Università di Pisa
Dipartimento di Scienze Politiche
Corso di laurea magistrale in
Comunicazione d'Impresa e Politica delle Risorse
Umane
LEADERSHIP AT GATWICK AIRPORT: THE
BENEFIT OF CREATING A HIGH
PERFORMANCE TEAM
Relatore: Candidata:
Prof. Giuseppe Bellandi Cristina Profeti
INDEX EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1 INTRODUCTION 3 1. LEADERSHIP CONCEPT 5 1.1 INTRODUCTION TO LEADERSHIP 5 1.1.1 WHAT LEADERSHIP IS 5
1.1.2 WHAT LEADERSHIP IS NOT 6
1.2 ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE 7
1.2.1 WHAT ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE IS 7
1.2.2 CHANGE OF CULTURE 9
1.3 MANAGEMENT VS LEADERSHIP 13 1.3.1 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT 13
1.4 LEADERSHIP STYLES 19 1.4.1 AUTOCRATIC STYLE 20 1.4.2 LAISSEZ-FAIRE STYLE 20 1.4.3 DEMOCRATIC STYLE 21 1.5 EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE 23 1.5.1 WHAT IS E.I. 23
1.5.2 TRAITS OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE 24
1.5.3 EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE IN RELATION TO THE LEADER ROLE 26
1.6 THE IMPORTANCE OF THE CLIENT 31 1.7 IS IT POSSIBLE TO CREATE LEADERS? 32
2. GATWICK AIRPORT LIMITED 34
2.1 GATWICK’S HISTORY 35
2.2 HUMAN RESOURCES DEPARTMENT 37
2.2.1 ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 39
2.2.2 CHANGING AT GATWICK 40
2.3 LEADERSHIP AT GATWICK 44
2.3.1 GATWICK’S AMBITION 44
2.3.2 THE SIX “PEOPLE LEADER ELEMENTS” 48
2.3.3 THE 9 BOX MODEL 52
2.4 TRAITS OF A LEADER 60
2.4.1 INTERVIEW WITH A SPECIALIST 60
3.1 THE SURVEY 69
3.1.1 THE ADVANTAGES 71
3.1.2 THE SURVEY PROCESS 72
3.1.3 THE QUESTIONS 73 3.2 THE RESULTS 75 3.3 FINAL COMMENTS 88 APPENDIX A 91 APPENDIX B 96 BIBLIOGRAPHY 103 AKNOWLEDGEMENTS 107
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This dissertation sets out to examine the importance strong leadership and how it is contributing to the success of Gatwick airport.
Starting with an introduction to my experience at the airport, this report takes the reader through the process I took to examine the leadership at the airport and its benefits to the company.
The first chapter discusses the theme of ‘leadership’, drawing on the most important theories of today. In a first analysis, the meaning of “Leadership” is explained giving the reader an idea of what leadership really is inside a company. In addition, the concept of organisational culture is explored to understand why leadership is so important during a cultural change.
In the second chapter I provide an introduction to Gatwick airport, explaining the working environment they operate in and the planned changes the leadership are aiming to achieve.
The final chapter is the practical illustration of one of the surveys that are given to the employees during the year.
This dissertation concludes that Gatwick airport has implemented significant changes to its leadership and organisational culture, which has resulted in an improvement to employee satisfaction and business performance. However, the company’s size means that changes across all departments take time and there are still areas to improve on. In line with the democratic approach now in use at the airport, I conclude that the management should communicate more with the employees of the failing departments to achieve a solution that works for both the company and its people.
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The involvement of the employees in the process, the listening of their needs and their ideas and the development of high quality people are just some examples of the leadership activities at Gatwick.
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INTRODUCTION
This dissertation draws on the experience I gained from my six-month internship at Gatwick airport in London. During that period I shadowed the senior managers within the Human Resources department, gaining exposure to the daily activities of the office and contributing to the research and analysis of the employee surveys.
Of all the different tasks that I was involved in at Gatwick airport, the leadership surveys that they conducted annually was an area that particularly took my interest. The “100 Best Companies” survey was the approach I found to be most aligned with my studies and I will consider the results in more detail later in this paper. This survey is very important to companies both large and small in the United Kingdom because it identifies the organisation achieving the best working environments for their employees.
The score that each company obtains depends on the employees’ responses to the questionnaire. In this questionnaire they can anonymously rate their companies on a number of factors, which leads to an overall picture of how they view their organisation.
Leadership is a very important element for a high performance company and it is the topic that Gatwick has focussed on to succeed in achieving its aim, to become London’s airport of choice. They aim to achieve this by ensuring that passengers, airlines and business partners choose Gatwick over any other airport in London because of their professional service and the human approach.
It was very interesting watching the perfect organisation of a company like Gatwick airport, it was the first time I was involved in the activities of such a company and I was very attracted by that word.
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I discovered something I didn’t expect, I met people who paid a great attention to business, and it is logical enough to remark it, but what I found particularly unusual was pointing out they considered as a priority to take care of the human side of work, observing, supporting and encouraging their employees and allowing each of them to feel really part of a great organisation.
The key of their theory is that the enthusiasm an individual puts on his work is the greatest success he can reach and it is not only a personal one, but, as a little drop inside an ocean it’s part of a wider organisation which he belongs to.
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1. LEADERSHIP CONCEPT
1.1 INTRODUCTION TO LEADERSHIP
1.1.1 WHAT LEADERSHIP IS
There are lots of definitions of “leadership”, the dictionary of the English language, Collins, defines the leadership as “the leader (or the leaders) of a party or a group”.
We know that the concept of leadership is much more complex, a successful leader who guides his team could be anyone from the managing director of a firm to a clerk in his first position of authority.
A leader acts by his power and his formal authority, but we have to remark that great leaders make use of inspiration, persuasion and personal connections. An excellent definition is:
“Leadership is the art of leading people in a voluntary way with the aim of obtaining a result” 1.
Great leaders aren't satisfied just with the attainment of good results, they take advantage of other people's co-operation to reach superior results.
