We learned that it is how people feel that makes a difference.- Nina, flight attendant
After having three successive flights canceled by a different carrier, I told our flight attendant, Nina, how happy I was to finally be heading home. Being the geek that I am, I shamelessly added that I was a big fan of Delta’s CEO, Ed Bastian.
Nina lit up. Ed, she told me, always took open questions from the flight attendants at the big Delta conferences she attends.
Excited, I asked her what he was really like. See, over the course of 2020, a time marked by uncertainty, Ed’s communications team hammered out steady, transparent and timely updates about Delta’s response to the Covid pandemic. His communications stood out. They were clear, concise and surprisingly reassuring. If there were CEO trading cards, the Ed Bastian one would be on the top of my pile and in one of those protective sleeves.
Nina told me how Bastian was real and connected with the flight attendants at the conference. We talked for a while and she told me how he answered questions openly, and how he set his sights high for the airline. And then she said something that stood out to me, “Ed taught us what makes the difference is how people feel. He said we want people to feel good flying with us. We want them to want to come back.” She went on, “you know, it is like Starbucks. You go there knowing you are going to have a good experience.”
A leader’s ability to connect to a vision and an ethos is golden. Mission statements and values are worthless unless they take flight as a story, an inspiration, a dream. It was clear that Ed did this. Nina knew what matters and why. Because of this she knew how to act. And she could teach it, as she did when she shared with me.
The idea adoption curve is a useful visual tool showing the stages people go through from first hearing an idea to to internalizing it. Use it to identify where people are at. From there, determine the kind of stories to tell to move them higher on the curve.
