An Evaluation of Carolyn McCall's Leadership and its Impact on EasyJet

This report provides an in-depth evaluation of Carolyn McCall's leadership style as the CEO of EasyJet, a British low-cost airline. It analyzes her use of a turnaround leadership approach, highlighting her characteristics and skills that drove the company's growth and success, including her ability to handle problems independently and her innovative approach. The report also examines the consequences of her leadership style, particularly during the financial crisis, and assesses whether she was the right leader for EasyJet, emphasizing her focus on employee and customer satisfaction. Furthermore, the report details her strategies to improve employee morale and capital structure, demonstrating the positive impact of her leadership on EasyJet's financial performance and market position, ultimately concluding that McCall's approach was crucial for the airline's achievements.

EVALUATE THE
LEADERSHIP OF
CAROLYN MCCALL

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
McCall is a turnaround leader and Rationale to support answer................................................1
The characteristics and skills which helped her in driving the company forward......................2
Consequences of taking her turnaround leadership style far.....................................................3
McCall is the right person for easyJet and the company needs good leader in future to drive
success business operations. .......................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Leadership style is the technique which assist the person in demonstrating its
traits and characteristic of handling different situations. The report will evaluate the
leadership style of Carolyn McCall who was the Chief Executive of EasyJet, the
British airline company whose ultimate motive is to serve customer satisfaction at
affordable prices. Further, the report will outline the characteristics and skills of
McCall which assisted her in driving companies' success to level of growth and
development. Moreover, it will analyse consequences faced by Carolyn by
implementing the use of leadership style instead of managing styles. Thus, the
report will identify if McCall and her style of leadership is effective for EasyJet.
MAIN BODY
Carolyn is the chief executive of EasyJet, the low cost British airline which
offers domestic and international flying services to 30 countries via 820 routes. To
attain success the firm offers different types of services the organisation offers
different types of schemes and packages on flying service to serve consumer
satisfaction and maximize profits. McCall is undoubtedly a successful leader who
leads her company with the help of turnaround leadership style (Basham and
Campbell, 2010). The lady solved various problem which come across in airlines and
she remarked her success by turning chaos of EasyJet into continuous increasing
profits against all the competitors of airline industry in Europe. The ultimate motive
of McCall turned when she planned to expand its airline services beyond tourism as
she wanted to made strong existence of airline in Business travel. The lady follows
turnaround leadership style because it is focused on the success of alone person
who handles all the services and changes single handed. The Turnaround leadership
style is the most effective style as in this the characteristics and behaviour of
person are not dependent on any other person. The success is demonstrated by one
individual efforts.
McCall is a turnaround leader and Rationale to support answer
It has been determined that McCall is the leader and not manager because
she believes in implementing changes in services to serve customer satisfaction
and not the basis of controversies. Like, the issue which was raised about the
toilets, there she told media that she does not believes on the reviews and
customer views on media, instead she will herself survey the airline toiletry services
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from travellers in order to analyse the problems and the reason behind the issue
(Clark, 2015). Handling problems alone to deliver effective travel services clearly
denotes that the lady is a leader and not manager. The motive behind stating the
leadership style of McCall is that, the Turnaround leadership by Michael Fullan
states about the trait of person who has the capability to turn the worst situation
into a growth opportunity just like the success of EasyJet Airline services. In this the
leader turns the table's upside down and creates reform in society just after
analysing the basic problems. The style is implemented in case of chief executive
because it is the story of Lone ranger who rides entire services alone to save
interests of People just like the success of Carolyn.
The characteristics and skills which helped her in driving the company
forward
There are several characteristics and skills of McCall which relates her to
turnaround leader like, she believes on herself and not the views which are being
spread by media. For instance, the case of toilet where the ceiling were low and
male passengers were facing lot of problems. She got puzzled and grilled about the
problems but then she herself analysed the issue and planned a change where she
announced to make a room for the passengers who seat in a row and then will
formulate entire changes because the company will not perform anything that can
reduce customer satisfaction. This denotes the lone ranger characteristic of lady
which assisted her in attaining success in very short period. Apart from this the
innovation skills of McCall are example for the airline industry like when the issue of
toilet raised, there were many reporters who asked questions which were to
damage higher reputation in industry but she answered very vigorously that she
don't discriminate on the basis of gender and therefore she did not think of gender
issues, these skills and approach of handling problems is the major reason behind
the increasing success of EasyJet (Bass, 2006). Apart from this, McCall characteristic
of handling success and changes alone is the turnaround leadership trait where the
person has strong belief in themselves where she is capable of accomplishing their
own determined goals and objectives. The skills of lady of handling innovation and
changes alone demonstrates the successful leadership quality which are the core
the reason behind the remarkable success of EasyJet. The lone ranger
characteristics of McCall demonstrates that she is intelligent, smart, innovator, and
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understands the importance of grabbing opportunities (Brandts, Cooper and Weber,
2014). Thus, to attain success, it is important for the person to follows the
turnaround leadership style because in accordance to this style the person is not
dependent on any other person or factors which is most beneficial factor (O'Kane,
and Cunningham, 2014). However, the major skills of turnaround leaders are their
competitive spirit and efficiency of handling things alone with the spirit of attaining
determined goals and objectives.