No leader has the effective knowledge and ability to conceive, to plan and to obtain social, political and organizational aims entirely by himself.
The modern leader needs the co-operation of many people, it is appropriate each of them has particular knowledge and ability, which produce special views and perspectives.
One of the crucial aspects of a leader is the encouragement of effective and
1 “What is Leadership and What Makes a Good Leader”, Search Inside Yourself Leadership
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open communication among the collaborators and their involvement in settlement of decisions at every level2.
A leader needs to focus on communicating, creating and developing relationships between people as a crucial aspect. We are social animals with an interdependent sense of identity therefore we are our relationships and the quality of our lives depend on our relationship. So at every level relationships matter for the effectiveness and success.
The collaborators have to feel free to participate at the action providing information and advice without forgetting to express their eventual dissent3.
1.1.2 WHAT LEADERSHIP IS NOT
To clarify the meaning of “Leadership” may be useful to remark what leadership is not.
1- Leadership isn't absolutely connected with a hierarchical position
inside a particular organisation. The manager of a company is usually
an executive manager, he doesn't provide any connections among different subjects. Leadership cannot be automatically entrusted to someone who is at a high hierarchical level.
2- Leadership isn't related to a specific degree; you needn't any academic titles for leading. A person can be a good leader even among the members of his family.
3- Leadership isn’t related to personal attributes. Charisma or extroversion are not required, those most vocal and charismatic are not
2 Cfr, Marturano A. and Gosling J., “Leadership, The Key Concept”, 2007, Routledge, pag. 94 e
ss.
3 Dent Fiona and Brent Mike (2011), “Influencing: The Key to Successful Business
7 automatically destined to be leaders.
4- Leadership doesn't coincide with management: this is a great question. Leadership and management aren't synonymous. Leaders guide people, managers manage things. Leadership involves motivating and inspiring confidence in everybody, while the manager’s role lies in planning, organizing and coordinating everything4.
1.2 ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE
1.2.1 WHAT ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE IS
A fundamental part of the leadership is establishing an effective organisational culture that supports the particular values of the company.
The organisational culture concerns the shared values and the attitudes of its members; it substantially determines the way by which the workers behave inside a particular organisation. It denotes the distinctive features that the organisation is inclined to appreciate, features that effectively distinguish it from other organisations.
Culture, moreover, helps to shape the external view of the company, which is how the organisation is experienced by the external environment, by people who aren't part of it5.
So culture consists of the connection among the values, the rules and the aims accepted and appreciated by the organisation; these help to form the
4 “What is Leadership, Anyway?”, Forbes, September 2013,
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinkruse/2013/04/09/what-is-leadership/.
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behaviours and attitudes shared by leaders and workers.
The organisational culture determines the behaviour of the workers and also their reactions towards customers and people who aren't connected with the organisation.
A strong organisational culture is one of the essential pre-conditions to reach high performances and innovations.
“Culture is something implicit, a sort of mutual agreement that creates people's expectations” 6.
Louis Gerstner, the manager who saved IBM from oblivion, admitted he considered culture as one of the most important elements to success. When he entered IBM he realized culture is not only an aspect of the question, but it is the question itself.
Culture defines the most appropriate way of thinking, acting and behaving inside an organisation, as a matter of fact who operates coherently to it will be successful.
On the contrary, he/she who chooses not to align with the approach will not work for a long time inside an organisation.
Culture could be described as the company’s personality, by which the same values are shown through the people's behaviour, attitudes and decisions.
Some anthropologists tried to define the culture in a more precise way, perhaps unsatisfied by the superficial definition: “It is the way we do something here”. They consider it as the whole acquired convictions, a guide for behaviours shared among the members of a group.
There is a solid conviction based on the fact that if an organisation has got a “strong culture”, showing a set well integrated and specific of values, belief and behaviour, then it will have more possibilities to reach high levels of
6 Cfr, Leigh A., “Ethical Leadership, Creating and Sustaining an Ethical Business Culture”, 2013,
9 productivity7.
We can say that an ethical, well-built culture will give power to the aims the leadership proposes, and will help to shape the strategic view.
Culture can also have a positive effect as regards the workers' productivity, because it stimulates them to do everything with more and more care, to work hard and to give the best they can8.
1.2.2 CHANGE OF CULTURE
Change is an inevitability of modern business and it is a challenge that may cause great problems to leaders, problems due mostly to the reluctance of their workforce to change.
Change if not tackled correctly brings doubts about the new situation; are we sure the following one will be better than the previous one? The ability to successfully manage a change is a fundamental requisite to become an excellent leader.
The workforces of organisations are generally inclined to stability, steadiness, while leaders urge and point to change.
Leadership is exactly defined as “creator of change”, in opposition to the work aiming to the preservation of the current condition, which simply consists in management.
Many types of organisational activities are chiefly related with continuity rather than with change; people communicate with one another to establish confidence, to take decisions and to verify progress.
7 Crf Brandy K Goldston, “The Relationship Between Traits of Organizational Culture and Job
Satisfaction Within the Healthcare Setting”, 2007, Pro Quest.
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Some aspects of “casting into the future” often come from people who succeed in seeing new opportunities and stimulating others' enthusiasm and confidence. It is very important to be informed about the need of change; people are more likely to accept change if they are persuaded by sound arguments.
There are three general reasons for which a change is required:
- To solve a problem.
Problems very often take place; they are sometimes caused by external factors, such as competition, laws, environmental matters; other times, on the contrary, they are the result of internal factors, such as organisational aims, increase or failure. In any case the most important thing is to find out the root of the matter and to identify the problem.
- To improve on the “status quo”.
The request of continual improvements is to be encouraged: The workers' growth to achieve their potential, the continual training and the sharing of knowledge are very successful to improve on the “status quo”. At an organisational level, the efficient location of the resources is probably the key to improving on the “status quo”.
- To take advantage of an opportunity.
Opportunities occur through many ways; at an organisational level they might be the conditions of market, the outcome of a competitor, the invention of new technologies, or factors such as a new legislation, or political and economic factors. Many of these factors could occur as problems but depending on the leader's ability, these could be transformed into opportunities.
