British Airways Case Study | Leadership Matters

The Brief

Operating in an increasingly competitive market place, BA is determined to stand out from its competitors by regaining the reputation for service leadership it enjoyed in the 1990s.

Having launched a strategic marketing campaign inviting customers to ‘upgrade to BA’ and experience the difference, BA recognised that the key to delivering this promise in the air lay in the hands of 4,000 on-board cabin crew managers. If the company could find a way to effectively re-engage this critical team of leaders, it knew that the full potential of all cabin crew would be released, thereby enriching the service experience of all BA customers.
 

The Solution

NKD’s experience in creating bespoke leadership development programmes was ideally suited to the task in hand. Appointed by BA in 2007, NKD set to work creating an inspirational end-to-end programme called 'Leadership Matters', combining latest leadership thinking with practical techniques for cabin crew managers to use in day to day activities.
 

Discovery

The project began with an intensive ‘Discovery’ period where three things were explored through a series of focus groups:

› Leaders ‘Will’ – the willingness of this audience to accept the challenges required to deliver the business benefits of this development programme

› Leaders ‘Skill’ - an assessment of current skill levels and previous development courses – and styles of learning likely to be most effective.

› Leaders ‘Commitment’ - both the organisation’s and individual’s appetite to really embed, support and apply the learning from the development programme

The outputs from this phase built the foundations upon which the whole development programme was built.
 

On-Boarding

The ‘On-Boarding’ phase of ‘Leadership Matters’ focused on involving and building firm commitment from 3 groups who would be critical to the success of the programme; a top group of 25 Senior Cabin Crew Managers, the Training Delivery team and Delegates themselves. This phase included:

• Running a 2-day ‘on boarding’ session with Senior Cabin Crew Managers which explored their role in making the programme a success.
• A rigorous selection process and ‘train the trainer’ event to ensure the right internal training resource was ‘accredited’ to deliver the programme.
• A multi-media launch comprising an audio CD, manager’s communication pack and a poster campaign to build excitement and interest in the programme.

Leadership Matters Workshop

Once ‘on-board’ with the programme’s overall aims, cabin crew managers were invited to the core element of ‘Leadership Matters’ – an engaging and energising 2-day workshop.

To ensure maximum outputs from these events, NKD designed a comprehensive ‘pre-work’ pack for all delegates. This involved a 360º tool, a ‘lifeline’ diagnostic, and two key articles on Engaging Leadership and Emotional Intelligence – all designed to start the process of increased self-awareness and personal effectiveness.

The workshops themselves were designed to give leaders time and space to consider their leadership style and the impact they have on their teams and customers. The dynamic events aimed to re-ignite the ‘early-career passion’ of on-board leaders, and develop their skills as effective 21st Century leaders.

Every aspect of the workshop’s design – the choice and presentation of the learning venue, event invites, the learning content itself, film, event materials and the style of facilitation – was consistent with the BA service promise and the key traits of Modern Leadership. This distinctively creative approach, a hallmark of all NKD’s work, enhanced the delegates’ connection and engagement with the programme.
 

Post Workshop

To ensure the learning from the workshops was truly effective, NKD developed a series of post-event development initiatives. This included a 90-Day Success Journal to act as a ‘down-route’ personal coach to help break established behavioural habits and develop new, lasting ones.

A web-based community of ‘learning groups’ was also created to continue the work started at the workshops – networking, discussing issues, generating ideas and sharing best practice.

Finally, a further 1-day ‘progress’ workshop was held six months after the original event at which delegates could repeat their 360º diagnostic to review progress and further embed and enhance the learning.
 

Results

Early indications suggest that ‘Leadership Matters’ is proving a great success. Satisfaction ratings from delegates average an impressive 5.8 out of 6. The programme is successfully reconnecting leaders with the essence of their role and providing them with new skills and confidence to become effective Modern Leaders.

So impressed has BA been with the impact the leadership development programme has had to date that NKD has now been commissioned to develop a 3 day version of the workshop as a corporate leadership induction programme for all BA leaders worldwide.