Servant Leader

Case Note 1: David Neeleman: Flight Path of a Servant Leader

1. What happened at Southwest Airlines? Discuss the differences in leadership styles of Neeleman and Kelleher that contributed to the situation.

After Morris Air was acquired, Neeleman joined the executive team at Southwest airlines to integrate the two airlines. Initially Neeleman and the CEO of Southwest had good chemistry but as time went on the team dynamics simply were not working out. Southwest prided itself on perfecting and refining ideas that other companies had developed. Neeleman, on the other hand was an innovator and wanted to be the one who pushed the boundaries. Neeleman’s approach was more proactive rather than reactive. He could see issue’s that were on the horizon for the company but was not able to sway the rest of the executive team, seeing as how they did not want to hear his ideas about improving the company. Kelleher who was previously known for being a pioneer in the airline industry seemed to be fine with the status quo along with the rest of the southwest management team and were not open to deviate from what had been working for them thus far.

2. Referring to the Servant Leadership behaviors presented in the chapter, do you consider David Neeleman and Servant Leader? Why or why not?

I would consider Neeleman as a servant leader. He exhibits many of the traits that are associated with that type of leadership style. First, he is a person that wants to serve, this is shown by making JetBlue a customer centric company. Next, he facilitates team confidence, by working alongside crew members to empower them and helping subordinates grow and succeeded. He is also a moral person and manager. When the 2007 crisis happened, he immediately addressed it by creating the Customer Bill of Rights to compensate all of the passengers that were affected by the problem. This also demonstrates ethical behavior since he wanted to do right by the customers even though it was not widely...