It could said that the efforts for change often fail because of errors made by the leader in particular functions.
John Kotter in an important article explains the causes of the failure of some changes.
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From the analysis of some successful cases we can declare in a general way that the changing process goes on through a series of steps that usually require a considerable temporal effort; to miss some of these steps dives you the illusion to speed up the work, but doesn't absolutely produce satisfactory results.
Another general principle specifies that errors made in whichever step can have catastrophic effects.
Even the most experienced people often makes mistakes, this fact is due to the limited experience we are likely to have in the renewal of the organisation. To change an organisation there is a defined course to follow and some steps are recommended9.
Here we specify the eight steps to achieve a successful change:
1. To state a sense of urgency:
Many of the successful efforts aiming to change come active when individuals or groups of people begin to examine strictly the situation of the competitors, the position of the market, the technological trend, the financial performances identifying crises, potential crises or prominent opportunities.
2. To form a strong coalition-guide:
It is necessary to gather together a power-group for guiding the change and encouraging people to work as a team.
3. To create a vision:
Creating a vision helps directly the effort to the change. It is essential to develop strategies for the attainment of such a vision.
4. To communicate the vision:
We need make use of all the available means to have the clearest possible vision and to teach new behaviours following the example of a group-guide.
9 Kotter John (1995), “Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail”, Harvard Business
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5. To make people responsible to act:
We cannot help to get rid of all the obstacles, to change the systems and the structures which can damage the vision and to encourage the awareness of the risks and of the ideas. These activities are not conventional.
6. To plan and to create some short-term sub-objectives:
We have to plan the improvement of the performances to carry it out and to involve the workers in its process. The great transformation need a lot of time; if there aren't any short-term objectives, many people will give it up and will join the ones who didn't accept the change.
7. To consolidate the improvements and to keep on producing them:
For promoting the credibility of the change, we must get rid of the structures and the policies that aren't suited for the new vision and we must engage, promote, and strengthen the workers to realize the vision.
8. To make institutional the new strategies:
The connections between the new behaviours and the success of the company must be emphasized10.
The connection between leadership and change isn't often so strong and evident, but it is clear the role the leader undertakes during all the process is fundamental.
A company leader is usually an important character in the company story, his behaviour influences considerably the behaviour of the other and stimulates the development of their outlook.
Change is a process that keeps on with self-construction; people manage themselves according to internal and external changes and doing that they constantly re-create their identity.
A leader could be distinguished on the grounds of his influence in the process of personal identity construction and in the process of shared identities
10 Kotter John (1995), “Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail”, Harvard Business
13 construction which emerges subsequently.
1.3 MANAGEMENT VS LEADERSHIP
1.3.1 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LEADERSHIP AND
MANAGEMENT
The debate as regards the difference between leadership and management starts in 1977, when Abraham Zaleznik, professor at Harvard Business School, published an article entitled “Manager and Leader: are they different?”; which provoked a great fuss at the Business School.
John Kotter, professor at Harvard Business School, states that leadership and management are different but complementary and that, in a world in continuous evolution, one cannot do without the other to work in an efficient way.
Each of them has its specific functions and activities, but both of them are absolutely necessary for success inside a business environment, which is more and more complex and unstable.
Then he catalogues and puts in contrast the main functions of leadership and management:
leaders promote changes, while managers promote stability; only organisations which adopt both of the parts of this apparent contradiction succeed in facing the most tumultuous periods.
The real challenge lies in combining in the same time a strong leadership and a strong management, making use of them in a balanced way.
It is important to remark that not everyone can have both the abilities of a leader and of a manager; some people can become excellent managers but not great leaders, other ones have great potentialities to become leaders but, for various reasons, have some difficulties to be good managers11.
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The most brilliant companies exploit both of these kind of people and work to engage them inside the company.
Management lies on struggling with complexity.
Its attitude and its procedures are a reply to one of the most significant expansions of the 20th century: the origin of great organisations.
Without good management the most complex companies would be inclined to become chaotic so that they might even threaten their own life. Good management brings a level of order and solidity succeeding in conciliating quality and productivity.
Leadership, on the contrary, lies on struggling with changing.
One of the reasons for which it became so important in recent years lies on the fact that the business world has become more competitive and unstable.
Complex technological changes, a greater international competition, lack of regulation of the markets, an extreme power of industries with high investments of capital, an inconstant price of oil and the demographical change of the staff are some of the factors which contributed to change.
Important changes are more and more necessary to survive and compete in this new environment; great changes require obviously a stronger leadership.
These two different functions, struggling with complexity and struggling with change, shape the distinctive activities of management and leadership.
Each of the two systems of action entails planning what is to be done, creating a web of people and useful connections and, after that, verifying that everyone has completed their individual/team’s responsibilities.
Each of these three stages pursue its aim in different ways:
- Companies manage complexity first of all through planning and defining
the budget.
They program the targets and the objectives for the future, establish
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detailed steps to reach them and distribute the resources to accomplish the pre-arranged work.
For guiding an organisation to constructive changes, you must start by establishing a leadership framework that provides a strong vision of the future together with the right strategies to produce the necessary changes.
- Management develops the ability of reaching fixed targets by
organisation and recruitment, it creates an organisational structure and
establishes individual roles, framing the work with qualified persons, communicating clearly the objectives and delegating the responsibilities at various levels. Not to forget acting the systems of checking the results. The equivalent activity of leadership consists of laying out people; this means communicating a new direction to the personnel who is able to create useful coalitions for sharing the vision and carrying it out.
- Lastly, management ensures good results through checking and
problem solving. It is essential to verify the results both formally and
informally, through meeting, reports and other means; so it is easy to identify anomalies and planning problem solving.
Leadership, on the contrary, to reach a new vision has to succeed in motivating and inspiring people, it has to lead them to the right direction, considering also their needs, their values and their emotions.
A more careful examination of each of these activities can help to clarify the required ability to become a leader12.
So we can say that managers more and more often use models fixed and utilized previously by other people, they prefer meetings, projects, connections and adopt methods based on a strict control.
