Leaders Take the Middle Seat

Southwest Airlines has a unique seating arrangement for its travelers. While most major air carriers assign individuals a specific seat on their planes, Southwest simply places travelers into groups. Then, groups are boarded on to the plane and travelers get to pick their ideal seat. Naturally, the window and isle seats usually get selected first.

No one chooses to take the middle seat.

There are several personal requirements for businessmen and women to transform themselves into leaders. While some people are just born with leadership qualities, other leaders require years of training and practice. Regardless of the route taken to get to leadership status, all leaders must have a sense of humility in their arsenal of professional development skills.

In today's culture, most travelers expect to get on the plane as quickly as possible. They expect to get to their most desired seat as fast as possible. And they expect to put their luggage in the most convenient storage spot as possible. Sadly, this mentality leaves little room for anyone other than the individual traveler. I must get on the plane as quickly as possible, I have to get to my seat first, I have to put my roll-a-board into the overhead bin first.

Where you choose to sit on a plane says quite a bit about your leadership tactics.

Those that quickly take the nearest window seat are the selfish dreamers. While always thinking with your head in the clouds isn't considered a normal way to handle situations, it has its merits sometimes. But when you take the window seat, you are effectively saying that it does not matter to me what's going on around me. Leaders can't think like that.

Those that quickly take the isle seat care more about their own needs and desires than those of the people around them. Isle passengers are the first ones to stand up and fight for the exit door when the plane pulls up to its gate. Often, they stretch their legs into the isle, giving themselves more legroom but making it more difficult for those around them to navigate the isle. Leaders can't operate like that.

Leaders choose to take the middle seat.

The middle seat is the bridge that spans the gap of the opposite ends of the spectrum, from those who only have their heads in the clouds, to those that only care about themselves. In giving up a great view and by letting others have some extra space, the leader can put the priorities of the team above herself.

It is important for leaders to be humble. Humble leaders put the successes of others first and take the blame for any and all of the faults suffered by the team. According to William M. Lambert, the CEO of MSA Safety, Inc., in a recent Wall Street Journal article, "leaders need to have a strong ego, but not a big ego."

Choosing to sit in the middle seat not only means you do not have a big ego, but it also shows that your ego is so in check that you are willing to let others have what they want first.

The next time you have the opportunity to put the needs and wants of others around you first, make sure you take it. It is not only the right thing to do, but it also the thing that great leaders do. Nobody every gives praise or thanks to the man who only does things for his own benefit. Instead, gratitude is bestowed upon those who let others first. Leaders let others first. Leaders choose to take the middle seat.

What Joe DiMaggio Can Teach You About Business

Joe DiMaggio was a Major League Baseball player with the New York Yankees from 1936 to 1951. He played with the Yankees for his entire 13-year career in the big leagues. Most notably, DiMaggio still holds the record for most consecutive games with a hit (56.)

Beyond the baseball almanac, “Joltin’ Joe” has many lessons he can teach us away from the baseball field. There is one specific quote that still holds true to this day for many business professionals.

When asked why he hustled on plays that have little effect on the outcome of a game or on his team’s standings in the league, Joe responded by saying, “because there’s always some kid who may be seeing me for the first time. I owe him my best.”

The MLB season is long. There are 162 games in the regular season that stretches from April to October. It may be reasonable to assume that sometime within that arduous stretch a player, especially one playing for a losing team, may not always give it his maximum effort.

How often do you find yourself doing that in your business? When things are slow, or when you do not have a lot of important work going on, how often do you find you are not giving it your best effort?

Now imagine that when that professional baseball player did not give his maximum effort, it was the first time a young boy playing Little League came to watch a Major League Baseball game with his father. Imagine if that little boy saw the professional player not give his maximum effort. Maybe he would assume it would be OK for him not to give his best effort whenever he played baseball. Even more so, maybe the father might never take his son to another baseball game because he was not impressed by the product on the field.

The business lesson to be learned from Joe DiMaggio is simple: always do your best because you never know who is watching. It is easy to be on your best behavior or perform at your best when you know that all eyes are upon you and your every outcome will be judged. However, what do you do in your business when you think nobody is watching you? How do your actions change between these two scenarios?

Real professionals know that they must give their maximum effort all of the time. If they were not giving their best effort, could they really call themselves a professional?

The higher the level of performance required from that professional, the more is expected of that person. When more is expected from you, typically more responsibility is given to you as well. And when more responsibility is given to you, you have the opportunity to promote change, carve new paths, and allow the others around you to grow.

To get to this level in your business life, you must show that you are a professional. You cannot show that you are a professional until you have proven that you will give your maximum effort all the time, even when you think no one is looking at you. Joe DiMaggio knew that the only way to conduct himself on the field was to always play his best. How often are you always playing your best?