Nuts!

Zusatztext The remarkable story of the country's most successful airline and Herb Kelleher, the CEO who built it with integrity, guts, and nuts. "If you're interested in making your employees and customers raving fans of your business, Nuts! is a must read." --Ken Blanchard, Coauthor of The One Minute Manager "Full of original insights, upbeat stories, and concrete suggestions, Nuts! shows how the power of principle-centered leadership inspires people to achieve incredible results." --Stephen Covey, author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People "The story of Southwest Airlines is as much fun to read as it is reader friendly and useful. I promise you, it's a blueprint for all organizations that want to succeed--not just airlines." --Warren Bennis, author of On Becoming a Leader Rated the #1 Company to Work for in America by Fortune magazine Informationen zum Autor Kevin and Jackie Freiberg are principals of the San Diego Consulting Group, Inc., a professional speaking and management consulting firm whose clients include Merrill Lynch, the United States Marine Corp, Arthur Andersen, GTE, and Southwest Airlines. Klappentext Twenty-five years ago, Herb Kelleher reinvented air travel when he founded Southwest Airlines, where the planes are painted like killer whales, a typical company maxim is "Hire people with a sense of humor," and in-flight meals are never served--just sixty million bags of peanuts a year. By sidestepping "reengineering," "total quality management," and other management philosophies and employing its own brand of business success, Kelleher's airline has turned a profit for twenty-four consecutive years and seen its stock soar 300 percent since 1990. Today, Southwest is the safest airline in the world and ranks number one in the industry for service, on-time performance, and lowest employee turnover rate; and Fortune magazine has twice ranked Southwest one of the ten best companies to work for in America. How do they do it? With unlimited access to the people and inside documents of Southwest Airlines, authors Kevin and Jackie Freiberg share the secrets behind the greatest success story in commercial aviation. Read it and discover how to transfer the Southwest inspiration to your own business and personal life. Leseprobe "Professionals" Need Not Apply: Hire for Attitude, Train for Skills When Kelleher became chairman in 1978, he charged the People Department with the responsibility of hiring people with a sense of humor. "I want flying to be a helluva lot of fun!" he always says. "Life is too short and too hard and too serious not to be humorous about it." Fun is taken very seriously at Southwest Airlines, and the company's recruiting and hiring practices are built on the idea that humor can help people thrive during change, remain creative under pressure, work more effectively, play more enthusiastically, and stay healthier in the process. In a world where change is one of the true constants, most people are having to work smarter and harder and faster than ever before. As the pace and intensity of our work lives have picked up, it's no wonder we've lost touch with the lighter side of life and become very serious. Many organizations expect their employees to be serious and businesslike, to check their personal and emotional baggage at the door before coming into the office. "Terminal professionalism" is the term coined by Lighten Up authors C.W. Metcalf and Roma Felible to describe the way today's overworked, overstressed, underpaid, and underplaying individuals work. Terminal professionals--and the organizations in which they work--have come to believe that humor is unprofessional and silliness is for children. Southwest Airlines believes that failure to nourish and encourage lightness in the workplace not only undermines productivity, cr...

Auteur
Kevin and Jackie Freiberg are principals of the San Diego Consulting Group, Inc., a professional speaking and management consulting firm whose clients include Merrill Lynch, the United States Marine Corp, Arthur Andersen, GTE, and Southwest Airlines.

Texte du rabat

Twenty-five years ago, Herb Kelleher reinvented air travel when he founded Southwest Airlines, where the planes are painted like killer whales, a typical company maxim is "Hire people with a sense of humor," and in-flight meals are never served--just sixty million bags of peanuts a year. By sidestepping "reengineering," "total quality management," and other management philosophies and employing its own brand of business success, Kelleher's airline has turned a profit for twenty-four consecutive years and seen its stock soar 300 percent since 1990.

Today, Southwest is the safest airline in the world and ranks number one in the industry for service, on-time performance, and lowest employee turnover rate; and Fortune magazine has twice ranked Southwest one of the ten best companies to work for in America. How do they do it?

With unlimited access to the people and inside documents of Southwest Airlines, authors Kevin and Jackie Freiberg share the secrets behind the greatest success story in commercial aviation. Read it and discover how to transfer the Southwest inspiration to your own business and personal life.

Échantillon de lecture
"Professionals" Need Not Apply: Hire for Attitude, Train for Skills

When Kelleher became chairman in 1978, he charged the People Department with the responsibility of hiring people with a sense of humor. "I want flying to be a helluva lot of fun!" he always says. "Life is too short and too hard and too serious not to be humorous about it." Fun is taken very seriously at Southwest Airlines, and the company's recruiting and hiring practices are built on the idea that humor can help people thrive during change, remain creative under pressure, work more effectively, play more enthusiastically, and stay healthier in the process.

In a world where change is one of the true constants, most people are having to work smarter and harder and faster than ever before. As the pace and intensity of our work lives have picked up, it's no wonder we've lost touch with the lighter side of life and become very serious. Many organizations expect their employees to be serious and businesslike, to check their personal and emotional baggage at the door before coming into the office.

"Terminal professionalism" is the term coined by Lighten Up authors C.W. Metcalf and Roma Felible to describe the way today's overworked, overstressed, underpaid, and underplaying individuals work. Terminal professionals--and the organizations in which they work--have come to believe that humor is unprofessional and silliness is for children. Southwest Airlines believes that failure to nourish and encourage lightness in the workplace not only undermines productivity, creativity, adaptability, and morale, but also can drive people crazy. By putting humor at the top of its list of recruiting and hiring criteria, Southwest has found a way to nourish joy, pride, and just plain fun in people on and off the job. The company's healthy alternative to terminal professionalism has restored the faded dream of satisfying work and job security for thousands of people.

A New Kind of Professionalism

At Southwest, "professional" and "businesslike" alone just won't cut it. In fact, these are terms Kelleher despises; he believes they have lost their meaning. "Anybody who likes to be called a 'professional' probably shouldn't be around Southwest Airlines," he says. "We want people who can do things well with laughter and grace." The point here is not to offend people who think of themselves as professionals. Southwest Airlines is bursting with professionalism, but it is a unique brand, practiced with flair. The type of professionalism people experience and express within the Southwest culture is not…