Leaders, on the contrary, can be inclined to undertake unproven ways,
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succeeding in involving other people and promoting their self-regulation. They are disposed to break away from the routine and standardized processes, because they know that the company development can be because of these factors.
At this point we can represent the “management cycle” and the “leadership cycle”.
MANAGEMENT CYCLE:
PLANNING > ORGANISATION > CONTROL
Planning: fixing specific objectives and stating how to reach them.
Organization: creating a structure to define everyone's roles and tasks and to
delegate everyone's responsibility.
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The managing cycle lets you achieve a good administration, assures order and attainment of the planned objectives.
LEADERSHIP CYCLE
ORIENTATION > ALIGNMENT > INSPIRATION AND EMPOWERMENT
Orientation: supplying with a vision of future together with the necessary
strategies to carry it out.
Alignment: communicating the direction to follow and obtaining the greatest
care to reach the objectives.
Inspiration and empowerment: letting people express all their abilities, giving
18 their personal maturity13.
Leadership and management are two distinct and complementary systems of acting; each of them has a particular function and typical activities; both of them are essential for obtaining success in a more and more complex and unstable business environment.
A strong leadership and a weak management is a wrong combination, we can say the same thing for the opposite combination. The real challenge lies on combining a strong leadership and a strong management and making use of them in a balanced way14.
These are the main tasks a manager and a leader have to perform:
13 Cfr, Bellandi G., “Il Talento del Leader”, 2006, Franco Angeli, Milano, pag.154 e ss.
14 Clemmer Jim, “Management vs Leadership”, The Clemmer Group,
http://www.clemmergroup.com/management-vs-leadership.php.
MANAGEMENT
LEADERSHIP
Struggling with the complexity Struggling with changing Concentrating on structures and
systems
Concentrating on people
Valuing performances Creating a “vision”
Reporting performances Illustrating “the big picture”
Distributing resources Communicating aims and objectives Putting into practice rules and
instructions
Stimulating and inspiring people
Problem solving Involving people in “problem solving”
Devising creative solutions Delegating
Undertaking correct actions Singling out new opportunities Promoting people’s growth Anticipating problems
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1.4 LEADERSHIP STYLES
We must lay stress on the fact that there are different styles of leadership, but none of them can be defined as the ‘right’ one; a specified style can be appropriate to some particular people or situations and not to others. The real ability consists in choosing the right style at the right moment.
Following the behaviourist thought, leadership lies on the function of the individual behaviour and it can be applied according to a scale, which ranges from laxity to autocracy (the highest degree).
The theme of leadership style enter the literature after the study effected by K. Lewin, R. Lippitt e R.K. White in 1939, on the effects of three different leadership styles on a group of boys15.
We can refer to the three most important styles: autocratic, democratic and laxity.
15 Cfr, Bellandi G., “Il Talento del Leader”, 2006, FrancoAngeli, Milano, pag 97 e ss.
Programming in short-term Programming in long term
Directing and to controlling Stimulating and encouraging people
Delegating Building connections and teams
Granting training Coaching
Decision-making Aligning people
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The leadership styles continuum:
AUTOCRATIC DEMOCRATIC LAISSEZ-FAIRE
1.4.1 AUTOCRATIC STYLE
It is thought as “to be in control”. The leader communicates the members of the staff what is to be done and how it is to be done. When you abuse of this style it is likely that the consequence is a lack of confidence and of respect by the staff. Moreover the workers are prevented from thinking in a creative way and from assuming risks.
In this case the atmosphere is not relaxing and it is typical of this situation the lack of awards.
This style isn't suitable for a strongly motivated environment and for people with a high level of loyalty.
The utilization of this style in a moderate way and at the opportune moment may have positive effects; it may be advisable to make use of it in crisis times or as a consequence of the acquisition of a new role by a worker or to find a remedy for sub-standard performances.
1.4.2 LAISSEZ-FAIRE STYLE
We have this leadership style when the leader takes a secondary position High direction
Low autonomy
High autonomy Low direction
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leaving the staff free to decide what is the best way of carrying the work out. The effect of this style may be a lack of direction, a lack of urgency and a staff's disappointment for having an undetermined leader. This style encourages creativity and it is advisable when the workers of the staff are experienced people or for stimulating the members of a team to take their decisions and their risks.
1.4.3 DEMOCRATIC STYLE
We have the third style, the democratic one, when the individual leadership is shared between the leader and the workers. It is a collaborative relationship between the two parts with the aim of achieving excellent performances inside a motivated and cooperative environment. It implies an open communication, mutual respect and a consistent dialogue among the members.
It is the most common style, used by excellent leaders, it engages the members of the staff in their growth and in their performances; the leader assumes the power through the ability to conditioning and supporting them.
There are moments in which it is necessary a great laissez-faire and moments in which, on the contrary, more guidelines are requested, but the implementing of democratic style is the one that has greater weight.
A democratic style of leadership advantages an environment where people are able to accomplish appreciable performances, undertaking the responsibility of their actions, under their leader's guide and influence16.
Kermally, in the '90s, lay stress on the fact that an appropriate style of leadership was in conformity with some situations, it especially depended on:
16 Crf, Cooper S., “Leader, What Brilliant Leader Know, Do and Say”, 2011, Pearson UK, pag. 4
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- The relations between leader and collaborators, where better relations imply less use of formal power.
- The structure of the tasks, routine and repetitive tasks imply less freedom.
- The power position, greater power depends on a higher hierarchic status.
Therefore, according to the author's thought, a good leadership lies on the style undertaken on the ground of the situation factors. A good leader success lies on the ability to adapt, after a scrupulous analysis, the chosen style to the different kind of people and situations. Each event is to be converted to a specified way of guiding the collaborators.
An excellent indicator to understand which leadership style to apply and what measures are requested, lies on taking into account the abilities and the main strength of the workers. For example, if an experienced programmer can create a database in one day, it is reasonable he is requested to do it; but if a programmer is not so experienced you cannot expect him to do the same database in only one day. If workers are stressed to obtain the same results in the same period of time, some of them will be certainly unsatisfied. If someone is always entrusted with the same work, because he is faster in his accomplishment, the other workers will never be experienced enough.