Consequences of taking her turnaround leadership style far.
Furthermore, it has determined that the consequences of being a turnaround
leader will assist McCall in taking Easy let as the market leader of airlines industry
worldwide because in this the success of lade and her company is not dependent on
another individual. Further the lady is focused on delivering employee and customer
satisfaction. Apparently, the success of EasyJet was denoted at the time of financial
crisis where European airlines lost huge amount of money in 2008 while EasyJet still
managed to gain annual profits in those four years of financial crisis. Taking about
in numbers, the net income of airlines was 450 million pounds and at the same time
revenue was 4.5 billion pound which is clear cut example of successful efforts of
Carolyn. Apart from this, it has been analysed that the growth of EasyJet is slow and
gradual with the help of which it dominated most airline business. At present
EasyJet flies to 140 airports like Gatwick, London, Berlin and Geneva. In addition,
the success consequences of EasyJet is denoted by the motive of Carolyn where she
planned to the leader of travelling in to business world and now, there have
noticeable increase in business travellers with tourist. The person who has the
ability to attain determined targets holds the skills of handling and managing
success in growth years of company. However, in 2010 airline was facing lot of
fluctuation, it was the time when Carolyn joined the EasyJet, the struggle was
increasing due to frequent flight delays due to which there was rapid decrease in
travellers especially business travellers. Further, in this period the lady even
analysed the poor customer service of EasyJet was another reason behind
decreasing profits and revenue of airline company. In accordance to this operational
issue in EasyJet which occurred after a long period of success the operation head of
EasyJet Rob Bishton, stated that Carolyn faced lot difficulty in managing and
aligning operational reality with commercial aspirations hand in hand. McCall is
lady of beliefs where she is focused on companies' success by serving employee
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and travellers satisfaction therefore in accordance to these problems it was the
major difficulty where she was unable to determined and consider one issue
between operational and commercial aspiration. Thus, the consequences of
turnaround leadership style will take the lady and success of organisation to far
because her determination of achieving success is strong. The will power and the
belief that she will herself investigate all problems and issue which are reducing
customer satisfaction is the factor which assist EasyJet in attaining its mission,
vision and goals (Andal-Ancion, Cartwright and Yip, 2013).
McCall is the right person for easyJet and the company needs good leader in
future to drive success business operations.
In accordance to the skills, characteristic and leadership style it has been
represented that yes, McCall is the right person for EasyJet because she is focused
and handles all types of problems and issues by analysing them herself. The best
practice followed by the lady is to serve employee and customer satisfaction.
Further, in order to determine customer satisfaction she does not believe the news
express by reporters through different channels of media instead she herself
reviewed airline customer services to analyse the situation and services which are
resourcing traveller’s satisfaction. Like at the time of financial crisis she did not
bother about making profits or generating revenue instead she was focused on
boosting employee’s morale in context to traveller satisfaction. It is the practices
which assist the firm in making profits even at the time of crisis where all the
airlines company in industry was juggling with the huge losses. Carolyn has earned
strong reputation in airline industry by her personal and professional skills of
managing reality and satisfaction. Daily routine of lone ranger is to attend
operations meeting at 9:30 before which she aims at collecting all the necessary
information about traveller’s satisfaction, climate, employee etc. This the factor
which assist the lady in putting her strong stand in issue in operational meeting.
According to her leading style it has been demonstrated that she believes on
collecting appropriate and related information regarding company before making
changes. It is the practices which assist the company in accomplishing goals on
time. Apparently, the core reason behind the successful efforts of McCall is her
motivation where she believes that there is not difference on the basis of gender
and she states that success business woman holds the top rank across the globe
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which is clear cut example of the leading spirits of women's. In addition, she states
that “I see myself as CEO and not as women, what I am is because of the leading
spirit I rolled around in Airline industry”. In addition, she covered all the agenda to
present answer to reporter who questioned her airline services on the basis of
gender. She states that EasyJet has very managed team of females she quotes that
three people in middle management are females and 55 percent of executive team
comprise women employees (Andal-Ancion, Cartwright and Yip, 2013).
Apparently, there are crowning achievement of EasyJet which attained with
the successful efforts of McCall, when she entered into cockpit in 2010 she
discovered that employees were frustrated and were not at all satisfied with work
due to which the demand and profits of company were decreasing (Malighetti,
Paleari and Redondi, 2015). Therefore, to overcome this McCall implemented the
use of leadership philosophy where she enhanced the criteria of making people
more interested in people instead of planes, this idea assisted the business in
accomplishing its strategic objective and earning effective returns per passenger
which was the first step for the growth and development of British Airline. Further,
after implementing this style the lady focused on improving the capital structure of
EasyJet where she revised the structure where she delivered 8 percent increase in
flyers for final quarters and 6 percent increase in revenue per seat. Moreover, when
the European airline industry was struggling the EasyJet remarked its growth by
increasing its passenger base and in 2017 it recorded the highest business which
was 80.2 million pounds. However, the performance of McCall is denoted with a
point that from boss she is now Role Model for many people across the globe.
