About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.

Robot + Boomers = New-Found Family

Posted on March 6, 2009 by Harry K. Jones

Remember, as a child, watching futuristic cartoons where every family had a robot zipping around the house acting as a maid, butler and/or baby sitter? Well, apparently the future is NOW and the robots have arrived … just in time for the baby boomers to witness those fantasies become reality.

Over the next 30 years, close to 78 million baby boomers will be retiring, and this will obviously severely stress caregivers, the medical system, and many community services. Our new family friend, uBOT-5 as the robot is called, will now allow elders to live much more independently.

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have developed a robotic assistant that fits right into the family while performing a number of very critical tasks, such as:

dialing 911 in case of emergencies
reminding clients to take their medication
helping with grocery shopping
allowing a client to talk to loved ones and health care providers
allowing concerned family members to access the robot from any Internet connection to visit their elderly parents
allowing family members to navigate the robot around the home in search of Mom and Dad in the event they may not have heard the phone ring or may be in need of assistance
allowing the family doctor to perform virtual house calls direct from his/her office or hospital

The design of this particular robot was actually inspired by the human anatomy:

An array of sensors acts as the robots eyes and ears, allowing it to recognize human activities, such as walking or sitting.
It can also recognize an abnormal visual event, such as a fall, and notify a remote medical caregiver.
Through an interface, the remote service provider may ask the client to speak, smile or raise both arms, movements that the robot can demonstrate. If the person is unresponsive, the robot can call 911, alert family and apply a digital stethoscope to a patient, conveying information to an emergency medical technician who is en route.
The system also tracks what isn’t human. If a delivery person leaves a package in a hallway, the sensor array is trained to notice when a path is blocked, and the robot can move the obstruction out of the way.
It can also raise its outstretched arms, carry a load of about 2.2 pounds and has the potential to perform household tasks that require a fair amount of dexterity, including cleaning and grocery shopping.
The uBot-5’s arm motors are similar to the muscles and joints in our own arms, and it can push itself up to a vertical position if it falls over.
It has a “spinal cord” and the equivalent of an inner ear to keep it balanced on its Segway-like wheels.

This type of robot isn’t exactly a new concept but, for the first time, they are both safe enough and now inexpensive enough to add tremendous value in the everyday home environment.

Creating this single masterpiece in a lab setting would cost about $65,000. However, manufacturers claim they can mass-produce these mechanisms for a couple of thousand dollars. That may still sound expensive to some until you realize the fact that a part-time, human in-home caregiver can cost more than $1,500 PER WEEK. Two weeks of that kind of care would buy you your own personal uBOT-5!

That’s certainly a fair price to allow Grandma to take the robot’s hand, lead it out into the garden and have a virtual visit with a grandchild who is living on the opposite coast. Our new found companion can now eliminate the isolation which can easily lead to depression in the elderly.

About Harry K. Jones

Today’s Invisible Leadership Challenge

Posted on March 5, 2009 by Harry K. Jones

In today’s whirlwind business environment, we have far too many things to focus on … current national debt, mortgage crisis, healthcare crisis, jobs, food prices, oil prices, education, immigration, the environment, and social security to name a few. The media, in a variety of formats, hammers us on these issues almost hourly.

While these issues are indeed obvious and critical, there is still another growing challenge which is just as significant, if not more so, to our business environment. However, it is seldom recognized, discussed or dealt with. It’s almost as though many organizations are ignoring its existence altogether.

Consider the following facts:

There are more than 78.2 million boomers in the U.S.!
Fortune Magazine reminds us that every seven seconds, someone turns 60. That equates to 12,343 baby boomers turning 60 years old or older every day!
The boomers are retiring in record numbers from the American workplace.
Today, the average retirement age of a worker is between 61 and 62, compared to 65 just a few years ago.
Forty percent of the workforce will be retiring soon, leaving not a hole in leadership but a crater!