By these examples we can understand that a worker's abilities are the bases of both short-term expectations and long-term requirements.
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1.5 EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
1.5.1 WHAT IS E.I.
It is interesting to observe how the different styles of leadership are originated by the distinctive elements of emotional intelligence.
Styles, singly taken, seem to have a direct effect on the working environment of a company and on its financial performances and, as we already said, the most excellent leaders are the ones who don't rely upon a unique style, but succeed in making use of them according to the different situations.
Now we clarify the concept of “emotive intelligence”.
Each of us has a particular personality, with different wishes and needs and distinct ways of showing one's own emotions. Sailingamong all these variables requires tact and intelligence, especially if you want to have success in your life. It is at this point that emotional intelligence becomes important.
Emotional intelligence is the ability to be aware of our emotions, to understand what they have to communicate and to realize how they involve people who are near us.
Emotional intelligence, moreover, includes the perception we have about other persons; if we can understand people's feelings, we'll be able to manage our relationship in a more efficient way17.
Somebody who has a high emotional intelligence has usually more success in his life and everyone would like to share his activity with him.
When high emotional people ask for help, they will easily receive it, because everyone is pleased to enter into relation with them.
These people will solve life problems in a simpler way, compared with those less in tune with others’ emotions, who often cause more complex situations18
.
17 Crf, Castiello D’Antonio A., “L’assessment delle qualità manageriali e della leadership, la
valutazione psicologica delle competenze nei ruoli di responsabilità organizzativa”, 2013, Franco Angeli, pag. 85 e ss.
18Crf, Goleman D., “Essere leader: Guidare gli altri grazie all'intelligenza emotiva”, 2012, Bur
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1.5.2 TRAITS OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
Daniel Goleman, an American psychologist, developed a structure with five elements, which defines the emotional intelligence:
1. Self-awareness: People with a high emotional intelligence
generally have a considerable self-awareness; they succeed in identifying their emotions and, just for this reason, they don't let feelings dominate themselves. They are self-confident because they believe in their intuition and, in this way emotions never prevail. They give an honest image of themselves, they know their limits and their main strengths and work on them to obtain better performances. Lots of people are persuaded that self-awareness is the most important element of emotional intelligence.
2. Self-control: It is the ability to control emotions and impulses.
People able to control themselves usually don't become too angry or jealous or envious and never opt for impulsive or superficial decisions; they think before acting.
Some features of self-control are devotion, integrity, ability in expressing opposite opinions, attitudes to changing.
3. Motivation: People with a high level of emotional intelligence are
typically very motivated. They are available to postpone good results of their actions to give more value to long term success. They are extremely productive, like changing and are very incisive in
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4. Empathy: We can say this is the second most important element
of emotional intelligence.
Empathy is the ability to identify oneself with other people and to understand their requirements, their needs, and their points of view. Highly empathetic people are able to recognize others' feelings, even when these feelings are not obvious. The consequence is that they are very skilful in managing relations, in listening and to enter into relations with anyone.
Moreover they avoid stereotyping or judging too rashly and live their life in an honest and open way.
5. Social ability: another important feature of emotional intelligence.
It is usually very easy to enter into connection and establishing good relations with people gifted with high social ability.
Who has this particular feature is very skilful in carrying out a teamwork; rather than concentrate on his success, he will prefer helping other people.
He is an excellent communicator, can manage controversies and is specialized in building and keeping relations.
The ability in managing people and relations is fundamental for every leader, so utilizing and developing emotional intelligence is the best starting-point to acquire the necessary qualities of a good leadership. Emotional intelligence can be taught and improved and this is a
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positive side of the present situation; a lot of books and tests are available to verify the level of emotional intelligence, to identify and fill in the eventual gaps and to perfect one's potentialities19.
1.5.3 EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE IN RELATION TO THE
LEADER ROLE
When we talk about a perfect leader, we think of a person who can always control his temper, leaving other problems out of consideration; someone who has full confidence by his staff, a well-mannered person, who is sympathetic, can listen to his subordinates and can always take prudent and conscious decisions: all qualities of emotional intelligence.
Now we can examine the most important elements of emotional intelligence from the view of the leader:
1. Self-awareness
A self-aware person is always informed about his feelings and knows how his emotions and actions can involve people near him.
Being aware when you are in a leadership position means also having a clear vision of your potentialities and your limits.
What to do to develop self-awareness?
- To reflect: Reflecting helps to increase self-awareness. It is useful to
spend some minutes a day writing down our thoughts to heighten the level of consciousness.
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Cfr, Goleman D., Boyatzis R., McKee A., “Primal Leadership: Unleashing the Power of Emotional Intelligence”, 2013, Harvard Business Press.
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- To delay: When you experience anger feelings or other strong emotions,
it is necessary to slow down for examining the cause. It is essential to remember that we can always choose how to react in a certain situations.
2. Self-control
The leaders who regulate themselves in an efficient way rarely attack verbally other people, take hasty or emotional decisions, compromise their values.
This element moreover includes flexibility and engagement to personal responsibility, essential for a leader.
How to increase self-control abilities?
- To know one's values
It is very important to spend some time to examine one's “ethical code”; if a person knows what is more valuable for him, he will not hesitate in front of a moral decision and he will make the right choice.
- To take the responsibility upon oneself
The propensity to charge other people when things go amiss is very wrong. It is better to admit our errors and to face the consequences, whatever they may be. This behaviour will win people's confidence.
- Keeping calm
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to someone to reduce the stress, don’t, it is important to take a deep breath and keep calm.
Another approach is to write all negative thoughts on a piece of paper, then tear it off and throw it out.
It is much better expressing these emotions on a piece of paper than expressing them aloud in front of anyone where you may cause unnecessary offense.
Moreover, this exercise helps to ponder and understand your emotions, ensuring you react in the most suitable manner.
3. Motivation
A strongly motivated leader works chiefly for objectives and he has got extremely high standards for the quality of his work.
