Strategy #34: Stand by people when they are struggling

In their book Nuts! Southwest Airlines’ Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success, Kevin and Jackie Freiberg tell the story of an employee whose performance was deteriorating badly. Colleen Barrett, (then) Vice President for People (at Southwest Airlines, they say that they have people, not human resources), scheduled a meeting and asked her what the problem was. The employee explained that she had just been through a nasty divorce, had a big lawyer bill that she could not pay, and acknowledged that this was, indeed, affecting her performance at work.

Barrett told her not to worry; she said that the employee had stood with the company when it was struggling through its hard times, and now the company would stand behind her in her hard times. You would hope that any good manager would do the same. But Colleen Barrett is not just a good manager, she is a brilliant leader. Later that day, she sent the employee a personal check for the amount of the lawyer bill, with a note of encouragement. She did not need to say, because they both understood, that she was also telling this individual to pay her bills and get back to work. And you can well imagine that wild horses would not drag that person away from the company (much less the offer of a few more pennies per hour).

In marketing circles, it’s been well-established that the most loyal customer is the one who was dissatisfied, and had someone at the company go above and beyond to solve the problem. Well, something analogous happens when you stand by your people. At some time or another, everyone runs into a brick wall of troubles (yes indeed, bad things do happen to good people!). Once they get back on their feet, they will become your most effective goodwill ambassadors, salespeople, and recruiters.

Important Note:  This does not mean looking the other way at attitude or performance problems. As mentioned above in the discussion of performance appraisals, these should be confronted in an open, honest, and constructive manner.

Two good questions: How can you balance spending most of your time with your best people, as suggested above, with the advice of standing by people when they are struggling, and of rehabilitating those who are struggling before terminating them? How do you inculcate this philosophy of helping people when they are down throughout your organization?

“I wish I could tell you that the way we humans most often connect with one another is through joy and celebration. Those things are important connectors, to be sure, but it is through our loss, our sadness, and our disappointments that we most often feel the deepest connections.”

James A. Autry: The Servant Leader: How to Build a Creative Team, Develop Great Morale, and Improve Bottom-Line Performance

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