This is a story about true leadership. We recently enjoyed a 10-night break in Lanzarote; holidays and down-time are important to allow your batteries to re-charge and (in my case) do some strategic thinking and planning for the business in the future. At the conclusion of our holiday we headed back to the airport and checked in for our flight.
I never have particularly high expectations for a holiday charter flight, so I wasn’t massively surprised when the flight was delayed. Some people who were queuing at the gate were starting to get quite annoyed and vocal at the lack of information coming from the airline and inevitably ‘Chinese Whispers’ came into effect.
Eventually we boarded the aircraft with a sizeable number of the passengers visibly angry at the situation and ready to vent their frustration. Whilst all of this was going on I was observing the body language of the cabin crew – one in particular was showing signs of significant stress – red faced, sweating (and at one point resting his head in his hands). There was evidently a problem with the PA system as the captain then appeared, deep in conversation on a mobile phone whilst unscrewing an overhead panel to try and do a reset. I’m deducing the cabin crew staff member was preparing himself to have to deliver the bad news to an already quite irritable group of passengers.
All of this had the makings of a significant inconvenience; the passengers could see what was going on and the atmosphere on board was becoming more tense and negative. The problem appeared to then be rectified, all passengers had boarded and seated, and we waited… and waited. It was then that something remarkable happened.
The PA sprang into life and a voice asked us to look towards the front of the aircraft – the voice belonged to the Captain. He spoke authoritatively, eloquently and openly. He asked the passengers who were annoyed and upset to shake their fists at him; he then went on to say that the delay was nothing to do with the cabin crew and that it was unacceptable for anyone to direct their frustrations at them. He explained that as captain he had the ultimate responsibility for everyone’s safety, that they couldn’t fly without a functioning PA system and also explained the origin of that aircraft’s journey that day and how a combination of factors had led to it being late.
What really impressed me was his leadership. Many managers in the same situation would have been quite content to sit in their office and let the team with the fall-out, but he didn’t. He took responsibility for the situation and protected his team from a potentially ill-tempered 4-hour flight back. I’ve travelled by air a reasonable amount but have never seen the captain of an aircraft do this before.
So, step forward, Captain Adrian Hebbs of Thomas Cook Airlines. You showed great leadership and I for one was very pleased that you were in charge that day. I hope I got your name right; I scribbled it down as we were taxiing to the stand and the PA wasn’t the best!