How to increase the motivation?
- Re-examine the reason for which we are doing something
It is easy to forget what really we want out of our career, so it is useful to take our time to review why we chose exactly that job.
- To be optimist
The motivated leader is always optimistic. Adopting this attitude may require a little of workout but it will be a rewarding effort.
Whenever he has to face a change or even a failure it is necessary to try to find at least one positive aspect of the situation, which could be something little, such as a new contact or a useful lesson with long term effects.
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4. Empathy
Having empathy is essential for managing a team. A leader with empathy is able to identify himself with anybody. He will help the workers of his team to grow, he will try to correct people who don't behave properly, he will listen to someone who wants to communicate, he will give constructive feedback.
It is fundamental to show this feature to gain the respect and the confidence of everyone.
How to increase empathy?
- To identify oneself with someone else
It is easy to assert our own thoughts but it is very important to look at certain situations from other people's point of view, even if it is not so simple.
- To observe the body language
It is very useful to learn reading the body language because with that, you can pick up signals on how people are feeling. There are a lot of signals our body sends (gesture, posture, voice etc.) when we communicate; almost all of them are done subconsciously, so they cannot lie about the real feelings. If a leader can pick up more exactly the true situation regarding someone, he will have the opportunity to react properly.
Social abilities
Leaders who have high social abilities are excellent communicators, they are open to receive good and bad news indifferently and are skilled in
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supporting their team or inspiring them when new ideas and new projects are proposed.
Leaders equipped with this feature are also very good in managing changes and tactfully solving conflicts that can arise; they are rarely satisfied with static situations and attract people with their behaviour.
How to improve leadership creating social abilities?
- To learn solving conflicts
A good leader must be able to solve conflicts trying to mediate with tact between his collaborators, customers or sellers. To learn how to solve conflicts is an essential for success.
- To learn praising people
A good leader has to inspire people, appreciating them openly whenever he can, with the aim to advance satisfaction, dedication and self-confidence.
Thanks to the numerous challenges and opportunities that working with other people offers, a leader must prove he is aware of his actions and his emotions and involve everyone who works around him. The more a leader succeeds in relating and working agreeably with his collaborators the more success he will achieve20.
20
Crf, Salovey P., Brackett M.A., Mayer J.D., “Emotional Intelligence: Key Readings on the Mayer and Salovey Model”, 2004, National Professional Resources Inc./Dude Publishing.
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1.6 THE IMPORTANCE OF THE CLIENT
Leadership is critical, a leader has to think about many things, he has to balance many issues and he has to deal with changes. There will always be something unexpected to take on even if everything seems to be planned. But the only guarantee that will never change is that the business always depends on the end-users: customers, clients, patients, passengers and others who benefit from the company’s products or services and without these people the same company wouldn’t exist.
The ability of a leader, in this perspective, is to succeed in involving his team to consider clients as people who belong to the company and not as external entities who are unrelated to the business.
The final users represent some critical partners for leaders because they are a tangible evidence of the worker’s struggles, and they represent a great source of inspiration and motivation for the employees21. For workers it is usually more probable that the final users create inspiration in them because when leaders try to spread inspiring messages they could read it just like an advice to work hardly and the message could be received in the opposite way.
Leaders could not work on their own and succeed their employee to do the right things, they need help propagating their vision inside the company and the end users are appropriate to fit this role. It’s not to decrease the leaders job but just to show how they could work to take all the advantages and opportunities connecting people and creating a partnership.
A successful approach is to consider any important decisions from the perspective of the clients, and treat them as a priority. Leaders have to show the end users to their employees and illustrate to them the effect of their work to increase their motivation as much as possible. Leaders have the task of achieving at most the clients requests, if not, the staff will perceive that the customer is not considered as a priority and thereby they will obtain the
32 customer’s dissatisfaction as a result22
.
When the best customer service experience becomes an ambition and becomes part of the company’s culture, the employees will assume specific traits, and it will increasingly be considered as:
- more friendly than the competition, - more human,
- more approachable, - more evolutionary, - different to the others.
“What you think customers want you to be.”
Building behaviours around that perspective is advantageous in order to make the employees always approachable and helpful with customers, they would recognize what needs to be done and do it, they would be tenacious and responsive with a strong desire to do the right things and, above all, they would be resourceful finding always a way to obtain the best result.
Improving the customer’s experience and supplying a great service through their attention to detail, the application of cutting-edge technologies, the distribution of the information and increasing the range of the services, should help a company to establish a customer base that uses them for future purchases.
1.7 IS IT POSSIBLE TO CREATE LEADERS?
It would be great to teach how to become a leader at school or provide
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leadership degrees at university, unfortunately it is impossible to manage it. It happens frequently that good leaders don’t know how they reach their position or what made them excellent directors.
On one hand, some aspects of leadership could be learned through training sessions because leadership is also a technical proficiency; it includes above all communication and transmission ability. It means also empowerment and knowledge development, and these aspects are essential for a whole professional growth.
On the other hand, leadership is more than formation. It includes acquisition of information, knowledge and attitudes that could help people not only to solve problems but also to become wise and sensible. Qualities that, nowadays, are quite rare but that are useful to understand and respect the others and to make leadership responsible and efficient.
What makes a person different from the others is his own experience and the ability to use it in an intelligent way.
Education sometimes tends to level the students’ knowledge because all of them are taught the same things in the same way, so that the individual talent is not emphasized, while personal experiences make people unique with an exclusive background and with a solid awareness of their limits and their weaknesses.
This personal aspect allows people to understand excellently the context and offer them a greater perspective to observe the environment and to undertake effective decisions. It strengthens, moreover, the ability to catch connections allowing people to possess a different way of thinking; in one word it represents the capacity to think strategically and creatively23.
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2. GATWICK AIRPORT LIMITED
In the period between October 2013 and March 2014 I attended a curricular internship at Gatwick Airport in London in the Human Resources office of the Company.
Over this period I completed a variety of tasks to gain a broad understanding of the Human Resources department and its role within the company.
