used to be an actor now I'm a father there's my delighted wifey Elizabeth
yeah this looks could kill literally I don't know if she was pregnant in this
picture but she was clearly barefoot so she's halfway stereotypical here she is
now of her eyes are dancing we have five boys no daughters yeah and apparently
that's my fault I don't know how I'm not the one having I'm you know but five
boys now it may not surprise you that I do hail from Utah so just up the road a
piece yeah right so just off frame there are like the other four wives it was it
was picture day for Liz and this one and so she it's terrible I know I literally
a master's in human resources management you'd think that I would be more
appropriate than that but that's just the way I live that's how i roll baby so
here they are getting a little older five boys and she's getting a little
happier oddly enough very little changes through the years if you'll notice there
it's even a different house and the clock is the same we are nothing
if not consistent here they are starting to take after her a little more as they
that's they age no I kid I kid she she's uh she's just great she is she's you
know she pretty much has raised these five boys of as I've been out on the
road for many years doing this and I love what I do it's great it and just in
recent years I've been able to kind of pull back a little and and just kind of
pick and choose and do certain engagement so that I can be home with
these guys more this you know this is why I do what I do that's my that's my
reason my resume d'etre or whatever I don't speak early French but my wife
just recently this is kind of cute she recently learned what LOL stands for
didn't know for the longest time you know LOL you know laugh out loud and she
thought it was um and many of you may have confused the same thing at first
lots of love right lots of love so she now finds out that it's laugh out loud
she's immediately haunted and horrified by past emails and Facebook posts buddy
I know you're in your mom you and your of your mom they love each other still
the divorce is gonna be tough LOL we're with you our prayers are with your
father LOL we hope the surgery goes pop she's just I felt she's just cute that
way it's a lot of fun alright so let's talk about levity for a minute now that
we've experienced it a little bit sometimes you know latitude is about
letting people have a little bit of your time to you know I mean you're busy busy
busy but if you're in a leadership position you know ideally your role is
to lead others so that they're busy busy busy and then you focus on vision and
everything else this is a little commercial I did a few years ago for a
search organization some of you will have seen this but but I think this
helps to describe kind of you know the whole idea hey man lighten up you know
give give people a little of your time
not that a pal dad's got a big presentation Monday maybe daddy can play
next please okay yeah he doesn't work that he doesn't get paid people like
daddy's work so much they paying for it what now what's this can i buy some your
time
no you can't that's too bad well there's no real lesson to be learned there okay
so let's move on let's go to attitude now so if what sorry Leah she she's
having hot flashes over here now from it is terrible i know so if latitude is
what you allow others to bring to the table in terms of a fun culture then
attitude is what you yourself contribute to the culture as well it makes sense
right that I mean you know all of us would contribute something who knows who
this is her BK right but who is it especially if your local herb kelleher
Southwest love field right I mean southwest airlines would you call that a
serious industry by the way holy cow yeah I mean that maybe not Southwest
itself but the commercial aviation industry yeah yeah very very serious a
lot of lives at stake every day millions of lives yet curb how Herb Kelleher 40
years ago had an idea that it's an industry that can afford to lighten up
right i mean here he isn't his you know CEO photo in a plaid shirt with kind of
a devil-may-care attitude smile going on what were the top three things that he
looked for when he was recruiting and training and bringing his people on
board and building his culture number three education gotta have it show me
some paperwork I don't care if it's bricks and mortar or university of
phoenix whatever you got number to experience an ability awesome yeah we
need you to be a pilot who's actually flown a plane you have two to three
hours in the air great perfect number one a sense of humor I love that the
number one gatekeeper filter is we fit into our culture because if not there's
the door these other things we can train yawn but a sense of humor and the
ability to fit in that's way too important for us it's part of our
strategy I love that it's actually part of our business strategy it's one of our
values it's who we are we lighten the crap up even though we are you know
flying millions of people you've got the pilot up there ladies and gentlemen
thanks for joining us we've just found out there's a centenarian on
board so as you deplane please wish our captain a happy hundredth birthday
whatever they have a lot of fun with things and again did it pay yeah almost
four straight decades of profitability I love that during the 911 bailouts
everywhere people getting into all of their red ink and filing for bankruptcy
you've got Southwest Airlines just keeps chugging along doesn't need any bailouts
from the feds we're fine we've got it covered here's an airline that's based
on humor and fun you know I think about what happens in the workplace with
leadership is they're afraid that if they show a little bit of levity and
frivolity or humor that they'll lose respect or they won't be taken seriously
enough case in point i love the political season it reminds me of one of
my favorites the 96th selection with Dole and Clinton you know doles people
said look we need a contrast for Slick Willy and that's the term that we all
remember back then and his you know what was happening we won't get into details
but dole of course very serious very staid very professional he's got the the
herd arm from war he's a war veteran and he kept that all the way down the line
the minute he loses the election where do you see him on what TV shows
Letterman Leno Saturday Night Live spoofing himself he's in an ED an
erectile dysfunction commercial walking down the beach in a sweater Bob Dole how
you doing this arm isn't the only whatever I mean you feeling that I don't
I don't go there but I mean you know where was that humor during the camp