of all, its roots go down and grow more aggressively. Yeah. Suck up all the nutrients and water out of the soil. So good. So it stars your heart. This is the crop. This is the people. And then it grows up more aggressively with leaves that are broader and it blocks out the light. There you go. So no matter how much you're putting water in the soil and the nutrients are there, you're working really, really hard to create all these culture conditions. But if you don't address the weeds, the weeds will win. On a team that looks like gossip, which is dissension.

It's people talking negatively across the team about the leader, about other areas. They're bringing problems to people that can't do anything to fix them. You know, you never address it with solutions. It's just more negative funk that's going around. It's confusion. look, ma'am, I would rather be wrong and clear than maybe right but confused. I agree with you.

Or on a team where everybody's confused about what their job is. We agree, why? Because at least when I'm wrong and we're clear and we all can say, yes, this is clear and we're in the wrong spot, we can do something about it. When we're confused, it's like Nell-in-Gela to a tree. You never really know, like, what are we building this thing on top of? What is a foundation for how we're going to operate?

So as leaders, our biggest job, if anything, is have clear vision. That's not just what's our five-year B-Hag. That's vision for every aspect of how this whole thing runs. Okay, I want to stop here for a second because I don't want to move forward until we hit something here. I think it's a great point. You said, I'd rather be clear and wrong than confused. And this is so important. And the reason is, Daniel, when a leader is clear and the team says, we're clear and we move forward, we're unified, but even when we're wrong, guess what? We're still unified. In unity, we look at the problem. We go, okay, we were wrong. Where were we wrong? What do we need to do right? We fix it. But we're unified and we've moved forward together as opposed to,

let's go back to that timid area where everybody lives in confusion. We're not doing anything. So think of it like we're going to go on a road trip with two of our buddies. And we don't give a lot of details about where we're going and we say, hey guys, show up sometimes Saturday morning at someone's house and we're just let's go. And we make all these assumptions about where we're going. And if All of a sudden we realize, man, this is confusing. It feels like we're not making progress. And we don't even have our two guys that we're going on the trip with. And we call them and we go, where are you guys?

And we realize we're 200 miles apart. Well, we've got to come all the way back and start over. If we get in the car, Saturday morning, 6 o'clock we leave, we're all in the same car. And we start driving north. And we're kind of in the car together. We're talking about the trip. And somebody says all of a sudden like, hey, I feel like we're going the wrong direction. Somebody plug in the GPS and see if we're on track.

Oh, my gosh. We're going the wrong direction. Hey, no problem. We can all turn right. And now we're right on the way to where we're supposed to go. So true. Yep. Confusion leads of frustration. Really good stuff. All right. So final word. Have I tilled good soil or have I created good soil? Have I put in the right seat? What's the watering process? What's the sunlight situation? And then what am I doing to attack the weeds? What do they walk away with? So we do all this work as leaders to get these conditions right. There's a moment when as a leader, you've got to step back and let your crops. grow. One of the worst things we can do is continue to work, work, work, work like we have been all spring. In the middle of summer, we're standing in the middle of a cotton field, trying to give our plants a motivational talk going, come on, just grow. You can do it. I believe. And they're going, would you get out of our way? Let the sun do its job. So there's a moment where the culture starts to take care of the whole crop. One of the litmus tests here for a leader on how is my

culture is what happens when I leave? When I walk away for a day, or I'm in another meeting or I'm not on the sales floor, what happens? Do things die? Do they stagnate or do they grow? And we're always trying to work to a place where we go, they're going to grow a little bit more and a little bit better without me there because I've got good leadership in place. I've got values, mission, clarity.

Everybody knows what winnings look like, all these things we've been talking about. We've got a way to keep the weeds eradicated. That's not happening anymore. We've got a culture where those things are almost self-perpetuating. Now, we never fully step out of the field. and never come back as leaders. But you're conditioning this thing so it can kind of grow. And all of a sudden, the sun and the water and the seed, they do their work. And they move forward and your business grows. And the team has good ideas that, hey, they may not be your ideas. They may

be better ideas. That's what we want. My goal as a leader is to always be replacing myself. Find somebody smarter, somebody more capable who's going to take it to the next level. I get the field going, but I want somebody else out there working it and taking it to that next level all day. There you go. Five elements to create and sustain a very healthy culture. Daniel Tarty, thanks for hanging out with us. Good stuff. It's a blast, man. Thanks for having me. Good stuff from Daniel Tarty. Hope you took a lot from that. And now I want to get right to our conversation with Ginger Hardidge.

