Cabin Crew Manager ~ DNA~

Over 24 years managing cabin crew in four different continents and over seven carriers, I developed a sense of affinity with my team. I felt the common bond sharing the same passion. Now the question, what is the Cabin Crew Manager’s DNA?

 

What produces the proper synchronicity, well I have lots to say about it:

 

A leader has to inspire and build confidence. Part of their job is to point to a vision, which is a horizon of exciting possibility. A leader's mindset has to be positive, very positive.

 

Airlines need to be buoyed up and aiming high. Team members need to be thrilled by their work and pumped to do it. Eyesore (Pessimistic) is not the best model for a leader. Who wants to follow a morose and gloomy donkey? Leaders cannot be cynical or flat.

 

I have an enthusiastic personality and an energetic style.

 

Both are particularly useful for a leader when doing some of the basic work of leading:

 

Recruiting, Selling, Brainstorming, Innovating, Mentoring and Celebrating Inflight performance.

 

There are times, however, when leaders need to be excruciatingly realistic.

This happens particularly in times of crisis. They have to live in the unvarnished moment and call the shots exactly as they are.

 

There is little value to wearing rose-colored glasses when the chips are down and decisions offer bad or worse alternatives. A Leader must be close to the ground, the act of presence in briefings and flights are vital to shoe appropriate support.

 

Leaders need to understand and adjust. When the power of the positive works, have at it. When the tough threats emerge, avoid the pixie dust. The trick is to be flexible and very smart and self-aware about the signals you send.

 

Leading people is no picnic. They make mistakes, get crabby, and have complex lives. At the same time, they have unlimited energy when they care about something. They want to understand what's going on.

They relish their skills.

 A leader has to lead people, whether they are

• Likeable or not
• Prone to dumb comments or brilliant analysts
• Perky or sluggish
• And so on.

 

I remember Tess our receptionist in the office about 5 years ago. She had a scratchy personality, to say the least, and seemed ill fitted to the job. When summer rolled around, however, we began to get floods of team members from other bases, coming to fly overseas.

 

Tess was suddenly a different person, organizing schedules, updating manuals, assisting with paperwork, and orchestrating jam-packed days. No one could have managed the chaos better.

 

Leaders have tens, hundreds, and possibly thousands of Tess’s in their midst.

 

The job is to uncover the best and when the best is not there to remember it is a possibility. People are people and not widgets coming down the assembly line or number on a graph.

 

I never really think about it as mentoring. That word conveys exulted images of Merlin and Arthur sifting through careful lessons about life, speaking wise words, and baring the soul. Huge goals are at stake.

 

My own story about being a mentor has always been much more haphazard, spontaneous, and improvisational. And, here's the deep truth about it that I need to reveal: I have also been in it for me, not the protégé.

 

It's simple. I get a huge kick out of the younger people in an airline. For one thing, they are not my stodgy contemporaries and there is no competition or mutual calibration in the mix. It releases me from the careful interpersonal management that goes on at the upper levels.

 

Younger team members also have so much to offer - an edgy spark, a contemporary sense of humor, and fascinating vocabulary shaped by their own shorthand/haiku. There is little that they adorn or spruce up with nuance. I find their bluntness refreshing and boy does it reveal things I don't know.

 

I'm not from Silicon Valley but raised in Buenos Aires lived in Amsterdam, The Netherlands and U.S so some of my perspective might be geographic. However, given their position, an airline’s youth are usually looking up the division, which is a revealing angle.

 

Think about it. The protégé is a watcher. It's his/her job to figure out the angles, the possibilities, and the politics.

 

The newer team members see what they see and then they combine those observations with their compadres ( buddies) over drinks.

 

They are a free cultural survey-consulting house. They know truths that no one in my position can see.

 

They are hungry, as well. They want to figure things out. So their questions make me think harder. I have to avoid platitudes.

 

They will scoff if I don't. Of course, they won't scoff to my face, but they won't come back for more.

 

It's easy to see if and when I'm offering value.

 

The best a mentor can do in return is the following:

 

1) Be enthusiastic about them; there is nothing like the boost from a respected person who says You Are Great. Let your heart show a bit. .

2) Give context. Don't tell war stories -- explain them. Everyone wants to tell stories but adjust the ego-to-value ratio by sharing the surround sound, too.

