Entrepreneurship

All it takes is this single word for leaders to be instantly likable at workplaces

Updated : February 22, 2019 12:58 PM IST

Knowing the employee by his or her first name can instantly make a leader likeable.

You may question – Is remembering each employee’s name in a large firm possible? Indeed, it is!

For companies like Southwest Airlines, Apple and Lululemon, it is a regular practice.

What takes for a boss to be likeable by his employees? Well, the answer is simpler than what you think – the first name. Knowing the employee by his or her first name can instantly make a leader likeable.

You may question – Is remembering each employee’s name in a large firm possible? Indeed, it is! For companies like Southwest Airlines, Apple and Lululemon, it is a regular practice.

When Herb Kelleher, founder of Southwest Airlines, an American airlines company, passed away, the company took out a full-page obituary, thanking the founder, with the very first line of the text reading: “Dear Herb, thanks for always remembering our names,” Inc.com reported.

For a person on a high-level managerial position, it can be a daunting task to remember each employee's name. However, Kelleher made an effort to not only remember his employees’ names but their families as well.

“Until we grew to about 2,000 employees, he seemed to know everyone's name. When he saw me at the airport, he would call me by my first name and even he remembered the names of my wife and family members. We loved him," A Southwest airline pilot was quoted as saying in the report.

This particular leadership skill is not just confined to the leaders. Companies like Apple and Lululemon encourage their employees too to follow this practice of remembering the names of their colleagues as well as customers.

“By using first names several times in the conversation, it became great service and memorable experience,” a customer told Inc.com, sharing his experience at one of the stores of Lululemon.