Happy Birthday to Colleen C. Barrett, founder of the Institute for Cultural Excellence & Customer Service

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Happy Birthday to Colleen C. Barrett, founder of the Institute for Cultural Excellence & Customer Service

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The Colleen C. Barrett Institute for Cultural Excellence & Customer Service

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Resources

The Colleen C. Barrett Institute strives to provide resources that will aid individuals and organizations in their own efforts to produce excellent cultures and provide top-notch customer service. To that end, we are continually adding resources to our generous collection of Leadership, Culture, and Customer Service content.

Thought Leadership

newsletter hero sept 24
Helen Jury

Learning Well: The Value of Prioritizing Personal Growth

When I began my career, I had one requirement: every day needed to look a little different. I craved exposure to new experiences and new projects (which is a polite way of saying I had no idea what I wanted to do and needed a job that would allow me to figure it out). What I realized, however, is my desire was not for constant change but constant learning. Southwest has been that perfect place for me.

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Brendan Conlon

Learning Well: Growing Through Difficult Moments

My 38 years at Southwest have been a journey filled with immense gratitude. I’ve witnessed firsthand the power of strong leadership and the profound impact it has on an organization and its people, especially when facing adversity. Through the years, I’ve experienced my share of challenges, and one lesson I learned early on from Colleen Barrett (namesake of the CCB Institute) was that the defining factor in navigating storms is the quality of leadership at the helm.

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nov22 newsletter
Mike Sims

Learning Well: Effectively Growing Diverse Teams

In today’s workplace, effectively growing and managing diverse Teams is paramount to success. Southwest Airlines President Emeritus, the late Colleen Barrett, mastered this principle, and I am blessed to be able to apply her lessons firsthand from seeing years of her “walking the talk.”

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june 24 tl article
Adam Carlisle

Leading Well: Navigating One on One Conversations

At Southwest Airlines, we pride ourselves in putting our People first—whether that’s your Fellow Employee (Coheart) sitting next to you in a meeting or the Customer you’re helping board one of our planes. In my more than 16 years working at Southwest, I’ve had many opportunities to see that People-first mentality modeled by Leaders (first established by our beloved President Emeritus, the late Colleen Barrett).

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Colleen Barrett

Special Edition: Colleen on Sustaining Strong Performance

Have you ever wondered why Southwest Airlines receives such an incredible amount of media coverage? Obviously, we have a wonderful Public Relations Department making sure our accomplishments and activities don’t go unnoticed, but the mere fact that we are a “successful airline” – two words most people think don’t go together – makes us newsworthy. It also leaves us- and everything we do open to scrutiny.

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april feature article
Chris Johnson

Leading Well: Connecting with People

From the times I engaged with Herb Kelleher (Founder of Southwest Airlines) and Colleen Barrett (CCB Institute namesake!) early in my career, I learned from them the true value of giving your People your time and attention and seeing them for who they are instead of just the positions they fill. To me, that means you have to remember your Teams are made up of unique individuals and never forget the “Golden Rule” when you have the opportunity to connect with someone.

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Articles

Media

Videos

Virtual Roundtables

Access past and present Virtual Learning Events featuring exclusive Southwest Leader-led discussions covering topics like Inspiring Positive Culture, Leading with Empathy and Emotional Intelligence, Effective Recognition, and much more.

CCBI Virtual Roundtable | Women Leading the Way

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CCBI Virtual Roundtable | Leading the Southwest Way

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CCBI Virtual Roundtable | Lessons in Customer Service

Southwest

CCBI Virtual Roundtable | A People-first Culture

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Podcasts

Library

Books on Southwest

To celebrate more than 50 years of putting People first, Southwest Airlines proudly released “Leading with Heart: Living & Working the Southwest Way.” This book represents Southwest Airlines’ guide to Leadership, business, and life, based on insights from Founder Herb Kelleher, President Emeritus Colleen Barrett, Executive Chairman and former CEO Gary Kelly, current CEO Bob Jordan, former President and COO Mike Van de Ven, and other impactful Southwest Leaders past and present.

The book highlights Living & Working the Southwest Way as a set of fun and engaging Leadership tenets that can be applied by readers everywhere, and features a special foreword by Gary Kelly. “Leading with Heart” gives readers a “behind-the-curtain” view into the beginnings of Southwest’s unique Culture and how it’s maintained by the Company’s greatest asset—its People.

Grab your copy of “Leading with Heart: Living & Working the Southwest Way” at swathestore.com.

50 years one heart book

A History of Southwest in 50 Objects

Celebrate Southwest Airlines’ incredible first five decades with 50 Years. One Heart. A History of Southwest in 50 Objects. This visually engaging coffee-table book showcases a stunning collection of 50 unique objects, outfits, and artifacts accompanied by short stories from the Company’s inspiring history and features a special foreword by 17-year Chairman & CEO Gary Kelly. Dive in to explore how Southwest:
  • Beat the overwhelming odds to get “ready for takeoff”
  • Launched and maintained a truly Legendary Culture
  • Turned the corner from surviving to thriving
  • Kept on “winning” with Customers
  • Disrupted the industry
  • And, has consistently put its Heart into action
The inspiring lessons to be learned from the Company’s past remain incredibly relevant today. Grab your copy of 50 Years. One Heart. at swathestore.com and enjoy a rare look at Southwest’s rich past through the lens of iconic (and sometimes, downright eccentric) objects from the Corporate Archive.

By Ken Blanchard and Colleen Barrett (2010)

Once, there was a remarkable person who led with love. Her company succeeded where its competitors struggled. Its customers were loyal, its employees loved to work there, and it was profitable year after year, for decades. This loving leader began her career as an executive secretary, yet the company’s founder chose her to succeed him as president. When asked why, he said, “Because she knows how to love people to success.” She is Colleen Barrett, President Emeritus of Southwest Airlines®. Lead with LUV  is an extraordinary, wide-ranging conversation between Barrett and the legendary Ken Blanchard, author of The One Minute Manager. Drawing on personal experience, Barrett and Blanchard reveal why leading with love is the most powerful way to lead and how it can help you achieve truly amazing levels of performance. Discover:
  • What “love” really means in the organizational context.
  • Why leading with love is not “soft” management!
  • How to use redirection and tough love to handle inappropriate behavior or performance.
  • Why “servant leadership” is love in action, and how to make it work.
  • How to build the compelling vision and culture that sustains leadership with love
lead with luv book
nuts book

By Kevin Freiberg and Jackie Freiberg (1998)

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.

Southwest Leaders’ Recommended Resources

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Start with Why

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Think Again

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Senior Manager Employee Experience

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The Advantage

Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business
By Patrick Lencioni

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Managing Director Inflight Crew Support & Services

Liz Wiseman

Multipliers

By Liz Wiseman

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Vice President Ground Operations

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