U.S. businesses face a shortage of millions of workers in the next 10 years. The Boston College Center on Aging and Work conducted a major survey of organizations across industries and discovered that only 33% of employers said that their business had analyzed workplace demographics and made projections about the retirement rates of their workers.

Over the next decade we’re going to be slapped in the face with some cruel realities. Let’s ponder a few of those realities:

Retiring baby boomers are going to be difficult to replace as researchers have found that the loyalty, reliability and strong work ethic will disappear altogether as this generation retires.
There will be a tremendous loss of labor, experience and expertise that will be difficult to offset, given the relatively small pool of new workers and the competition for new talent likely to result from so many companies facing the same problem.
Weigh the amount of knowledge and experience our current baby boomers have accumulated over the years in the areas of our products, services, processes, tools, culture, history, customers, vendors, competition, and industry.
Experts say that management and leadership skills would be the asset in shortest supply in most organizations.

There must be a formalized system in place to capture that which we are about to lose. This loss will be like a slow water leak, barely discernible at first, but over time it can do major damage.

Organizations that do not plan to deal with this emerging skills and experience gap may very well find themselves suddenly facing the most critical dilemma they have ever had to deal with. Manpower warns that this loss of experienced workers could be crippling for many companies.

This critical issue is being treated like a bad weather report—we hear the news that the storm is coming, but we ignore the warnings until it is too late.

Does your organization have a formal strategy for identifying the potential leadership and skills gap and developing talent to fill that gap before your workers retire?

Ask yourselves these questions:

How many senior leaders or senior technological staff will be retiring over the next 10 years?
What is the impact to the organization when (not if) you lose the knowledge of those individuals?
What strategy do you have in place to ensure seasoned, experienced leaders and technical staff are in the pipeline?
What actions are you taking to retain knowledge in the organization?
Have you considered allowing your experienced boomers to formally mentor or coach those who will soon be replacing them in the areas of your products, services, processes, tools, culture, history, customers, vendors, competition, and industry? This transfer of information and experience is invaluable.

Organizational busyness can distract us to the point that, by the time we look up, it will be too late to recover from the consequences we’re facing.

About Harry K. Jones

Introduction of Another New Feature

Posted on March 4, 2009 by Harry K. Jones

It seems as though we’re being bombarded by media stories that make you want to scream: “What were they thinking?” It doesn’t matter if they’re talking about politics, sports, business, entertainment, or any other aspect of daily news. Some of these stories are simply hard to believe.

We’re going to share a few of those with you from time to time if for no other reason than to provide you with a coping mechanism, let you know that others share your bewilderment and frustration, and maybe even point out a lesson or two which we may learn from the poor decisions of others.

Let’s start with a recent headline from the political world which really shouldn’t have surprised us.

Talk about irony. I saw a cartoon in the newspaper yesterday that really proves the old adage of “a picture is worth a thousand words.” Picture this. A mailman, heavy bag slung over his shoulder, is on a sidewalk approaching a house after passing through an open gate into the yard. There is a sign in the yard which reads “BEWARE OF DOGS.” On his face is a look of sheer terror. The reason is quite obvious. Directly in front of him stand four very large, obviously vicious dogs baring their sharp fangs, poised to attack.

The artist has labeled each of the dogs … EMail, Texting, Twitter, and Recession. We suddenly understand why the postman must beware of each. These four dogs obviously threaten his existence.

Now, the irony.

In today’s paper, I read that the post office will once again raise the price of a first-class stamp! The price will increase to 44 cents on May 11.

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) suffered a net loss of $2.8 billion last year.

The bulk of its processing and sorting operations is performed at some 400 large, special-purpose mail processing plants … separate and distinct from its network of local, retail post offices.

It also operates 58 airport mail centers, 220,000 motor vehicles and 37,000 facilities.

Volume is expected to plunge by some 12 billion pieces during the coming year.

So, with all of these responsibilities, a tremendous projected loss in volume, and growing competition from electronic communications such as E-mail, Twitter and Texting, the USPS is facing what may well be the greatest challenge it ever had to deal with.