I was involved in some interesting challenges which included the recognition plan, talent spotting, recruitment, training sessions and client data consultation. In addition to these activities, I spent a significant amount of my time on the Best Company Survey and the Leadership Survey.
In particular I found the two surveys very interesting, so much that I decided to focus my dissertation on one of these assessments – The Best Company Survey. My attention was drawn to the approach taken by the HR department to focus on the already successful leaders and to identify potential leaders amongst their current staff. This focus was maintained by periodic monitoring of leadership standards, through internal surveys, and by ensuring sufficient investment was allocated in their budget to improve on their weaker areas.
Over the 6-months I spent at Gatwick airport, I observed the key role the Human Resources Department plays in the success of the business as a whole. Without their challenging development schemes and continuous monitoring, the company wouldn’t achieve what it has to date.
With the increasing use of air travel in both the business and private sectors, driven partly by the rapid growth of the low cost carriers (LCCs) market, air travel has become a common practice for many people. Despite the
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passengers becoming more familiar with the travel process, behind the scenes the airport is having to cope with the additional complexities that come with greater passenger numbers. Through my experience with the Human Resources department I observed the complex strategies put in place across the organisation to adapt to this new challenging situation24.
2.1 GATWICK’S HISTORY
Gatwick Airport began life in 1930 as a small flying club for enthusiasts and was issued with its first public license in 1934, which allowed the airport to be used by commercial aircraft, beginning scheduled service from the airport to Belfast and Paris.
Since then, it has gone from strength to strength. It is now the UK’s second largest airport and the most efficient single-runway airport in the world.
London Gatwick serves around 200 destinations, more than any other UK airport, in 90 countries for 34 million passengers a year on short and long haul point-to-point services and around 45 airlines operate from the airport.
It serves more destinations than any other UK airport and is the best connected point-to-point airport in Europe welcoming around 34.2 million passengers a year flying to approximately 185 destinations.
36 1Gatwick Passenger Totals 2000-2013 (millions)25
Gatwick Airport is located 45 km south of London Central and there are great connections into the capital, especially a good train service from the south terminal.
BAA (British Airport Autorithy) owned and operated Gatwick from April 1966 to December 2009, on September 2008 BAA announced it would sell Gatwick. In October 2009 an agreement had been reached to sell Gatwick to a consortium of private equity funds led by Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP).
AIRCRAFT MOVEMENTS
Gatwick Airport operates the world's busiest single runways, it operates the highest number of air traffic movements per year off a single runway.
In 2011/12 Gatwick operated 242,49826air transport movements, more than any other single runway in the world. San Diego, the second busiest single runway airport, handles around half the number of annual movements on its single runway.
25 Gatwick Airport, “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gatwick_Airport-“. 26
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- Annual air transport movements in 2011/12: 242,498 - Average daily air transport movements 2011/12: 664
- Busiest day ever: 22 August 2008, 895 aircraft movements.
Gatwick Airport is formed by two terminals, the South was opened in 1958 and the North in 1998, they are connected by a shuttle available every 4 minutes. Both have shops and restaurants landside and airside and all areas are accessible to disabled passengers.
EMPLOYMENT AND INVESTMENT
Gatwick provides around 23,500 on-airport jobs, of which around 2,650 are London Gatwick employees. It provides, moreover, a further 20,000 jobs indirectly.
The operation of Gatwick contributes around £2 billion annually to the economy of London and the South East.
2.2 HUMAN RESOURCES DEPARTMENT
Gatwick airport is a complex working environment that includes a motivated and skilled work-force across a wide variety of teams and functions, the relevant Gatwick business areas are as follows:
GATWICK BUSINESS AREAS
Security
Airside Operations Engineering
Construction and Development Commercial
Procurement Communications Human Resources Finance
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The Human Resources team guarantees the proper staff management in order to deliver a functional performance according to the strategic aims.
The office is divided in two sections, “Delivery” and “Organisational Development”.
The first section procures different services to all the employees, from research, recruitment and getting started in the new job, to the thorough management as training, managing the pay, benefits and rewards, maintaining health and wellbeing at work, managing changes to the lifestyle, administration and maintaining labour relations. It plans, moreover, valuation, motivation, training and development actions.
Throughout each of these stages, HR will provide the employee with any day-to-day requirements relating to the employment contract and working arrangements at Gatwick. This includes information, documents and forms needed in relation to any areas, supported by advice on best practice for managers and employees alike27.
In addition to these day to day services, HR are also responsible for the strategic development of the organisation, that is the other section, helping to define what structure, what skills and training are required and how to develop the organisation in the future to become London's airport of choice.
During my internship at Gatwick I took part in the Organisational Development section that led to my interest in the leaders management process and the talent spotting. I was really interested in understanding how the leadership worked at Gatwick so I asked to be involved in the leadership surveys through the preparation of the questionnaires and the data and results management.
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2.2.1 ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
There is more than one definition to clarify what Organisational Development is, but we can say that it concerns the planning of changes.
We live, nowadays, in a global world, especially if we refer to business, the environment is continuously changing with competition increasing year on year.
It is impossible for successful high performance companies of modern times to remain stable and static, as changes occur in the industry every day. An organisation needs to adapt very quickly to the environment keeping up with marketplace pressures, optimizing the global processes, adopting advanced technologies and competing for the best leaders to run their company.
Organisational Development is used mainly by big companies whose employees have a high level of job satisfaction and are close to the organisation because they give credibility to their managers and they share the vision, the culture and the philosophy of the company28.
Important Organisational Development theorists, Cummings and Worley, describe it as: “A process that applies a broad range of behavioural science knowledge and practices to help organisations build their capability to change and to achieve greater effectiveness, including increased financial performance, employee satisfaction, and environmental sustainability.”29
To cope with change the organisations and their leaders have to take a strategic and innovative approach to achieve healthy, productive and vibrant results and high performance workplaces. New approaches, theories and behaviours are adopted to prepare to the workforce for a challenging future.
28 Cfr, William J. Rothwell, Jaqueline M. Stavros, Roland L. Sullivan, “Practicing Organization
Development: a guide for leading change”, 2009, John Wiley & Sons.
