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Last Sunday’s Corner Office column in the Sunday New York Times featured Gordon Bethune, the former chief executive of Continental Airlines (for more background, and a crisis management classic, check out Greg Brenneman’s “Right Away and All at Once: How We Saved Continental”).

It’s a great column but a couple of things stood out:

• On leadership: “I was a mechanic in the navy… You may have more stripes than I do, but you don’t know how to fix the airplane. You want me to fix it? You know how much faster I could fix the airplane when I wanted to, than when I didn’t want to? So I’ve always felt that if you treat me with respect, I’ll do more for you.”
• On employee communications: “We never lied. You don’t lie to your own doctor. You don’t lie to your own attorney, and you don’t lie to your employees. And if you never lie, then when it hits the fan, and somebody says you’re wrong – you can say, ‘No, I’m not,’ and they’ll believe you.”
• On the best compliment he received: “I always went out to the airport on holidays, and always made sure that I was there and I’d thank people for giving up their holiday to work… I’d always eat down in the break room where the food was being passed out. I went to sit down at this big long table with these two guys, and I said, ‘Anybody sitting here?’ And one of them said to the other: ‘I told you he’d be here. Give me my $10.’ He had bet that guy $10 that I’d show up.

Anyone leading people can learn from Bethune’s example.