BUSINESS AND LIFE: Effective Leadership & LIAT’s Summer Meltdown

This week, we will focus on Effective Leadership.  This may be timely in light of LIAT’s “Summer Meltdown”.  There has been much said, with maybe the most popular and insightful letter coming from Mr. Gregor Nassief, Owner/Managing Director of Secret Bay.  I have had my experiences with LIAT over the years and during the “Summer Meltdown”, and I am not going to deal with this here.  I am going to address the LIAT issue in the leadership framework, as advanced by Mr. Gregor.

Before I go much further, I wish to commend the LIAT staff in Dominica and the other countries, who continues to strive to provide “good customer service” despite the challenges.

Mr. Nassief’s call that “heads must roll,” asks that the LIAT issue be seen as one of leadership and governance rather than one of operations.  Warren Bennis’ definition of leadership as “the capacity to translate vision into reality” and John Maxwell’s “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way,” are apt for this article.    One of the things that have been made painfully clear by LIAT’s “summer meltdown,” is the absence of effective leadership at LIAT. I don’t think anyone is questioning the LIAT’s decision to re-fleet, however many are asking about the timing.  LIAT’s vision must have been for a more effective performance, happier customers and enhanced profit and profitability.  Unfortunately, this vision is not the reality, and certainly fails the standards set be Dennis.  What then are some of the tenets of effective leadership and how can this be applied to LIAT?

Peter Drucker (2004) has identified eight principles of effective leadership:
1.    Ask what needs to be done
2.    Ask what’s right for the organisation?
3.    Develop Action Plans
4.    Take responsibility for decisions
5.    Take responsibility for communicating
6.    Focus on opportunities, not problems
7.    Run productive meetings
8.    Think and say “We”, and not “I.”

Let’s analyse the LIAT’s situation in context of these eight principles.  In this week’s article, we address the first four:

1.    Ask what needs to be done – Caribbean people, I believe, have a love-hate relationship with LIAT.  We love its safety record, its survival and the fact that it belongs to us (we have seen many a competitor of LIAT come and go).  For some of us, LIAT is our only choice for air travel to connect us to the rest of the world, and we do not like this monopoly.  We hate its unreliability with respect to punctuality and our luggage, its poor communication skills (nowhere was this more embarrassingly visible than in LIAT’s response to Richard Branson) and the indifference of some of its staff, especially those contracted in some countries).

LIAT has to keep asking, what needs to be done to fulfill our mandate and meet the needs of our customers?  Clearly, LIAT answered, re-fleeting, getting newer and bigger planes to enable us to improve on our time and giving the customer a better experience.  One point that is clear here is that in answering the question, a comprehensive approach has to be taken. It is not only what has to be done here that must be answered; the timing, the implementation, the impact and contingency plans also need to be answered.

2.     Ask what’s right for the Organisation – In answering the first question, many answers may be forthcoming.  One of the acid tests for the options has to be “what’s right for the organisation?”  An option, while being a good one may not be right for the organisation.  In arriving at the best decision, many stakeholders would be involved in the decision-making process to include the Board, management, technical team, customers, regulatory body or bodies and government.

One hopes that LIAT involved its key stakeholders in this process, in the early rather than in the “after-the-fact” stage.  In addition to the timing of the implantation of the change, the type of planes bought has also been questioned.  I am not privy to inside information of LIAT, however, from the outside, the timing of the introduction of such a massive change during the peak season for LIAT, and as well as the first summer following the termination of AA services to many of LIAT’s destination appears questionable.  The extra demand for LIAT services by many of the medical students and people travelling to the US for summer vacation, from Dominica and other countries where AA no longer flies has to be compounding the situation.

The implications of pilots who were trained to fly the ATRs could no longer fly the Dash 8s would also have to be considered.  Yesterday, one of my Godsons said to me that he has been researching the ATR and other plane options and found that the Q400 (apparently the new version of the Dash-8) appears to be superior to the ATRs, in terms of capacity, altitude, speed though the ATRs were more fuel efficient.  He stated that the extra capacity and quicker turnaround should compensate for the lower fuel efficiency and was asking me why LIAT would have purchased the ATR.

I certainly could not answer and offered that it must be based on price.  Here again, I state clearly that I am no engineer and was and am not privy to LIAT’s discussions, but one can only assume that LIAT’s Board and management took in consideration all these factors and took the decision that was right for the company.  From outside however, the timing of the implementation of LIAT’s decision to re-fleet does not appear to be the right time for LIAT.

3.    Develop Action Plans – Once one has chosen on the right option for the company, one needs to develop an Action Plan to implement the decision.  The Plan should contain information on the what, who, how, time and also the contingency in event the result anticipated is not what was envisioned.  This contingency is not only for negative outcomes but also positive outcomes, as both have implications for an organisation.  LIAT in deciding to re-fleet and in choosing the ATR would have put in place a plan to train the pilots, stewardess and all others who would be impacted by the decision, return the leased Dash-8s and the other considerations, and put in place a contingency plan for both positive and negative outcomes.

Sadly, this does not appear to be the case.  I shudder to think of the costs LIAT is incurring for this “Summer Meltdown”, with the costs of meals, accommodation and the many other costs that we are unaware of or do not see.  These additional costs must impact not only on LIAT’s profitability but also more importantly on its ability to improve the quality of its service, delight its customers, fulfill its mandate, and realise its vision for a more effective and profitable LIAT.

4.    Take Responsibility for Decisions – The buck stops at the top, and the Board of LIAT being the highest decision making body, must take and accept responsibility for this “Summer Meltdown” to its customers.  The Board, in turn should then demand that its management takes and accepts responsibility, which in turn must pass on the mantle to its technical team.  Unfortunately, we do not see the Board of LIAT taking and accepting responsibility for this “Summer Meltdown”.  LIAT has proffered many reasons for the “Summer Meltdown” to include the weather and airport limitations (externally driven) but has not given any tangible internal reason for the meltdown.  Chairman Jean Holder in addressing some of the many criticisms said in part, “It has been hard on the public, for which I apologise, and it has been hard on the LIAT staff.

On reflection, the public should have been made aware much earlier of what LIAT was attempting to do, the timing of which was largely driven by external circumstances, and that disruptions in the service would be inevitable.  At this point I promise you however that LIAT must and will do better (DNO, August 12, 2013).  Do you see the shifting of responsibility in this apology?  It is time for some deep introspection and responsibility taking and acceptance at LIAT.

Next week, we continue looking at the remaining four principles.

Until we meet again, May God Continue to Keep Us in the Palm of His Hands.