Carolyn McCall was used to count under 100 most powerful women of Britain by
radio four (Kakar, 2017). She is turnaround leader because she is focused on
making people aware about her services and efforts and not on making profits.
Revenue and profits are the second priority of McCall first she is focused on serving
travellers satisfactory services. The people worldwide believed her words and
success when she purchased 135 Airbuses in 2013. Many people like Haji-Ioannou
created her success a controversial moment but despite of protesting she continued
enjoying her traveller’s satisfaction and profits maximization. Besides, the last
working period of McCall in EasyJet was tough as the airline industry was facing bit
turbulence where the profits of company fallen by 17 percent and there is rapid
decrease in passengers. In this period the fuel prices were increased with
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competition therefore to cut down competition all the organisation in aviation
industry have cut down their travelling prices to attract more and more passengers.
In this period the lady handled the situation carefully and offered the service not for
the sake of profits but to make travelling services easy for its customers. This idea
assisted EasyJet in overcoming the crisis and after this she handover the
management to Johan Lundgren. According to the study and achievement of EasyJet
with the help of McCall, it has been determined that the lady is lone ranger who is
focused on implementing every possible effort which can assist in serving customer
satisfaction, maximizing profits and generative effective revenue (Malighetti, Paleari
and Redondi, 2015). Moreover, in accordance to functioning and success of EasyJet,
it has been demonstrated that the British airlines need leader and not a manager
because it is important for the management of business to lead in every situation
which can hamper the performance of organisation. Management of firm is
important but it can be handled by making systematic arrangement of business
operations with some set standards, policies and practices. On the other hand,
leadership quality and characteristics assist the person in making innovation in the
services of company in continuous period which is most effective method of serving
consumer satisfaction (Brandts, Cooper and Weber, 2014). The leadership style of
McCall assisted her in taking high calls on basic actions which assisted her in
improving airline services. With the help of turnaround leadership EasyJet
employees have focused on company’s development and effectiveness of services
at the time of financial crisis. It was the period where the leadership quality of
McCall assisted her in establishing improvement in aviation services in comparison
to all the airline organisation of European industry. The leadership philosophy of
McCall assisted her in taking Easy jet to the heights of success. It was the efforts of
McCall with the help of which the Airline came out of the financial crisis very
smoothly.
CONCLUSION
The report summarised the turnaround leadership style used by McCall, the
Chief Executive of EasyJet, the leading British Airline company. It analysed the
McCall resolve various problem which come across in airlines effectively and her
success is remarkable in Aviation industry. Further, the report outlined that McCall
is the right person for EasyJet because she is focused and handles all types of
problems and issues by analysing them herself. In addition, the report outlined that
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the lone ranger characteristics of McCall demonstrates that she is innovator and
understands the importance of grabbing opportunities. Thus, the report summarised
that the leadership quality and characteristics assist the person in making
innovation in the services of aviation company which is the most effective method
of serving consumer satisfaction.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Basham, M.J. and Campbell, D.F., 2010. A comparative analysis between
researchers, innovative practitioners, and department chairs of critical
issues for turnaround leadership in community college instructional
programs and services 2010 and beyond. Community College Journal of
Research and Practice. 35(1-2). pp.50-60.
O'Kane, C. and Cunningham, J., 2014. Turnaround leadership core tensions during
the company turnaround process. European Management Journal. 32(6).
pp.963-980.
Brandts, J., Cooper, D.J. and Weber, R.A., 2014. Legitimacy, communication, and
leadership in the turnaround game. Management Science. 61(11). pp.2627-
2645.
Malighetti, P., Paleari, S. and Redondi, R., 2015. EasyJet pricing strategy:
determinants and developments. Transportmetrica A: Transport Science.
11(8). pp.686-701.
Andal-Ancion, A., Cartwright, P.A. and Yip, G.S., 2013. The digital transformation of
traditional business. MIT Sloan Management Review. 44(4). pp.34-41.
Online
Bass J., 2006. Turnaround Leadership. [Online]. Available through:
<https://michaelfullan.ca/books/turnaround-leadership/>.
Clark N. 2015. EasyJet Chief Leads Airline Through Turnaround. [Online]. Available
through:
<https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/16/business/international/chief-of-
easyjet-leads-airline-through-a-turnaround.html>.
Kakar A. 2017. Carolyn McCall's 3 biggest achievements as easyJet CEO. [Online].
Available through: <https://www.managementtoday.co.uk/carolyn-mccalls-
3-biggest-achievements-easyjet-ceo/women-in-business/article/1450836>.
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