How Delta uses Tom Brady to train its 100,000 workforce on leadership and a winner’s mindset |
How Delta uses Tom Brady to train its 100,000 workforce on leadership and a winner’s mindset
Business leaders look everywhere for inspiration, from eyeing their peers’ successes to tapping industry vets for insight. But Delta’s CEO, Ed Bastian, chose to form a close relationship with seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady to shape the airline giant’s leadership—and Brady’s wisdom is revamping the company’s playbook.
“He’s a great leader,” Bastian recently told Fortune’s Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell on the Fortune 500: Titans and Disruptors of Industry podcast. “He’s got a great mind. He’s [got] a way of continuing to push the envelope.”
The leader of the $42.2 billion business doesn’t want his operating philosophy to exist in an echo chamber. Bastian explained that after a number of years at the top, companies don’t appreciate how hard it is to maintain their success. Many may fall into the trap of repeating the same formula over and over again in hopes of sustaining that momentum—but the Delta CEO says that’s the wrong approach. What really fuels success is constantly evolving.
“What got you to the top is continuing to reinvent, continuing to think differently, to be bold, push against all the strategies that made you great in order to sustain even greater performance,” Bastian continued. “And I don’t know anyone, at least in the sports world, for a longer time on a global stage that did that better than Tom did.”
The football star is bringing his own leadership flair to the company’s more than 100,000 employees with his “Tom Brady playbook.” Young staffers pose questions on how to........