When you consider that fewer and fewer people are buying stamps because of the constant increase in prices and the many emerging options which cost nothing, I can’t help but wonder who made the decision that a good strategy to address these challenges would be to once again raise prices!

What were they thinking?

The Postmaster General receives a salary of $263,575. Add his many other sources of compensation for this job, and he receives a total of $857,459 annually. Was he the one who made this decision, or did he simply approve someone else’s recommendation?

I know hearing about another price increase makes me want to run right out and buy even more over-priced stamps.

What were they thinking?

About Harry K. Jones

Super Bowl = Super Results

Posted on February 27, 2009 by Harry K. Jones

A few days before this year’s Super Bowl, I wrote an article (Super Bowl Prices Force Creative Thinking) focusing on the creative thinking needed to cope with increased prices for this year’s spectacle.

Super Bowl XLIII attracted 98.7 million viewers, making it the most-watched of all time. The game ranks behind only 1983’s M*A*S*H* finale as TV’s top telecast.

Having to come up with $3 million for a 30-second commercial inspired Miller Brewing to create a ONE SECOND spot which not only saved millions of dollars but gained tremendous exposure for its creative efforts.

Believe it or not, someone may have topped that endeavor. This year chipmaker Frito-Lay offered a $1 million prize in its Doritos “Crash the Super Bowl” program to anyone who could produce a commercial that could win the USA Today Super Bowl Ad Meter real-time consumer rating (a 10-year-old consumer opinion poll). Most major advertisers cough up approximately $2 million just to produce an average 30-second commercial. They then pay an additional $3 million for the privilege of airing that spot during the Super Bowl. Total = $5 million.

The winning commercial was created by a couple of unemployed, non-advertising but aspiring film maker brothers from Indiana. They spent less than $2,000 on their commercial which was filmed at their local YMCA by a cast and crew made up of their friends! Their spot featured a man using a snow globe as a crystal ball. He lobs it through the glass on a vending machine after predicting free chips for the office. A colleague then predicts a promotion, but when he lobs it, it hits his boss in the crotch.

Here’s the kicker … this wasn’t just a pretty good commercial. This was chosen by viewers to be the best commercial! The unemployed brothers beat out 51 big-budget advertisers, creating the highest-rated commercial to air during the Super Bowl. The cost again—a mere $2,000. Now compare that to the average production cost of $2 million per 30 seconds paid by such big names as Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Bridgestone, Anheuser-Busch, Disney, Sony, Toyota, Kellogg, and so many others.

The moral of this story is simple. Times are obviously tough today … in every aspect. And, by all media accounts, things are going to get worse before they get better. And yet this year’s biggest and most expensive sporting event has produced two, yes two, examples of what can be accomplished with a little creative thinking. A one-second commercial and a dirt-cheap commercial have each set a precedent that will surely start a trend for those coping with tight budgets. Both can be attributed to creative thinking. Let’s not forget a couple of thoughts that have been around for decades and yet aren’t always remembered or practiced:

When the going gets tough, the tough get going!
When tough times appear, people tend to fall into three groups:
- Those who wish things would happen …
- Those who allow things to happen …
- Those who make things happen …

Where do you fall?

About Harry K. Jones

Buffett Boldly Bounces Back

Posted on February 25, 2009 by Harry K. Jones

The three men pictured here have been playing musical chairs for quite some time in their pursuit of the title of the richest man on the planet. That title has been extremely competitive in recent months.

The man in the middle, Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, is Warren Buffett who currently holds that title as his fortune recently swelled to an estimated $62 billion … up $10 billion from a year ago. That massive increase puts Buffett ahead of his close friend and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who was the richest man in the world for 13 straight years.

The man on the right is Mexican telecom tycoon Carlos Slim Helu who currently reigns as the second-richest man on earth with an estimated net worth of $60 billion … up $11 billion since last year. His fortune has doubled in the past two years.

