Chris revisits the key points made by Tony Douglas, adds his own insights and gives listeners some suggestions for practical actions they can take immediately to help them get where they want to go.
Welcome to every one of our Perspectives from the Top community of listeners around the world to “Reflections on the Top”. “Reflections” is to help you get the best from the series by me reviewing the key insights from our latest guest, Tony Douglas, CEO Etihad Aviation Group.
Tony has over 30 years of international leadership experience in aerospace, transportation, infrastructure, and government sectors. He joined Etihad in 2018 from being CEO the UK’s Ministry of Defence, leading procurement for equipment and services for the British Armed Forces, valued at over £20bn/ $25bn. He previously held senior leadership positions in the UAE such as CEO of Abu Dhabi Airports , his UK roles included Managing Director of Heathrow Terminal 5 construction project and then CEO of Heathrow Airport. He was also COO and Group Chief Executive designate of Laing O’Rourke the global construction company.
If I was to summarise the key themes that came across in Tony's insights and ideas there are three words which come to mind, challenge, complexity, and community. The challenge early on in his career of unexpectedly having to take over responsibility of a team, the building complexity of all his roles, and his ability to, even in difficult circumstances, create a community of people focused on delivering success. That enabled by his personal desire to understand the people that he works with so that he can create such a community.
It's worth mentioning that Tony left school at 16 so didn't take the traditional university and Business School path which many CEOs have taken but he learned about leadership at a young age on industrial shop floors. That's a very different and hands on way to learn leadership which doesn't involve the theories and models but which focuses on people and practicality to get things done. And that mindset then proves invaluable as you move forward on your leadership journey. A similar example came out in the interview I did with Andy Palmer the former CEO of Aston Martin and previously COO of Nissan. He also left school at 16 to work on the shop floor in the motor industry and his perspective of leadership and how you get things done like Tonys simple, practical and people focused and that's why it's so effective.
Tony said another key element of this is adaptability which was a fundamental part all how things were made to happen on the farm he lived on when he was a child. Just the mindset in that world that if there is a problem and one solution doesn't work then it's just a case of trying possibilities to find the solution which does. This is really important because this agile mindset, or perhaps growth mindset to apply it to a wider context, is really what all leaders need to possess to be successful but many don't. Many have a tendency to do what they've always done which is great until a problem arises. So maybe listeners that something might be that you reflect on in terms of how do you find yourself reacting when problems suddenly arise? Do you view it as a nightmare or do you potentially view it as an opportunity to do things better and even if you're initial solution isn't successful, view that in itself as a learning opportunity.
But Tonys practical leadership approach to engaging people was demonstrated by his managing a production line in the motor industry in his 20s in a highly unionised environment within socially deprived areas. His point was that if you truly and genuinely sought to engage people your productivity would soar but if you essentially just did the job, told people what to do, and didn't genuinely engage your productivity could dive.
The lesson from Tony was that no matter how senior, no matter how junior, everybody is equal in that they all have their own part to play in delivering success and so should be treated with respect. If you do people will be engaged to give you their best.
It's also interesting his reflection on his move from the motor industry to the aerospace industry where he was told by some of his new colleagues in aerospace that he clearly knew nothing about the industry and probably wouldn't be able to do the job. That, as Tony put it, was probably one of the most motivational experiences he’d had - making him more determined to succeed.
He bought out his key themes of complexity and community, his genuine enjoyment of what he called the "social” element of bringing people together to achieve something, particularly in large groups. I find that really interesting because it's not often that you hear a CEO express the view that there is this “social” element in being a leader. CEOs more often reflect a view that is about a set of mechanical actions to ensure that objectives are delivered through people. The genuine social interest in other people which Tony expressed, with underlying passion, was clear in his use of the word family as well as community. That’s something that I have not seen expressed that way by senior leaders often.
And it's that passion for people linked to a love of managing complexity which grew on Tony's journey through roles as diverse as leading the procurement of everything for the British military, valued at £20bn/$25bn a year to becoming CEO of Etihad and enabling the organisation to successfully meet the challenges of a transformation and COVID to position itself well for the future.
Tony's point about the what and the how is worth reflecting on not only in relation to the teams and organisations that he's led but also in terms of what all of us do listeners. His comment that the “what” we have to do at work is usually relatively simple and clear. It's the “how” where the complications creep in. The complexity which he refers to. But it's worth noting here that Tony isn't just talking about the practical complexity of what needs to be done in relation to the task, eg successfully putting together a very complicated aircraft jet engine, but it's also the complexity of how you get the execution of the task to work successfully both through the process but also through the complexity of dealing with people. And I think implicit in his answers was the fact that often there is more complexity within the people element of delivering success then there often is within the technical elements of delivering success.