I told you a bit about her at the top of the program. If you think about someone who was the vice president of culture at Southwest Airlines, for 25 years, you're talking about one of the premier cultures in all of America. here is my conversation with Ginger Hardidge. Well, I'm excited to be talking with Ginger Hardidge, who is a long-time Southwest Airlines team member and really was a guru in HR and culture and just the amazing environment that is Southwest Airlines. And Ginger, excited to be talking about this with you. But before we dive into some of the great content that we can learn from,

I want our audience to hear from you your starting point when you came into Southwest because I love hearing stories like this where you come in and then you work your way up and then you become somebody who had your fingerprints on everything Southwest culture for a long time. So what was it like or what was the entry point? What were you doing? And when did you get started? I actually started with Southwest Airlines in 1990. And I'd been out.

My job prior to that was in the oil and gas industry. So I had no previous airline experience, but that was actually a good thing at Southwest because they're really looking for people who didn't have any bad habits from other airline experience. So I started as the Director of Public Relations, and I was hired by Herb Callagher and Colleen Barrett. Herb was the founder of Southwest, and Colleen is now the President Emeritus of Southwest. So wonderful experience working with both of them. Southwest at that time only had about 100 airplanes and now it has 700. It had less than 10,000 employees and now there are 56,000. So saw a lot of change, a lot of growth. The airline grew to

become the largest airline in the U.S., carrying more customers than any other carrier, carrying 120 million customers a year. And now it's expanding, going to Mexico and the Caribbean. So taking those low fares even for their places. So when you come in in that PR role, I'd love to know what it was like for you to experience the culture in those early days. And then as you begin to move into more of a role where you were leading culture initiatives, you become a part of the executive leadership team, how were you moved up? Because I think that leaders need to hear that story of how someone can come in here and with a vibrant culture and great training. You continue to move up. You continue to grow and they put that in place. That culture very much still exists.

What was it like for you, that growth? Well, I think it's a story that all of us need to know as leaders, because I was the beneficiary of two wonderful leaders who gave me lots of challenges and allowed me to keep climbing and doing as much as I wanted to do. I first worked for Colleen Barrett, who is now the President Emeritus, and then for Gary Kelly, the CEO. And both of them had the philosophy that many successful leaders do, let people lead with their experience that they have. And so my background was in communications. I learned all about the culture aspects from hands-on at Southwest Airlines. It was like getting an MBA in culture just observing and seeing all the things that were going on at Southwest. So it was such a pleasure to help nurture that and lead that

from an executive leadership standpoint and put all the systems in place to really nurture that, culture. And that's one of things I want to do now with more organizations is share with them how to create some of that magic that you see in organizations like Southwest Airlines or Disney or Chick-fil-A and help bring those resources to more individuals so they can recreate those kinds of cultures in their own organizations. You and I both know, Ginger, that there are a lot of companies and even leaders listening in right now that have established some values in name only, meaning we spouted them out once or twice. They're on the cafeteria wall, but other than that, they're virtually non-existent. And I'm not saying this to step on toes,

to be unkind, but the reality is that values are worthless if they're not modeled, number one, you touched on that. But number two, they're not reinforced. How does Southwest, and how do you coach other companies now, to model the values and then reinforce, the values on a daily, weekly, monthly, you know, it's constantly reinforced. What's the best way for leaders to reinforce the values? Yeah, Ken, great question. What I tell companies is culture isn't a faucet you can turn on and off. So if an organization's wanting to bring someone in and help them shore up their culture,

it's not one and done. It's something that has to go on continuously. So Southwest is in business for 40s. seven years and there's even more emphasis now on culture than there probably have or has been just because there's so many more people. So some of the tactics, and this is a tactic that any organization can use, and we can borrow it from CEO Gary Kelly. One of the things Gary does every Monday, he records a message to employees so they can see it on the internet. Other organizations that they don't have an internet might do it via email. They might only do it on a

monthly basis. But the point is, Gary shares a message, and at the end of it, he ends it with a shoutout about something great an employee has done. And in that way, he is modeling the kind of behavior that the organization is looking for. So we might say, Sally showed her servant's heart when this particular thing happened, or Jim really modeled the warrior spirit when he acted this way. So there's wonderful stories there about modeling. And that's the trick in terms of perpetuating it that all of us could use in our organizations. Well, and it also models what I think is maybe one of the greatest leadership tactics there is, and that's recognition. You know, we all just want to be seen.

