Attitude is more important than skills

There was a time when I looked forward to flying but now I get tired just thinking about it. I go for out-of-town speaking engagements practically every week and so airports and airplane meals – better known as snacks – is now an indispensable part of my work life.

One experience I will never forget was when I took a local domestic flight in America and after a long flight it ended with a rough landing. As the passengers were getting out the plane I could see how grouchy they were as they mumbled complaints at the poor flight attendants standing by the door way. I could see how frustrated the attendants were as they tried their best to maintain their calm and poise.

I decided to do something different. As I approached the attendant I smiled and said in a deliberate slow pace the words, “Did we land or were we shot down?” The flight attendant looked at me for a moment and when she saw me smiling she broke out into an uncontrollable laughter. Then she started smiling at other passengers too. Here is what I learned. Humor is huge and helpful, it can defuse a lot of tension and another lesson I learned is this: That a positive attitude begets a positive attitude.

I have taken so many plane rides and most of them are experiences that are predictable while some of them are memorable. I remember taking a flight from Los Angeles to San Jose California and it turned out to be a delightful flying experience I will never forget.

Airport security was tight and I am not complaining. This is for everyone’s protection. I got my ticket and my boarding pass on line. This makes everything efficient and convenient. But it makes me wonder why after getting the boarding pass from the counter in our local airports; passengers still have to fall in line to pay for the terminal fees? Couldn’t they just incorporate it on the tickets and save us a lot of trouble and cut down on the processing time? Hmmm….

I boarded this airline and to my amusement and amazement, I heard the following preflight announcements being made.

“Welcome aboard Southwest Flight Burbank, to San Jose. To operate your seatbelt, insert the metal tab into the buckle, and pull tight. It works just like every other seatbelt, and if you don’t know how to operate one, you probably shouldn’t be out in public unsupervised. In the event of a sudden loss of cabin pressure, oxygen masks will descend from the ceiling. Stop screaming, grab the mask, and pull it over your face. If you have a small child traveling with you, secure your mask before assisting with theirs. If you are traveling with two small children, decide now which you love more. Weather at our destination is 50 degrees with some broken clouds, but they’ll try to have them fixed before we arrive. Thank you, and remember, nobody loves you, or your money, more than Southwest Airlines.”

So how could you ever forget a flying experience like that?

And how could you blame this airline for consistently experiencing healthy profits year after year even when other airlines are folding up?

But then I thought about it.

There is humor and there is fun injected in the way they extend service to their passengers that makes Southwest the benchmark for the airline industry and I will tell you why. Southwest hires people for attitude and then they train them for skills.

Many companies hire people for skills and then they try to train and cope with their attitude and it always leads to frustration. In plain and simple language: Attitude is more important than skills.

There are a lot of talented and skillful people out there who are getting nowhere with their career and their lives while people with good attitude are teachable, humble and can be trained to accomplish goals and in the process become assets in the companies they work for.

No matter how hard you train your people to deliver excellent customer service, if the good attitude is not there, then excellent customer service is not going to happen.

The famous Lou Holtz says: ABILITY is what you are capable of doing. MOTIVATION determines what you do. ATTITUDE determines how well you do it.

Would you still be surprised if I tell you that even the Bible has a lot of stuffs to say about our attitude too? Attitude is huge!

Good job section!

This issue’s “Good Job” mention goes to Lisset Laus-Velasco who is able to steer her Ford Libis dealership to win various awards including: Ford’s Dealer of the Year for Customer Satisfaction – Metro Manila (2002-2006). Quality Care Certified Service Center (2004-2006) and others. Here you see performance consistency, the staff’s competence and seriousness towards their job and Lisset’s able leadership. This doesn’t make me wonder because Lisset is a product of good parental training and now the results tell the story. And one more thing, Lisset displays a great attitude worthy or being a great leader too!

(You can listen to Francis Kong through his radio program “Business Matters” aired 8:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. daily over 98.7 dzFE-FM ‘The Master’s Touch’, the classical music station.)