The man on the left, of course, is Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates who is currently worth $58 billion, up $2 billion from last year, placing him in the position of the world’s third richest man. Gates would have been perhaps as rich–or richer–than Buffett had Microsoft not made a recent unsolicited bid for Yahoo!

Warren Buffett, admired and respected by many in the business world, is indeed unique among today’s investors and leaders. To learn more about “why” this is true, check out one of our most recent book reviews The TAO of Warren Buffett or his captivating bio at Little-known Facts about Well-known Leaders – Warren Buffett.

For example, Buffett recently issued a challenge to members of the Forbes 400 richest Americans list, saying he would donate $1 million to charity if the collective group (or a significant number of them) would admit they pay less taxes, as a percentage of income, than their secretaries.

A leader of this caliber should be in Washington, D.C. where he’d really shake things up.

About Harry K. Jones

What We Can Learn from Change

Posted on February 20, 2009 by Harry K. Jones

Everyone’s talking change today and, when doing so, most conversations focus on the future and the many transformations we can anticipate. Seldom, if ever, do we take the time to look back at the many changes which have already taken place. There are very valuable lessons to be learned in this practice.

Should you ever be concerned with your ability to cope with future challenges, simply pause to reflect on the many changes you’ve managed to deal with in your past. Having dealt successfully with so many previous issues, we often take them for granted and totally forget how they once loomed before us as insurmountable obstacles.

Think for just a moment about how many radical changes have occurred in just the past 100 years. In the larger scheme of things, that’s actually a very short period of time. And yet, consider the massive transformations we’ve experience as a nation.

For instance, a hundred years ago …

The average life expectancy in the United States was 47. Today it’s 77.
Only 14% of the U.S. homes had a bathtub.
Only 8% of the homes had a telephone and a three-minute call from Denver to New York City cost $11.
There were only 8,000 cars in the U.S. and only 144 miles of paved roads. The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.
Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa, and Tennessee were each more heavily populated than California. With a mere 1.4 million residents, California was only the 21st most populous state in the Union. A total of 38 million live in “The Golden State.”
The average wage in the U.S. was 22 cents an hour. The average U.S. worker made between $200 and $400 per year.
A competent accountant could expect to earn $2,000 per year, a dentist $2,500 per year, a veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000 per year, and a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.
More than 95% of all births in the U.S. took place at home.
90% of all U.S. physicians had no college education. Instead, they attended medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press and by the government as “substandard.”
Sugar cost four cents a pound. Eggs were 14 cents a dozen. Coffee cost 15 cents a pound.
Most women only washed their hair once a month and used borax or egg yolks for shampoo.
The five leading causes of death in the U.S. were: 1. Pneumonia and influenza, 2. Tuberculosis, 3. Diarrhea, 4. Heart disease, 5. Stroke.
The population of Las Vegas, Nevada, was 30! The remote desert community was inhabited by only a handful of ranchers and their families. Today, the population is 603,000 and growing, and that doesn’t count gambling tourists!
Plutonium, insulin, and antibiotics hadn’t been discovered yet.
Scotch tape, crossword puzzles, canned beer, and iced tea hadn’t been invented.
There was no Mother’s Day or Father’s Day.
Only 6% of all Americans had graduated from high school.
Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at corner drugstores. According to one pharmacist, “Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and the bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health.”
Coca-Cola actually contained cocaine instead of caffeine.
There were about 230 reported murders in the U.S. annually. (Last year Chicago alone reported 509.)

As you can plainly see, many of the changes noted here should have been greeted with praises of thanks and appreciation. Others were tragic but had to be dealt with. Much the same can be said about the changes we face in today’s environment. We’ll welcome and appreciate a great number of them, we’ll fear and loath many others, and we’ll learn to cope and adapt with the majority of them. In the long run, as always, we’ll be fine.

About Harry K. Jones

Would You Refuse a Priceless Gift?

