A company at an altitude of 10,000 meters

Apart from the fact that an aircraft, unlike a company, is above the clouds most of the time, we can see several associations. Depending on the type of aircraft, between some 100 and over 800 people per passenger flight are together in a very small area. People of all ages with different cultural backgrounds. Thus, extremely high diversity bundled in a limited space – a  context in which conflicts can arise very quickly. In short, many people find it stressful to be in an aircraft. Dealing with this situation requires the utmost skills of the cabin crew.

As in a company, there is also direct customer contact in the aircraft. There are teams that work together in different functions and across different departments and there is leadership at numerous levels. The cabin crew has a double role in this system. On the one hand, to ensure passenger safety on board and, on the other hand, to be responsible for passenger care in terms of service. And although most passengers perceive the service to be the most important factor, ensuring passenger safety has a higher priority. As an example, the crew must ensure that a fully occupied aircraft can be completely evacuated within 90 seconds at any time with only half of the available emergency exits.

Highest demands on the crew

The frequently underestimated work of the cabin crew poses great challenges to the self-confidence and relationship competence of the crew members. A good example of this is when it comes to dealing with “unruly passengers” – passengers who ignore instructions, insult the crew or refuse to obey instructions. In 2001, there were over 50,000 such incidents worldwide. Today, that number has doubled. Now all cabin crews have to adapt to these changes. Problems must be recognized in advance, difficulties anticipated and de-escalated in time. Cabin crew members have to use proactive fire protection in the figurative sense to be able to extinguish fires in the least reactive way possible. Problems have to be solved quickly and without outside help – because there is nobody else to help.

Applied to a company, this could call for more humanity in leadership and collaboration. This does not mean that leaders have to cozy up to their team members – rather, it is a matter of changing the inner attitude towards people, towards the team for effective collaboration.

In the second part of this blog you will learn how to effectively establish and pass on this inner attitude.