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Business leaders look everywhere for inspiration, from eyeing their peers\u2019 successes to tapping industry vets for insight. But Delta\u2019s CEO, Ed Bastian, chose to form a close relationship with seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady to shape the airline giant\u2019s leadership\u2014and Brady\u2019s wisdom is revamping the company\u2019s playbook.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a great leader,\u201d Bastian recently told Fortune\u2019s Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell on the Fortune 500: Titans and Disruptors of Industry podcast. \u201cHe\u2019s got a great mind. He\u2019s [got] a way of continuing to push the envelope.\u201d<\/p>\n
The leader of the $42.2 billion business doesn\u2019t want his operating philosophy to exist in an echo chamber. Bastian explained that after a number of years at the top, companies don\u2019t 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\u2014but the Delta CEO says that\u2019s the wrong approach. What really fuels success is constantly evolving.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat 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,\u201d Bastian continued. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t know anyone, at least in the sports world, for a longer time on a global stage that did that better than Tom did.\u201d<\/p>\n
The football star is bringing his own leadership flair to the company\u2019s more than 100,000 employees with his \u201cTom Brady playbook.\u201d Young staffers pose questions on how to succeed, move forward, and grapple with challenges; he\u2019s also part of a video series that Delta workers complete as part of the company\u2019s learning and development experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Staffers hear directly from Brady on his own personal career lessons\u2014and Bastian says he leans on the quarterback legend \u201cfor an awful lot\u201d in the transformation.<\/p>\n
\u201cRather than just hearing from me all the time, having different voices come into our room and our leadership meetings and our 100,000 people, to share what greatness means\u2014not to get there, but to sustain it\u2014Tom is a great advocate for it,\u201d the CEO said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Brady\u2019s post-football retirement in the corporate world<\/p>\n
Brady first partnered with Delta Airlines in 2023, when the champion athlete, whose mother was, fittingly, a flight attendant, signed on as a strategic advisor to the Fortune 500 company. Bastian said his team needed continued inspiration to keep climbing up the industry ranks, and the five-time Super Bowl MVP was a perfect fit.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s going to be talking to our people about greatness, about resilience, about excellence, about performance,\u201d Bastian told CNBC in 2023, right after announcing their partnership. \u201cHe played with the greatest teams in the world. I think we run the greatest team in the airline space in the world, and putting our two brands together, magic is going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier that year, Brady had retired from an iconic 23-season stint in the NFL; however, he wasn\u2019t ready to throw in the towel on his career just yet. Since 2023, he\u2019s staked a claim in the business world as well; he\u2019s become a part-owner of companies like NoBull and CardVault, while also speaking at major businesses, including Cisco and Cloudera. At Delta, he says he\u2019s helping inspire people and grow a great team of workers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIn this next chapter of my life, to continue to do things like that really stimulates my own personal growth in a lot of ways,\u201d Brady told CNBC alongside Bastian in 2023. \u201cI\u2019m excited to share a lot of the lessons I\u2019ve learned.\u201d<\/p>\n
The football icon says that successful teamwork \u201calways starts at the top\u201d; leaders should inspire others to maximize their opportunities and potential. And even though he spent decades performing at the top of the game, Brady says he\u2019s not immune to criticism. In fact, he encourages it; Brady says resting on his reputation would be \u201cthe worst thing to do.\u201d Throughout his football career, and in his current partnership as a strategic advisor, he still values being coached to sustain his ongoing success.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m always one of the teammates,\u201d Brady told Bastian in a 2024 Delta Gaining Altitude podcast episode. \u201cSome of these guys were brand-new, but I wanted them to treat me like it was my first day on the job, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even during the early days of his football career, success didn\u2019t come immediately, and Brady learned a lot from failure. He got his start as a benched, second-string quarterback on his California high school team, which didn\u2019t win a single game. Even though he played at University of Michigan as a starting quarterback, he was a sixth-round pick in the 2000 NFL draft, selected 199th overall. Still, he persisted and became one of the greatest athletes of all time. Staying resilient in the face of failure is key to success in any profession, from sports to business.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reality of your business and career is overcoming adversity,\u201d Brady told Shontell at the Fortune Global Forum in 2024. \u201cThe only way to do that is to fail, and the only way to fail is to put yourself in uncomfortable positions.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you fail, and then you figure out a solution for the people you work with to overcome the failure, you gain a lot of self-confidence, and if you gain self-confidence, you\u2019ll get a better chance for the next opportunity to succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n
#Delta #Tom #Brady #train #workforce #leadership #winners #mindset<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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