Yolanda sees the other side

I was coming home from from a visit to the Center for Creative Leadership, which teaches C-levels, admirals, and strivers of all levels to lead others better by first understanding self. The approach is humanistic but entirely without fluff — every principle is backed by decades of supporting data.

Flying from Greensboro to Boston, the only good flight is on Delta — unless it’s cancelled like mine. Along with my travelmates, I scrambled onto an already-boarding two-leg flight by US Airways. I arrived in Philly and found the connecting gate to be overflowing with misery. The preceding flight to Boston had been boarded, then held on the tarmac, and then returned to the gate. The customers were variously folded, splayed and contorted in seats that were designed for the short rests of the previous era of air travel — regulated, expensive and punctual. The previous flight was defunct, and it became clear that those passengers were to be given my plane for their ride home. My mates left for the bar, and I stayed at the gate, determined to join these ragged souls on the next plane to Boston.

One US Airways employee was at the gate desk, occasionally looking around at the scene but never at any one person, and typing into his screen prodigiously. The plane arrived for boarding. Travelers shoved their way to gate door. A few customers were not passing through but were instead lingering near the desk and leering needily at the US Airways employee, whom I shall now name Sir System. Sir System was expert at the operations of the gate computer, and he was assiduous about the order of boarding. Glued tightly to Sir System’s counter was a customer whom I shall name Nigel (Nice Intelligent Guy with English Lilt). As a customer, Nigel had everything going for him. We was tidily groomed, had a pleasant face and wore a gentlemanly overcoat. Nigel was, I imagined, an ex-pat of many years, as he spoke with the perfectly diluted English accent that Americans equate with social refinement. But Nigel was not happy.

Nigel and a half-dozen other passengers had disembarked the failed flight but were not, according to Sir System, scheduled for the makeup flight. “How can this happen?” asked Nigel, “I have a boarding pass right here. I was on the plane that came back to this gate. New passengers have been given boarding passes. And you sir, you are ignoring me.” “I’m not ignoring you. You are not booked on this flight. I will try to help you, as soon as the passengers with seats have boarded.” Freaky, I know. Sir System was actually self-righteous about it. Nigel held his old boarding pass and tickets out toward Sir System, who in turn would looked even further down at his computer. The standoff continued until Sir System invited Nigel, “Come back here sir, and see what I am seeing. The system shows you as pending, not booked. This other passenger right here, he’s booked on the flight. Do you see the difference?”

Other stranded passengers were heating up and things were getting interesting. All of a sudden, a few names were paged and not answered. And some stranded passengers were miraculously given seats and sent down the jetway. Not Nigel though, nor me.

Enter Yolanda, a second US Airways employee who arrived to work the desk. She was tense but alert. Yolanda looked at people. She eyeballed them. She addressed one, and then others sought her attention. Nigel made his case, and Yolanda got it. After an hour of Sir System’s solipsistic stubborness, Yolanda offered blunt emphathy, “Well I sure can understand how that would be frustrating sir. This here is a new computer system, and we hate it too. But it’s what we’re stuck with for tonight.” I don’t know about Nigel, but oddly I felt better.

A few more names were paged and not answered. Who knows if they sought other flights or just solace at the bar. Within minutes, Nigel, then the director, and then all the other forgottens were on the plane. Yolanda had tuned into me too, and let me know along the way that my chances were slim. I clung to the hope that chaos had created an opportunity for me. Sir System, to his credit, processed all those passengers with amazing efficiency. As the last of them passed through, Yolanda grabbed a hand-held radio and asked the flight attendant if there were any open seats. There was a pause. I settled back on my heals, ready to say thanks and retire to the bar. Yolanda looked up, “There’s one more seat. Go.” I hesitated. “They’re closing the gate. RUN.”

Run I did. So fast that I forgot to say anything.

The flight home ended in a delayed taxi to the gate. Most of the passengers were trying to laugh through it. How long could they delay us when we were already on the ground? But the guy behind me was freaking out. Not-so-under his breath, the muttered, “I’m not gonna make it. I’m not gonna make it. Oh god, I’m not gonna make it.” This was not a guy with a bathroom emergency. He continued, “I can’t take it. Oh man I’m gonna do something. I’m gonna get arrested. I’m gonna get arrested.” I turned around to see him crossing himself repeatedly. When the plane finally docked, I stepped out of the way to let this man through. As the line slowly moved up the aisle, he prayed his way all the way off the plane. I imagined what trouble there would have been if he were still back in Philadelphia. I thought about the impossible job of being in a service position at a U.S. airline. Delta and US Airways had blown it that night, but Yolanda had given me and all those other passengers great service. I walked into the terminal, drew a deep breath, and thought, “Thank you Yolanda, for seeing across the counter to the other side, where only you have the power to relieve a passenger’s misery. Thank you.”

Rule #2 of great service: See the other side.