Mark Cuban vs Gary Kelly

Case #2 Chapter 8

Imagine you were given the opportunity to join the leadership team of Mark Cuban’s organization or take leadership role at Southwest Airlines working for Gary Kelly, which would you choose and why?

I feel the people centric leadership style of Gary Kelly and the Southwest Airlines corporate family would be the best career fit for me. My professional passion is for Human Resources Management and Facilitation of Service Training. Three major focuses of HR is training, development, and attitude. Southwest Airlines has a focus on “Performance, People, and Planet”; which go hand in hand with three major HR focuses.

The most intriguing part of the Southwest Airlines culture is that they recognize their staff as being a long term completive edge. For a corporation as large as Southwest to realize the staff’s wellbeing inside and outside of the firm affects the bottom line is a major advantage. The statement made by the firm is their employees should have a warrior spirit, servant’s heart, and fun loving attitude. I will discuss all three of the previous state focuses and how they apply in the work place provided a good leader.

First, Southwest focuses on a Warrior Spirit within each employee. In an ever changing economic climate each employee should have the drive and focus to get through all the changes that are inevitable in business. An employee may not have a warrior spirit to begin with. The firm can provide a team made up of people who are trustworthy and like-minded individuals to assist in building a warrior spirited team. Trust is built when an employee feels valued and supported in times of need or advancement. A good leader supports a team when it is in trouble, but more importantly during time of preparation to ensure the team is not set up for failure. A team made up of like-minded people ensures the goals are clear and measurable. Each person on the team knows what is expected of them and can bring their unique skill...