I used to show a Southwest Air video when training my teams that gave people a glimpse of what the Southwest Air culture was like. People would laugh at the humor that Southwest used in making both their people and their customers comfortable. It showed you an employee culture where people worked well together. Each of them were able to show their creative side, too.
There was one spot in the film that was one of my favorites. A gate agent was explaining a process to the person filming the training video, when she noticed that another gate agent was pressed to get a flight out on time. She stopped right in the middle of explaining a process and said, “Hey...let’s go help somebody out.”
She then went over to the agent and helped her scan passengers’ tickets so that they could get the flight out on time.
Today, we are sometimes very specialized in what we do. How many times do we save a little time in our workday to “help somebody out”? There‘s nothing like the feeling of helping someone else. You tend to forget about your own concerns and thrust yourself into that person’s world to make their life or the people they are serving’s lives better.
It’s similar to helping someone out when you’re walking down the street and notice they dropped something. You help them pick it up, right? That act makes you feel better about yourself and can give you a whole new outlook on the day.
QUESTIONS FOR YOUR NEXT TEAM MEETING
The questions provided here could be you asking yourself or for you to use at your next team huddle or meeting:
- When is the last time you helped somebody out?
- What did you do to help them?
- Were they in your department or another one?
- Did you learn something new just by doing that action?
- Who could you help out that you may not have considered?
- Is there a customer who has a need where you could be helping out?
- Do you have a friend you might help out this weekend?