You know, we just, we want to be noticed, we want to matter. That's really what's driving this is meaning. We want to make a difference. We want to matter. Again, speak to us on recognition. all the different ways you could recognize. And I think sometimes small businesses go, well, I'd love to do more to recognize a reward,

which is a form of recognition, but we can't afford it. And I think they think, oh, well, Ginger, of course, Southwest, you've got millions of dollars, and you can do whatever you want. I want you to speak to that. There's many different ways to recognize your team and then build a healthy culture. Absolutely.

And there's different kinds of recognition. And I think companies generally do formal recognition well, where they might have the annual band and they might have a president's award or they might have a top sales award. So generally, organizations do that kind of recognition well, but it's probably only reaching about one or two percent of their employees when they do that. So all of us in our organizations, and we learned this lesson the hard way at Southwest, we thought we were doing recognition off the charts really well. And in one of our employee surveys, the employees came back and said they were not seeing

enough recognition from their direct leader. So, man, how can we correct that? So we created a program called On the Spot where you have these simple cards printed where leaders could hand them out when they caught somebody doing something great. And I think we can all borrow that idea. It could be something simple. It could be a $10 gift card. Something simple where our frontline supervisors, who are the hardest working people in our organizations, can have a way. to recognize our frontline employees. And it doesn't have to be a big budget. And recognition doesn't have to cost something.

That example of Gary sharing that shout-out, any leader can share stories about great things that customers have written in and talked about a particular employee. We can share that through an email. We can share that in our team meetings. If a company has a newsletter, they can share those stories there. So there's a lot of ways to share stories, model the behavior we're looking for, and it doesn't necessarily have to cost any money.

And there's informal ways where you can have huge team recognition. Southwest, one of the ways they do that is at Halloween. So different departments have skits, and Gary Kelly always dresses up for Halloween, just like Herb Kelleher did. So carrying on those traditions of having fun, recognizing individual aspects of different departments, different employees, and really having a good time with them. So there are lots of ways to recognize formal, that day-to-day, surprise and delight, and then these more informal ways as well.

I love that you mentioned stories. You've got a, I was doing some research and what you provided us with some of the work you're doing with your new organization, Unstoppable Cultures. You highlight this 10,000 Stories Challenge by KPMG, a brand that's very well known. I love this. And I think our audience can get some great. ideas from this. Would you share that? Absolutely. It is something that I think we could all use with what KPMG did. They were looking for 10,000 stories from their employees to really

reinforce the purpose of their organization. And they created a simple app so employees could create their own posters about the difference that they were allowed to make in their jobs. So one of them came back and said, a gentleman said, I help farms grow. Because what he did, and his job at KPMG was help lending institutions that loaned to small farms and ranches. So he connected what he did working with lending institutions to a higher purpose of helping small farms grow. And another woman said, I helped fight terrorism because what she did was working with lending institutions to prevent money laundering. And money laundering often allows money to get into the hands of terrorists. And she helped prevent that. So if we can help our employees find that higher purpose through storytelling,

I think that's what they're all looking for. And, you know, when I think of the story about higher purpose, I think we'd probably all heard the story about the early days of NASA when President Kennedy was visiting Cape Canaveral and he saw the man holding the broom and he said, well, what do you do here at NASA? And he paused and stood up straight and said, why, Mr. President, I'm helping him. I'm putting put a man on the moon. And however we can help through storytelling and through our leadership connecting our employees to the purpose of our organizations, I think that's the direction we all want to go. Yeah, that's brilliant. It really is because if you think of all the different Southwest employees, they all have a different answer. There might be a lot of similarities, but they all have

a different answer to the purpose of their work, what it means to them. That's the connection from their own purpose to the work that they do and it matters to them. Isn't that really the payoff when people start to go, okay, this isn't just a J-O-B? Absolutely. And when you do that, you can see the results in much less turnover in your organizations and really high scores. A question that I would encourage companies to use, we added this question to the employee survey a few years ago.

