In a Memo to Employees, Delta’s CEO Announced They Were Getting Raises. These 5 Words Stuck Out

This week, Delta's CEO, Ed Bastian, sent a memo to employees, announcing that they would be getting a five percent raise. I guess if you're going to get a memo from the CEO of your company, this seems like the one you want. After all, everyone likes getting a raise.

This, in fact, is--according to Delta--the third year in a row that the airline has given employees a raise, and is separate from the $1.4 Billion the company handed out in profit sharing. That's impressive, but there was something about the memo that stuck out to me, however. To be more precise, there were five words that caught my attention because they serve as a powerful lesson for every leader. See if you can spot them in this excerpt from the memo:

Delta's leading position comes thanks to a simple concept that dates back nearly a century - invest in our people first, and they will deliver great service and experiences for our customers. That's exactly what you do, and it always sets us apart. And it's why I'm happy to be announcing our next investment in you, a pay increase which will be effective June 1.

I'm sure that you, my astute reader, had no trouble finding the five words I'm talking about: "Invest in our people first." As a guiding principle, I can't think of one that better summarizes the job of a leader. Your people are, after all, your most valuable asset. They are the ones who make whatever vision you have for your company a reality. They are the ones who build the products and--in this case--fly the planes. They are the ones who interact with your customers on a daily basis, shaping their perceptions and turning them into loyal fans. 

When you think about it, there are few dollars better spent than the ones you spend making your employees feel as though they matter. I don't know for sure how the math works, but I'm sure someone far smarter than I am can draw you a straight line between a dollar spent on a raise for an employee to some increase in customer satisfaction, which--if you're doing it right--leads to an increase in profitability. 

Look, I get it--there are a lot of things that companies do that don't feel like investing in their people. Every time I write something positive about a corporate CEO, I get emails from people who disagree. Usually, the argument is something like "This person made a decision that affected me personally in a way I really don't like." 

If you work for any company long enough, that's certainly going to be true. It's true that CEOs have to often make tough decisions. In some cases, those decisions are going to make some people upset. Sometimes, they're going to be mistakes--which is an entirely different column altogether. 

To be clear, I'm not suggesting that CEOs are perfect. I'm not even suggesting that Delta's CEO gets it right every time--I've written plenty about the way the company handled changes to its loyalty program, for example. 

But, in a time when more companies than I can count are laying off employees by the thousands, there's something to be said for an airline handing out profit sharing, and then handing out raises. There's something to be said for a company that says it's investing in its people first and then actually does it.