Reconnecting With Your People - Ed Bastian - Leadercast

Have you ever been so close to losing everything that the only way forward was to admit you'd gotten it wrong?

That's exactly where Delta Airlines found itself. Not a metaphorical crisis. A real one. The company came within a few days of closing its doors for good. Fifty thousand employees. Decades of history. All of it is hanging by a thread.

I've been thinking about this story ever since I heard Ed Bastian, then-president of Delta, share it on the Chick-fil-A Leadercast. Jim Collins sat him down alongside Jim Goodnight of SAS Institute, and the contrast couldn't have been sharper.

One a massive, publicly held airline that nearly went under. The other a smaller, privately held software company that never laid off a single employee. Different industries, different sizes, same conviction at the core: take care of your people, and your people will take care of everything else.

Let's dig into what Bastian learned, because I think it has something to say to every one of us leading through hard seasons.

Bastian didn't sugarcoat it. He said plainly that Delta made many poor decisions along the way. There was denial. Leadership wasn't being honest with itself about the company's true situation. And somewhere in that fog, Delta drifted away from the very thing that had made it strong in the first place: its people.

Here's a detail that stuck with me. Twenty years before this crisis, Delta employees had literally given the company an airplane. Think about that. Employees who loved their company so much they pooled their own money to buy it a plane. That's the kind of devotion Delta once had. And somewhere along the way, leadership turned its back on the very people who had shown that kind of love.

That's a sobering reminder for any of us. The loyalty your team gives you today is not a guarantee for tomorrow. It has to be tended.

When I asked myself what made the biggest difference in Delta's turnaround, the answer Bastian gave wasn't a new strategy or a slick new product. It was this:

They reconnected with the people of Delta Airlines.

Not through PowerPoint decks. Not through corporate memos. Leadership brought all 50,000 employees to Atlanta in waves to sit face-to-face with the CEO or another senior executive. And when those employees walked into the room, leadership told them the truth. Four simple words:

"We screwed up."

Here's what struck me most. The employees already knew it. They didn't need to be told the company had failed them. What they needed was to hear leadership own it out loud. That admission of fault is what began to restore credibility. It's what made leadership accountable again, not just to shareholders, but to the very people who showed up every day to keep the planes flying.

If you're leading a team through a rough season right now, ask yourself: have you actually said the hard thing out loud? Not softened it. Not spun it. Just said it plainly, the way your people already know it to be true?

Every turnaround has a crystallizing moment, a point where the whole organization either falls apart or comes together. For Delta, it was a takeover attempt by US Airways.

Instead of further dividing the company, that threat united it. Employees rallied around a simple, defiant idea: you're not taking our airline away from us. What could have been the final blow instead became the spark that pulled Delta back together.

The pilots had the hardest road. They had lost more than almost anyone else in the crisis, and Delta came within twenty-four hours of a full pilot strike. But in that final hour, both sides made a choice. They put their swords down and decided to fly together instead of against each other.

I want you to notice something here. Unity rarely comes from comfort. It usually comes from a shared threat, a shared low point, or a shared decision to choose the mission over the grievance. If you're trying to unite a divided team, don't look for an easy fix. Look for the shared purpose that's bigger than the disagreement.

And here's the payoff. Delta made a promise to its people: if it could get through the economic downturn without laying off a single front-line employee, it would be one of the most significant turning points in the company's history. They kept that promise through one of the worst economic stretches the airline industry has ever seen.

This is the question I keep coming back to, because every leader eventually faces it. Bastian's answer was straightforward, and I think it's worth sitting with:

1. Realize you control more than you think. Most of us, in the middle of a crisis, feel like everything is happening to us. Bastian's point is that there are more things within your control than outside of it. That shift in perspective alone changes how you lead.
   
   

2. Decide to play offense, not defense. Crisis tempts us to hunker down and protect what's left. But real turnarounds happen when leaders choose to move forward with intention instead of just absorbing blows.
   
   

3. Stay flexible. Rigid plans don't survive contact with real turmoil. The leaders who make it through are the ones willing to adapt as the situation changes.
   
   

4. Remember that your response is the real variable. What you make of a setback, not the setback itself, determines whether you come out the other side stronger or not.

Bastian also pointed out something I think most organizations get wrong: they're slow to admit the actual facts of their situation. That delay in facing reality is what delays the right decisions. The sooner you can look honestly at where you actually stand, the sooner you can start making the moves that matter.

One thing that stood out in Bastian's reflections was how much Delta's leadership valued involvement outside the walls of the business. Every Delta leader is expected to take part in some kind of service activity, things like Habitat for Humanity.

Why does this matter? A few reasons he shared:

• Good companies do good things. It's a responsibility that comes with being part of a community, not an optional extra.

• Service builds humility. It keeps leaders grounded and reminds them they're not above the work.

• It's one of the best team-building tools available. There's something about working side by side, hands in the dirt, that builds trust faster than any conference room ever could.

• It builds morale and a genuine sense of ownership in the company's mission.

If your leadership team hasn't served together outside the office in a while, it might be worth changing that.

Bastian shared a piece of advice he gives to younger employees who come to him anxious about their next promotion, their next title, their next rung on the ladder.

His advice was simple: worry about doing your current job with excellence, and that will be the best path to your next one.

The most important job you have is the one sitting in front of you right now. Not the one you're hoping for next year. I think that's a message a lot of ambitious, growth-minded professionals need to hear, myself included. Ambition isn't the problem. Losing sight of today's work in pursuit of tomorrow's title is.

Bastian closed with the advice that shaped him most, and I think it's worth carrying with you:

Surround yourself with great people. People smarter than you. People who think differently, look different, and can see around corners you can't see yourself.

That's not a threat to your leadership. It's the foundation of it. The best leaders aren't the smartest person in the room. They're the ones wise enough to fill the room with people who are.

Be a perpetual optimist. Bastian believes you need unwavering faith in your ability and your team's ability to get the job done. That belief is contagious. Over time, your organization takes on your personality as a leader. It will lean positive or it will lean negative. There's no neutral option.

So here's the question I'll leave you with, the same one Bastian left his audience with that day:

Which will it be for your organization?

If you're in a season of setback right now, take heart. Delta was days from closing its doors, and it came back because leadership got honest, reconnected with its people, and chose to play offense instead of defense. You have more control than you think.

Choose to use it.

I challenge you, the same way Bastian challenged that room: go inspire your people.