Greg Kennedy - Leading by Example

In this third episode of Eccles Business Buzz, we welcome Greg
Kennedy, who graduated from the Eccles School in 1987 and is one
of our most dedicated Eccles advisory board members. Greg
recently retired as Senior Vice President of Airport Operations
at Delta Airlines where he was responsible for some of the
busiest airports in the world including our very own Salt Lake
International.





Greg walks us through his family story and his experiences
growing up, wrestling to go to college, and how he ended up at
the University of Utah and eventually, the Eccles School.





He narrates his extensive experience working in the airline
industry, some of the ups and downs, dealing with major crises
like 9/11 and COVID-19, and the importance of leadership through
it all.





Greg shares his definition of empathy and how his perspective has
changed thought his career. He also talks about the great
attributes of a leader/mentor and the importance of having the
right people to guide you in your journey.



Episode Quotes:

Greg's definition of empathy - "It's the
glue that holds relationships together. When I think about
empathy, it is the ability to detect others' emotions and
understand the perspective. And when people feel accepted and
valued, it really builds trust."





If his perspective on empathy changed over the
years - "It has definitely changed. As you take on
more responsibility, your ability to have empathy or your need to
have empathy increases dramatically. I believe it's one of the
most important skills or attributes for leaders today."





On servant leadership as one of his core
values - "When your corporate values align with
your personal values, it makes for a very enjoyable and
harmonized career. And that's really what I had. I think my
colleagues if they were to define me in one word, I think they
would use the word and the term servant leader. From day one and
over the years, regardless of my title or responsibility, I
stayed very connected to the frontline employees."





Attributes of a good mentor - "Mentoring is
really important to me. I told my team and have always taught my
leaders that your number one responsibility is developing and
preparing leaders to take your place and finding and developing
those who are smarter and ready to take on those
responsibilities. I was serious about that because I think it's
very important that you help develop others to give back. It's
really a way of giving back as a leader."





Key ingredients in life - "Opportunities
are often disguised as hard work. And that's why many people miss
out on them because they're not willing to work hard. The second
part was being nice. The rest of the universe was literally
taught to be nice to people. You just got to get out there and
take care of them. Work hard and be nice. To me, those are the
two most important key ingredients; very simple terms, but very
important."