Why Alan Joyce is a CEO role model

There has been much debate about whether Alan Joyce's grounding of the entire Qantas fleet was the right move for the airline.

According to a Sydney Morning Herald report, controversy raged "about the timing of the decision, about the information Australia's leaders had about Qantas's intentions and the ideological drivers behind the dispute, reflecting broader rifts in society over Labor-union and Coalition-business links, and protectionism versus the growing globalisation of the world workforce".

History will no doubt be the judge. However, no matter which side of the fence you sit on, it's hard to dispute that it was a brave move. In the period since Saturday October 29, Joyce has had to contend with a tsunami of criticism from politicians, the media, unions, and the general public.

We look for a range of attributes in future chief executives, including vision, emotional intelligence, a sense of urgency, and an ability to enable change amongst others. Courage and strength of character loom large in any list and it has been these characteristics that have seen Joyce through one of the most tempestuous periods of his corporate career.

In my work as an executive coach, I often work with CEOs who say they experience many sleepless nights as a result of their role as the ultimate decision maker.

As Alan Joyce would no doubt attest, it takes a lot of personal courage for a CEO to draw a strong line in the sand, and great resilience to move forward from this kind of situation. Despite having the support of the board and leadership team, he has put his name and personal brand to a situation which remains ambiguous and complex.

For me, there are five key learnings about leadership in difficult times that we can take from this situation:

1. Taking command in the face of adversity requires an unwavering self belief.

Throughout the whole period, Joyce has led from the front – facing the media continuously, attending a Senate Committee hearing (which he likened to a McCarthy-type inquisition), and being constantly visible. It may have been tempting on occasion to delegate these tasks to a trusted lieutenant but he appears to have never seen this as a viable option.

2. Confronting difficult issues takes personal resilience and a willingness to take things to the cliff precipice.

A writer on the subject of mental resilience describes this as having the focus of a warrior and the peace of a monk. In any case, the ability to respond positively to stress and adversity is likely to have developed over a long period of time and is usually ever-present in the individual, rather than a skill drawn from the emotional toolbox when required.

In Alan Joyce's own admission, confronting a personal health issue gave him the drive to focus on the future of Qantas. This is evident in his passionate personal disclosure about his battle with prostate cancer.

Facing personal adversity confronts our deepest existential values and beliefs and quickly helps us to focus on our life priorities. The smaller things just fade away. Tackling the complex issues of the viability of Qantas is a cliff-facing move.

3. Dealing with global complexity and an evolving operating environment requires a helicopter view and an ability to look to the future.

Joyce has argued throughout the dispute that his decision to ground the airline was all about the long-term future of Qantas in the context of the global aviation sector and not about short-term opportunistic wins on wages and conditions.

4. Avoiding seeing crises as unbearable problems is challenging at best, but more so when many observers saw Joyce's decision as akin to "betting the company's future on a number of uncertain and risky actions”.

Academic research suggests an ability to accept a challenge of this proportion is developed over time and is primarily related to having relationships that provide care and support, create love and trust and offer encouragement, both within and outside the family.

5. When making difficult and far-reaching decisions, the board and CEO need to be 100 per cent aligned to defend external criticism from employees, consumers, industry, media and government.

While Joyce has day-to-day operational decision making authority, he convened an hour-long board meeting at 10:30am on the Saturday morning, and sought and received the board's unanimous endorsement of his proposed actions.

No doubt over the coming weeks, clarity will evolve for everyone involved with Qantas and its myriad key stakeholders. With clarity and reduced uncertainty, people can move forward and plan their individual and organisational future, understanding what they have control over and what they don't.

The intention of this article is not to lionise Alan Joyce – time will make its own estimation of this – it is simply observations of a leader under extraordinary external and internal pressure who has (publicly at least) responded to these circumstances in a positive and considered fashion.

Virginia Mansell is managing director of the Stephenson Mansell Group, Australia's leading executive coaching, mentoring and leadership development organisation. She holds a BA in Psychology and Statistics, a Postgraduate Degree in Counselling Psychology, and has been a registered psychologist for 18 years. In 2009 Virginia published her first book, The Focused Executive: Leadership & Management Skills in Challenging Times. www.smgrp.com.au