3) Be honest. A protégé needs to know things. Tell it. Say it.

4) Be demanding. A protégé wants a challenge, wants to know whether the road ahead is about the Grail or just the road to the mall.

Recently, I spoke for an hour or so with an emerging young leader.

 

I followed those rules and wasn't sure but that I had been a little too blunt and almost callous about how tough things can be.

 

His subsequent thank-you note reassured me again that they want to hear the real deal. It warmed my heart:

 

“I found that your grounded viewpoint on both the entrenched culture and challenges in the Middle East really provided me with better perspective on some of the tough challenges that I have faced at work”.

 

It gave me the reassurance that airlines can and will change, that no problem is insurmountable - and ideas on how to be more resilient in the meantime.

 

And your thoughts on leadership (and how transformative leadership really can inspire folks) are something I will take with me far into the future.

 

As I said, I'm in it for my passion and me.

 

Every so often you come across a leader who almost captivates you. Amidst a sea of other leaders, they just simply draw your attention in an almost magnetic way.

 

They are different, and you know it in a second… You feel better in their presence… safer somehow, even if you have never met them before. They elevate anyone else in their broadcast range.

 

They lead. Not as a job, but as an example. Not to draw praise to themselves, but to recognize others. When they walk into a room their entrance doesn’t shout, “here I am!” but instead “there you are”… and delivers for everyone around them.

 

How did they become this way? Certainly not by learning how to boss other people around better than the next guy. Not by being bitchy and making other’s performances seem smaller… and definitely not by having the most money and toys in a narcissistic “better than you” way… They did it by doing some pretty hard work.

 

 

1. They’ve accepted themselves.

 

Getting to a place in your life where you forgive your mistakes, are humble but proud of your accomplishments, are a willing student of others, aware of your own values and trust in your intentions gives you the ability to just be yourself. You no longer worry if you will say or do the wrong thing, because you work with the truth and this allows you to feel at ease.

 

1. They educate themselves.

 

You can’t “take responsibility” for things unless you have an awareness of your involvement or lack of one. To “hold yourself accountable” without educating yourself is almost a martyr-like way of pretending you are being a leader. Making it your responsibility first to continue to seek out education so that you are equipped to be involved in the handling of tasks/challenges gives you some credibility when you “take responsibility” for successes or failures.

 

1. They make decisions quickly.

 

Losing time is painful for everyone. Delaying progress due to indecision is like holding people captive. Trusting that all of the information you have is enough to execute and decide, along with quickly checking your resources allows for progress to be continuous. Even if the decision needs to be corrected or changed in the future - getting to that new platform of knowledge would never have happened without the decisiveness to drive action in the first place.

 

 4.  They encourage.

 

And they mean it. They recognize and give out genuine praise to others every chance they can. they do it with the intention of having the recognition “land” on the individual deserving of it - not to demonstrate how supportive they are in a self serving way. They are not threatened by others performance, they in fact grow taller along side of it.

 

1. They question and instigate innovation.

 

Their belief in your ability to improve your performance is incessant. They see your potential as the truth and inspire you to have the courage to experiment, create and have confidence in yourself. Assisting others to find their own unique ability to deliver strengthens their teams - encouraging brilliance elevates every player.

 

1. They keep the conversation alive.

 

Equally important to the “how” in every task is the “why”, for them and for everyone else. And this conversation goes both ways. They have an equal desire to ensure everyone on their team understands the “why’s” behind their direction, as well as they want to understand the “why’s” that their team feels when making suggestions for improvements or defining challenges along the way.

 

The truth of everything is allowed to simply be so that performance can exist. Where integrity shines as the playbook, all of the “strategy” falls away. People can simply connect and feel at ease, and if they want to stay part of this team, they too must bring their best every day.

People want to be a part of a team like that.

 

A true leader understands this above all else. The value that their team delivers first is by valuing those doing the delivering.

 

السماح ليون  Laat de Leeuw!   Andiamo Leone ! Vamos Leon! 我们去吧 Wo Men Qu Ba. #GG59  #FACFIE  

@Dr.Guillermo Gomez, MBA, LPsy

Twitter@GGG1959

Ref: Just Air Crew Magazine Article written Jan-Feb Edition 

JAC App.

Image- FG1 Graduation- Mentoring Conversation- EK College 2010-Majils Room.