And we ask employees, how would you describe your job? And would you describe it as a job? Would you describe it as a stepping stone to another job? Or would you describe it as a calling? And 72% of the employees described it as a calling. And when you can make that kind of difference, there's just no limit to how employees will feel about your organization. And in turn, the company only had 2% voluntary turnover. So a lot of our organizations would be very proud to have only two. percent annual voluntary turnover in their organizations. Yeah. I'm curious. Do you think that those employees that said that their work was a calling, do you think they came into the organization feeling that, or you think that that belief developed as a result of the culture

and realizing how valuable their work is because leadership showed them how valuable it was, they felt valued? What are your thoughts on that? Ken, I think it's a little of both. I can only speak for myself, a media. when I joined Southwest, I knew I had found my dream job, and it was a place I wanted to stay for a very long time. But some employees may start out in a job, and they realize I like this job that I'm doing. I love my company, but I'd really be happy doing this other job in another city. And so in whatever way

in our organizations, if we can help people find what really they're best at, as leaders, I know that's what we all want to help our employees do is find out what their strengths are and help them get on a path to achieve that. So I've seen some leaders who wanted to hold on to their best employees, and they're going to lose them eventually anyway if they try to hold on to them. So how much better, if you can help people in your organization, find their strengths, and then ultimately end up in another place in the organization that they're going to be able to serve it even better? Yeah, I want you to stay right there for a moment because this audience knows that I focus a good deal on that topic. And I want to speak to this from a corporate standpoint.

When you find some people who have some great talent and you know their strengths and they know their strengths, but there's no connection to their role, you can lose them if you don't connect them to a role that involves their passion. So, you know, I know a lot of people in Ginger, you do too, that they're good at their job, but they're just bored out of their mind. They're not challenged. There's no personal connection. And just speak to that from within a culture, how to look for that and make sure that you're doing every you can to get them in a place where they're using their strengths to do work that they really enjoy. Well, as a leader, you've got to put your people first. And that is one of the things you have to do in a great culture is making sure that you're putting your people first. And as a leader, you're truly understanding their strengths or spending time getting to know your people.

And you're intentional about their successes. you're recognizing them for their successes and then coaching them through some times that could have been a rough spot. And there's no greater joy as a leader than being able to help someone achieve more than they ever dreamed possible by getting their strengths and their passions aligned with what they're doing every day in their job. And, man, think about how happy people are when they go home every day and how fulfilled they feel if they've really been able to make a difference in their job. And part of that is through training. Sometimes the ball is dropped if employees aren't properly trained in how to handle a particular situation or part of their job.

But if they get the right level of training and support, they truly are going to act like owners for us and have that passion and purpose and that connection that leads to that higher calling that they're all looking for and making that difference. Hey, and Ken, I forgot we created something just for your audience. So it's at Unstoppable Cultures, backslash, entree leadership. So there's a freebie for your audience. Well, you are a delightful lady to talk to and even more informative. And this has been so good, so much to really chew on. So, Ginger, we're grateful for you and your time. I know our audience is better for it.

Thank you for being with us. Well, Ken, thank you. Big thanks to Ginger for hanging out with us. So how about just a portion? bonus content. Will the producers feeling very, very Santa Clausy? And he's going into the archives straight from Summit 2018. We had the CEO of Southwest Airlines, Gary Kelly, who's been on this program before. He was on stage and we talked through so many things. Here is just a portion of our conversation that fits beautifully with what Daniel and Ginger have already shared with this.