Posted on February 19, 2009 by Harry K. Jones

To celebrate National Time Management Month, I’d like to share an age-old Gem which was written by my favorite author, “Unknown.” Although it’s been handed down over the decades, it never ceases to offer a very relevant lesson which can benefit everyone in today’s chaotic world. Why not continue the tradition by passing it on to a member of today’s generation. You’ll both be glad you did!

$86,400 a Day

Imagine you were a member of a very unique bank which:

credits your account each morning with $86,400
carries over no balance from day to day
allows you to keep no cash balance whatsoever
and every evening cancels whatever part of the amount you had failed to use during the day

Under those guidelines, I imagine you’d draw out every cent every day, wouldn’t you?

Well, believe it or not, every one of us has just such a bank. The name over the door reads TIME.

Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds!

Every night it writes off, as a loss, whatever of this amount you have failed to invest in a productive purpose.

It carries over no balance.

It allows no overdraft.

Every day it opens a new account for you.

Every night it burns the records of the day.

If you fail to use the day’s deposits, the loss is yours.

There is no going back. There is no drawing against “tomorrow.”

You must live in the present on today’s deposits.

Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in health, happiness, and success!

The clock is running. Make the most of today.

Carpe Diem! Seize the day!

About Harry K. Jones

The Light at the End of the Tunnel Has Been Turned off due to Budget Cuts

Posted on February 16, 2009 by Harry K. Jones

Driving through town this past weekend, I couldn’t help but notice the obvious devastation to the local business community. Our two major local shopping malls, many shopping centers and the majority of strip malls all show evidence of the mounting economic pressure we see daily.

On this one trip I couldn’t help but notice the absence of so many establishments which have been a part of our local environment for so many years. The growing list is shocking. Across the country this list includes:

Old Navy
Circuit City
Steve & Barry’s
Linen’s ‘n Things
Value City Dept. Store
Shoe Carnival
Whitehall Jewelers
Bennigans
Toys R Us
Ann Taylor Stores
Mervyn’s
CompUSA
Eddie Bauer
Lane Bryant
The Gap
Foot Locker
Zales
The Disney Store
Pacific Sunwear
Pep Boys
Sprint Nextel
KB Toys
Sharper Image
Kirklands
Pier 1
Movie Gallery
Rite Aid
Service Merchandise
Steak ‘n Shake

This list doesn’t include all the organizations that are scaling back such as JCPenney, Lowe’s, Office Depot, Macy’s and Starbucks.

It also doesn’t include the many local establishments which are not part of the national scene. Nor did I include gas stations, restaurants, convenience stores, florists, building contractors, realtors and so many other local businesses which have felt the economy crunch.

The International Council of Shopping Centers estimates that 148,000 stores closed last year in the U.S., and they are forecasting another 73,000 will shut down in the first quarter of this year.

While many establishments have managed to avoid going out of business, they have been forced to reduce their numbers greatly through layoffs and buy outs.

Until both Republicans and Democrats alike realize that both parties must work together to solve the problems currently facing those who elected them, this trend will surely continue. How many shuttered doors will that take?

About Harry K. Jones

Is Procrastination a Bad Thing?

Posted on February 13, 2009 by Harry K. Jones

In honor of February being National Time Management Month, I ask this question … Is “procrastination” a good thing or a bad thing? And the answer, of course, is YES. Sound confusing? Maybe on the surface. However, let’s dig a little deeper.

Maybe it will clarify things if we begin with a definition of procrastination: “putting off, delaying or deferring an action or task to a later time.”

Throughout history, time management books, seminars, and gurus have warned us of the many negative consequences of procrastination: physical, mental, and emotional stress; a sense of guilt; loss of personal productivity; the creation of crisis; and disapproval of fellow team members for not fulfilling one’s commitments. As a result, numerous tips, tools, and strategies have been offered to avoid or overcome procrastination. Hopefully, we’ve increased productivity and enjoyed better health by responding to that compelling information.

Now let’s take a look at the flip side of this coin. Today’s chaotic and challenging environment has made it almost impossible not to procrastinate. We simply have too many things on our plate and far too little time to deal with them. This throws an entirely different light on procrastination.