29 Cfr, Thomas G. Cummings and Christopher G. Worley, “Organizational Development and
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Gatwick developed the ability to attract, to motivate and to hold high quality workers, building and supporting a culture of “belonging”. In other words, Gatwick succeeds in creating a strong sense of community and loyalty not only from its employees but also from all its partners. All the workers at Gatwick are involved and interested in the company’s success and they will contribute positively throughout their dynamic and innovative ideas; through this culture of enthusiasm and dedication the airport tries to satisfy all the stakeholders. The area in which Gatwick is focused on is the “Development”, that is the process of innovation and improvement, as the Company is coping with a great change and transformation.
The success of a modern company is not evaluated just by the profits they generate, there are other relevant elements such as the culture of the company, the satisfaction and the retention of the employees, their professional development and the system of social sustainability and responsibility.
What makes Gatwick unique is that it needs to satisfy a number of people, including the government, its shareholders (including GIP), the airlines, the neighbouring communities, the passengers and the employees.
2.2.2 CHANGING AT GATWICK
In 2009, Global Infrastructure Partners became Gatwick airport’s owner. This considerable change generated a transformation of the organisational culture and new purposes for the future were grown.
Moreover Gatwick underwent a serious change which took place with the new CEO arrival, who took lots of innovative ideas.
During a moment of transition it is important, more than ever, that the high management give the right example to the workforce to chart the course to follow to reach the company aims.
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In the initial years it was important for the leaders to be very clear on their direction and it continues to be so. Leaders at Gatwick have the capacity to spread the new vision to all of the employees promoting the teamwork and supporting governance structure, at the same time, the employees’ personal growth and their abilities development.
What I would like to highlight is the original and unique aspect, from a leadership point of view, that an airport industry has. The success of Gatwick depends on the satisfaction of several demands, it’s not just about the customer experience but it’s about a huge number of stakeholders. To be successful Gatwick built strong and constructive relationships with all the stakeholders based on openness and trust.
Being the second airport in UK and the busiest runway in the world means there are high expectations of the airport, with great responsibilities to the thousands of people they serve each day. The leaders at Gatwick work in a global context and therefore they have to put the strategic management skills, proactive
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people and contingency plans in place to operate at such a level.
Considering the big change the airport is going through, the leaders require strong problem solving skills to drive changes in a ‘continuous improvement’ environment. Many local groups and committees are involved in discussions on the airport’s operation, Gatwick have to meet representatives from local communities, councils, residents and interest groups to discuss airport issues.
We can consider now all the different stakeholders the airport need to be in contact with.
As we know, Gatwick is owned by “Global Infrastructure Partners” so, first of all, the demanding requests and the high level standards expected from this big infrastructure investor need to be satisfied as it is the main shareholder.
The staff are another internal stakeholder, Gatwick wants for its employees to have the right work life balance and it tries to satisfy their needs giving lots of importance to the human side of the people.
There is, moreover, an Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) Policy that is necessary to identify any potential risks and it adopts measures to maintain continual improvement.
Gatwick wants to build a good relationship with airlines by understanding their goals, helping them to grow and developing commercial partnerships. The airport is also improving its services for both passengers and airline partners to make them choose to fly from Gatwick.
In terms of external stakeholders, there are the government and the authorities whose agenda need to be respected, as they can be a difficult problem to overcome if they do not agree with the airport’s plans. For any decisions to be successful Gatwick needs to identify and recommend the best solution economically, environmentally and logistically.
One big issue affecting Gatwick is the noise pollution generated by the airport operations. Although this is a difficult issue to solve, Gatwick is investing money and resources to provide all the information and act in order to reduce the
43 problem.
Moreover Gatwick, as a major airport needs to get the trust of its local communities affected by its operations; especially now that they are competing to build a second runway to the south of the existing.
Being an airport, passengers are definitely one of the most relevant stakeholder, everyone who works at the airport has a role to play to deliver a great service at every stage of the airport journey and to offer the very best possible experience. The purpose is to deliver the kind of service that will make them choose to fly from Gatwick.
Moreover Gatwick is working hard to achieve the high standards of service for the passengers. To do it, the airport has some particular priorities30:
- We’ll treat you as our guest - We hate queues
- We love to be on time
The leaders require all the companies working at the airport agree the same promises to deliver the best performance.
Another big issue is the Trade Unions, the Company recognises three Trade Unions for all employees. There are a number of established negotiating and consultative bodies ranging from the Gatwick Joint Committee (GJC) which negotiates pay and other terms and conditions through to a range of Industrial Sub Committees (ISC’s) which consider departmental issues.
Gatwick also built a strong relationship with the media, the communication team works with the press, television and journalists to make sure people get to hear Gatwick’s message and to promote the positive work Gatwick is doing to become London’s airport of choice.
30
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We can understand that just with the best people Gatwick can achieve his aims.
2.3 LEADERSHIP AT GATWICK
2.3.1 GATWICK’S AMBITION
Before speaking about leadership, I would like to introduce the ambition, the vision and the mind-set that characterizes Gatwick airport. The most important purpose of the airport, its ambition, is to compete to grow to become London’s airport of choice, ensuring that passengers, airlines and business partners choose Gatwick over any other London’s airport because of the professional service and the human approach.
Overall Gatwick will promise its passengers a more personal touch.
The service style is about astonishing people with an unforgettable experience; to better describe what “unforgettable” means there are the three U: Unforgettable, Unremarkable and Unforgivable31:
UNFORGETTABLE: finding ways to astonish passengers with a great experience at Gatwick, being always on the lookout for ways to exceed expectations.
Adopting this “Service Style” will help drive improved business and is certainly more rewarding from the passenger, the airlines and Gatwick point of view.
UNREMARKABLE: it should be unremarkable if the airport is clean and tidy, staff are friendly and helpful and the flights depart on time.
UNFORGIVABLE: on the worst days, when things go wrong for
31Gatwick Airport, “www.gatwickairport.co.uk/intranet”.