All companies say that people are important. But in In my experience, and I had a lot of clients, there are very few companies that actually practice that. And this place is different. And I think that was the most amazing thing of Herman Colleen, is they were so devoted to making sure that we took care of all of our people first and put them in a position where they can take very good care of all of our customers. The saying that we have is we want to treat our employees like family and then have our

family treat all of our customers like their guests in our home. And it just takes a while to really put that into practice and believe in that. And of course, I signed up for that a long time ago. But it is remarkable what Herb and Colleen created because it was entrepreneurial, it was innovative, it was very different. We've never had a layoff in 47 years. We've never had a pay cut. We've never cut health care. We've never done any of those things. You know, So you get up to bat, so to speak, a couple of times in your life, and that's back to the, I'm glad I've been here for three decades, because I know what it was like on 9-11. I know what it was like in the Great Recession.

I know the temptation to cut cost, and our largest cost are our people, but the company is our people. I'm very, very proud of that. Well, I want to stay there for a minute because there's so much intentionality there to be able to maintain that culture and keep it vibrant. as you grow so big. So what are some practical things that you and your leadership team have done over the years to make sure that you got your finger on the pulse, that the culture is, in fact, intact, healthy, and maybe even evolving in positive ways? You know, I think everybody can be themselves. Everybody here can be themselves, and that's all you can be when you get right down to it.

I think the main thing is you have to believe. You have to believe in it. You have to be passionate about having a great place to work. You have to truly care about your people. And then I think from there, if you just start from there, you'll figure out what you need to do to demonstrate that. And then you have to convince people that you love them. And once they know that, I think they'll knock down walls for you. And with 60,000 people, there are some aspects that are programmatic.

But it's the basic things, you know, we need to recognize people. We need to reward people. We need to know our people. We need to listen to them. We just make sure that we recognize them as people. Recognize their birthdays. Recognize when they get married and children and grandchildren, all those basic things, and then we're there for them when times are bad too.

You know, and you just do what families do. If you walk through the halls at Southwest Airlines, it looks like you're going through somebody's home because it's family pictures all over the wall. We have all the things that you all would expect. We have fabulous recognition programs and awards banquets and anniversary banquets and all of those things. But that's just sort of the ante to the game, if you will. I think the real proof in the pudding is, do you really know your people? Do you really care about them?

And do they believe that you love them? And if you can just do that, I think everything else will fall into place. Entree leadership. Will you show your appreciation to Gary Kelly? Southless, sir. airline. Thank you. Hey, thank you, sir. Appreciate you. Fun stuff. You know, the old, we should charge people for that. I don't know if I like this idea of giving away summit content for free. I'm going to, I don't know. I'm a man of the people,

but I feel like we're giving you all too much value here. So we'll see what happens. Big thanks to Will, the producer, and Tim the engineer for putting that together. Well, it's time for the free stuff, and I know you love the free stuff, Antre leadership bringing you how to to grow a remarkable company culture. Now, this is a blog post, and you'll actually see, after the reading, if you will, of the blog, you're going to see a video of John Falcons, who's our head coach here for all access, and I actually talking through what we call the culture tree. And then we're going to give you the culture health check test. So this tool is just jam packed with goodness. Here's how you get it. Text the phrase.

Episode 272, that's E-P-I-S-O-D-E-272, text that phrase to 33-444. That's 33-44-4. And our friends at InfusionSoft are giving you the harness your inner genius e-book. In this e-book, we'll walk you through how some of the greatest entrepreneurs are successful at dreaming and growing, and you'll find out how they did it. It's not only going to inspire you, but it's going to equip you by showing you how they did it and how that will translate to your world. In this guide, you're going to learn where your genius lies, how to manage around your constraints, and how to create a personalized plan to take your leadership to the next level. To get it, go to infusionsoft.com slash inner genius.

That's infusionsoft.com slash inner genius. Well, that's going to do it on behalf of Will the producer, Tim the engineer, and the entire Entree leadership team. Thank you for listening. We'll talk with you again very soon. Hey, folks, I want to make you aware that we have other great podcasts from Ramsey Solutions. Here's a sample of Christy Wright's Business Boutique podcast. Hey, I'm Christy Wright, and I help women all over the country take their ideas and passions and hobbies and turn them into profitable businesses. If you have an idea in your head or a dream in your heart and you've ever wondered if you could make money doing it, I'm here to help.

Join us on the Business Boutique podcast where we are equipping women to make money doing what they love. If you'd like to hear full episodes, just search Business Boutique in iTunes or go to businessboutique.com.