There are three versions of procrastination based on what you actually do instead of working on something:

Nothing
Something less important
Something more important

This third option is arguably good procrastination. Everyone procrastinates to some degree in today’s challenging environment. The difference between high performers and low performers is largely determined by what they choose to procrastinate on.

So the question is not how to avoid procrastination, but how to procrastinate correctly. Since you must procrastinate anyway, make the decision to procrastinate on low-value activities. Decide to procrastinate on, delegate, empower and eliminate those activities that don’t make much of a contribution to your life in any case.

In our “I Hate Time Management” seminar, we share a number of tools which can assist attendees to better cope with this challenge. One approach, of course, is to consider who should be doing what. In fact, we addressed this issue in another blog article you might want to read. Simply click on “Delegate, Empower or Do It Yourself” for some great tips.

Another very effective approach is to simply identify a number of things we must STOP doing for a variety reasons. In fact, we should generate a list of those activities. Browse the following articles to learn more about this very productive approach: “Start a ‘Stop-Doing’ List” and “Stop-Doing List Examples.”

Part of the Stop-Doing approach is to Learn How to Say No! Believe it or not, you can actually do that with grace and, in doing so, end the negative aspect of this critical habit of trying to be all things to all people. My favorite author, UNKNOWN, once said: “I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everyone!”

There’s an actual process to becoming adept at saying no. And, with a little practice and determination, it’s very effective.

Clarify what is being asked of you and identify the other person’s actual need or situation.
Say it politely, but firmly, and state your reasons.
- “Thanks, but I’ll have to pass on that this time because …”
- “I’d like to help, but I’m so over-committed right now with …”
- “I wish you had asked me a couple of days ago. I’ve already committed that time to helping ______ accomplish ________ …”
Offer other options or ideas that might assist them in getting their needs met.

Remember, you simply can’t ADD an activity to your day without GIVING UP another!

Develop the habit of asking yourself: “What’s the best thing I could be working on, and why am I not doing it?” You’ll see things getting much busier before you see them slowing down. Prepare today to cope with that growing challenge or pay the price in the near future.

About Harry K. Jones

Little-known Facts about Well-known Leaders – Colleen Barrett

Posted on February 12, 2009 by Harry K. Jones

This high-spirited, dynamic leader has been consistently named and recognized as one of the most powerful businesswomen in America! She’s very well-known within her industry and the state of Texas but, ironically, few other people recognize her name, her position, or what she has done to attain her many accomplishments. And that’s fine with Colleen Barrett. She avoids the limelight as she focuses all of her energy and effort on her organization and the beloved employees who grew an upstart discount air carrier into America’s busiest airline by passenger volume.

Much has been written about her legendary employer, Southwest Airlines, and its co-founder Herb Kelleher. Stories about this organization and Kelleher border on fantasy and fable. However, what many are unaware of is the fact that Colleen Barrett created the majority of that culture in her own unique fashion.

As you might guess after witnessing the chaos of the airline industry over the past decade, there are very few airline executives quite like Barrett, 65, and probably won’t be many like her in the future. She is truly one-of-a-kind.

Barrett’s long path to the president’s office began in 1967 when she was a 23-year-old legal secretary looking for a job in San Antonio. She had just graduated with highest honors from Becker Junior College in Worcester, Maine. The Vermont native joined an established law firm that included another East Coast transplant, Herb Kelleher, and his disorganized office. From the time she began helping Kelleher, as an executive assistant, she found herself doing legal work for this little airline being started by one of his clients, San Antonio businessman Rollin King.

After a bruising, vicious legal battle, Southwest finally started flying passengers on June 18, 1971. Then, in 1978, the first chief executive, Lamar Muse, resigned in a boardroom battle, pushing Kelleher—and right-hand person Colleen Barrett—into a much more active role.

Kelleher became chairman, even as he kept up as much of his San Antonio law practice as possible. And for the eight months it took to get a new CEO in place, he and Barrett would work all week in Dallas, then fly home to San Antonio on the weekend.