Just that simple point that I've mentioned before listeners - it's about can you as a leader get that discretionary effort which people can withhold without you knowing about ? That’s can potentially be 30% extra effort for up to 60% of people.
Tony briefly talked about some of the the more command and control leaders that he had seen within the automotive industry in the early years of his career, as he described them the “table bangers and shouters”, who assumed that they were always right. But that was in many ways perhaps counterproductive to encouraging discretionary effort. Certainly all the evidence is from maybe 20 to 30 years is that this approach is counterproductive. Tonys approach, by virtue of his success, and all the evidence that I have seen from psychology, neuroscience and evidence in my own career is better for the current world.
Tony's great comment that unless you have willing followers no matter what your role title is you're not the leader.
That led on to his perspectives on the criticality of managing diversity, not just diversity in terms of peoples culture or nationality but in terms of diversity of thought and perspective. How in Etihad, with well over 100 different nationalities in organisation, this is absolutely critical to success but also absolutely inspiring.
Tonys nice example of how Etihad engages cabin crew to be aware that its about delivering the best customer service and that everyone is inspired to give discretionary effort to achieve this empowered and enabled by the organisation. As I say to leaders it's not about people doing the job it's about creating belief in why you're doing what you're doing. And as Tony said part of that is about ensuring that everyone has clarity on what needs to be done - so back to one of my phrases it's about keeping it simple.
But then, as we discussed, it's not just about the clarity of what needs to be done it's also about are people given the freedom to do what they need to - are they empowered ? Do they have the decision making ability to make it happen ? And to achieve that leaders need to delegate that decision making power more often and lower down organisations. That gets thing done mare effectively but also enables an agile response when things might not go to plan. However as Tony said in many organisations that just does not happen and people who have the capability and the willingness to contribute so much more will never be given the opportunity. In contrast to him being able to grow and develop as he was early on in his career.
His belief, confirmed by positive results in practice, that most people in most organisations will give their best if given the opportunity to and if trusted to. As he said “Great organisations have clear purpose, clarity on what that means, and how their people can get themselves connected to the delivery”
We talked about the other additional benefits of having people who are inspired and given discretionary effort in particular around their role as a brand ambassador which over my career I have found to be probably one of the best measures of leadership and organisational success - that your people are inspired enough to go out and be proactive brand ambassadors out of work as much as in work.
“The best brand campaign you can ever do starts on the inside” - his comment about organisations who must spend £10s of millions on external brand campaigns but then neglect the power of the internal brand ambassadors. That power works both internally and externally - externally with friends family and wider network.
But listeners particularly for those of you listening who are in HR or in senior leadership roles and interested in how you attract great talent to your organisation the answer is brand ambassadors - I have worked with organisations and used exactly this external brand ambassadorship to enhance the organisations ability to get in the best talent. How ? Because if you say to your brand ambassadors we need great new talent in this organisation “do you know anyone?” because they believe in the organisation they will have no hesitation in recommending excellent friends to potentially come and join them in your organisation.
Also that if your people believe they also care about your customers and then when things go wrong as Tony said they deliver a quality of customer service that is exceptional and goes beyond what customers expect.
And all of this links into how Tony has taken Etihad forward from what was a fairly troubled environment into now being well positioned, in my view well ahead of many competitors, in relation to slickly picking up on the rapid expansion in air travel post COVID.
When he took up his role his challenge was that there was a gaping hole in the balance sheet based on some less than perfect strategic decision making before which had to be addressed. That required a total changing operating model, size of the airline, the type of aeroplanes that were used and essentially creating a simpler slicker more effectively focused and aligned organisation. This was a challenging 5 year journey with many difficult decisions as Tony said. And of course that journey was capped off by the sudden arrival of Covid in early 2020. But interestingly he made the point because they were in an environment of significant change and adaptability that meant that people were already thinking flexibly and therefore Etihad was able to perhaps deal more effectively than other airlines with Covid.
Their ability to pick up on the market come back now means that Etihad has posted record results and is expanding its route network together with other initiatives around sustainability – this has resulted in Etihad receiving a number of prestigious awards for different aspects of activity. They achieved all this as Tony said by listening to the voice of the customer and, as he said, if you don't do that your future isn't bright.
His final advice to leaders and organisations to enable them to be better just simply listen to your customers and listen to your people.
As with the previous guests and now Tony hopefully you are seeing a pattern of simple actions you can take to be more successful. Share these interviews colleagues who would benefit so they can grow and develop with you. Certainly I will be using these powerful points in my speaking and Masterclasses in the future.
If you have any thoughts or questions connect with me on LinkedIn or via email as detailed on the Perspectives website. Don't forget to sign up to Perspectives from the Top. It's free, so you don't miss any of the great episodes in the future. That’s it for now, so from me its onwards and upwards until our next episode.