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Delta Airlines Global CEO Ed Bastian was named the Ethical Leader of the Year by the William G. McGowan Charitable Fund in Las Vegas this week at the Society for Human Resource Management’s Annual Conference and Expo.
Bastian was recognized for his leadership during the Covid-19 pandemic, despite a kneecapped travel industry.
“It was very clear the second we started reviewing his candidacy, that what he was not willing to do was hurt the people of Delta Airlines,” said Brian Peckrill, the McGowan fund’s interim director. “I believe that’s ethical leadership. It’s the values that resonated with him that helped him make that commitment to those people.”
Bastian said ethical leadership is “in your DNA,” and despite employing nearly 100,000 people, the company treats its employees as family.
“I firmly believe that the most important asset of a company is its people, and...for years, airlines have gotten in trouble and they forget that. They think it’s their planes or their geographies or airports. The industry has a lot of sexy objects,” Bastian told HR Brew.
“But it’s the people...They’re bringing it all to life and that actually creates the opportunity to take care of those customers, and so focusing on ensuring that people feel like they are the biggest asset not the biggest cost of a business...I obsess on our people so that they’re in position to be obsessed with our customers.”
Bastian highlighted Delta’s Velvet program, bringing hundreds of front-line employees together to discuss the airline and its business. He also pointed to Delta’s profit-sharing model, which rewards front-line employees first before managers, and the company’s commitment to wellness as demonstrative of its employees-first business strategy.
“It’s not that we’re smarter, better-looking, or have better geography, or have better planes,” Bastian told HR Brew. “We have the very best people who felt they’re the best taken care of, and it’s their trust that they place in the leadership and the support they have with leadership that enables them to go out there and do a great job with customers and that attracts more customers to our company.”
Bastian told HR Brew he only has “one email” address, and receives thousands of emails a day from entry-level employees to senior leaders, and combs through them to make sure his people get what they need.
“Businesses that are ethical can succeed financially. Businesses that are not ethical, cannot sustainably last,” Peckrill said. “When making decisions, having a long-term orientation around growth is crucial, and businesses that integrate ethics are well primed for sustainable short and long-term success."