Then, in 1981, Muse’s replacement as president and CEO, Howard Putnam, quit to join Braniff International Airways. Kelleher took the chief executive’s and president’s job as well, and Barrett moved to Dallas.

From there, the legend of the Herb-and-Colleen show grew. Herb was this brilliant, flamboyant executive; Colleen was the assistant who kept him organized, on focus, on time.

But as she was helping Kelleher, she was putting her own stamp on the airline, making sure that the carrier did the right thing for its employees. The underlying principle was that if the airline took care of its employees, the employees would take care of the customers, and the shareholders would win too. This has been Barrett’s personal philosophy and battle cry since day one!

In 1986, she was named vice president of administration. Then, in 1990, Kelleher told Barrett that she was certainly ready for the promotion to the level of executive vice president. He even allowed her to pick her own title. She chose that of Executive Vice President of Customers, allowing her to continue her crusade on behalf of both internal and external customers.

In 2001, as Kelleher prepared to step back from some of his responsibilities, the board of directors named general counsel Jim Parker Chief Executive and Barrett President and Chief Operating Officer.

The new titles helped the world understand that Barrett had played a key part in making Southwest what it has become. She has played a key role in Southwest’s unusual and now legendary approach to customer service, which aims to treat the company’s 35,000 employees like family, to make the workplace fun—and then to carry that upbeat attitude to consumers. It’s a strategy that has made an upstart discount carrier into America’s busiest airline by passenger volume.

One unusual aspect of her philosophy is that employees come before customers, although that’s intentional in order to ultimately drive the most value to the customer. That philosophy, coupled with the brilliance to hedge fuel costs, is creating remarkable success even in today’s floundering air industry. Once again, it all comes down to people.

Barrett stepped down as President and Corporate Secretary of Southwest effective July 16, 2008. Although she also yielded her longtime position as Corporate Secretary, Southwest has announced that she will remain an employee of the corporation through July 2013.

Barrett is active in numerous civic and charitable organizations in Dallas, Texas; serves on the JCPenney Company, Inc. Board of Directors, the Ken Blanchard College of Business, and the Becker College Board of Trustees; and has served on numerous advisory boards and commissions.

Here are just a few of her many business awards and honors:

Recognized as one of the Top 25 Most Influential Women by the Dallas Business Journal’s Women in Business (2008)
Texas Labor Management Hall of Fame (2008)
Tower Award, National Association of Women Business Owners, Cleveland (2008)
Dallas YWCA Centennial Award 100 Women, 100 Years (2008)
Junior Achievement’s Dallas Business Hall of Fame (2007)
Girls Inc. Honoree (2007)
Outstanding Woman in Aviation Award (2007)
World’s 100 Most Powerful Women: Forbes.com (2005, 2004)
Horatio Alger Award (2005)
Women in Aviation, International Pioneer Hall of Fame (2005)
Aiming High Honoree: National Organization of Women (2003)
Featured in Texas Women-Trailblazers, Shining Stars & Cowgirls (2003)

AchieveMax® Blog

Business articles on change, creativity, customer service, leadership, motivation, teamwork, and time management, written by AchieveMax® professional speakers.

Author Archives: Harry K. Jones

About Harry K. Jones

Robot + Boomers = New-Found Family

About Harry K. Jones

Today’s Invisible Leadership Challenge

About Harry K. Jones

Introduction of Another New Feature

About Harry K. Jones

Super Bowl = Super Results

About Harry K. Jones

Buffett Boldly Bounces Back

About Harry K. Jones

What We Can Learn from Change

About Harry K. Jones

Would You Refuse a Priceless Gift?

About Harry K. Jones

The Light at the End of the Tunnel Has Been Turned off due to Budget Cuts

About Harry K. Jones

Is Procrastination a Bad Thing?

About Harry K. Jones

Little-known Facts about Well-known Leaders – Colleen Barrett

About Harry K. Jones