When you become a cabin crew member, you work as part of a team, a team of other cabin crew members and your flight deck crew. As a result, it is critical to understand that being an effective flight attendant entails being a good team player. “Teamwork is very important,” says Erik Portus, a Philippine Airlines cabin crew trainer. Everything is affected if it is not present. “Service delivery will be dispersed.”
Airlines seek flight attendant candidates who work well in groups.
When airlines hire cabin crew, they look for candidates who are also team players. This is why, during recruitment days, some airlines conduct group activities to evaluate how you work in a team and interact with your colleagues. This is an important step in the hiring process.
Meal service is one of the most important parts of a flight where complete teamwork is required. Erik Portus continues, “If teamwork is lacking, everyone will do things on their own without synergy.” If this occurs, service delivery is jeopardized, and passengers are shortchanged.” Meal service is a highly coordinated component of in-flight services in order to effectively and efficiently serve every passenger in the shortest amount of time while maintaining quality and level of service.
The purser or lead cabin crew will discuss details of the flight, how many passengers, designations, duties, and how inflight services will be carried out efficiently and effectively, just like a basketball game where the coach will discuss team dynamics, strategies, and assign the positions of the players.
All movements within the cabin must be properly coordinated.
Also, during meal service, cabin crew members serve passengers in a very coordinated manner. They can do it quickly and efficiently without sacrificing quality.
Even in an emergency, each cabin crew member will be assigned specific duties. One will deploy and assist passengers in the slides, another will go around the cabin to check, and the rest will block the exit doors that pose an immediate threat.
There is a specific module that helps foster better teamwork during training and recurrent sessions. “This teaches the importance of every unit in operations from ground crew, cabin crew, and flight deck crew; that inefficiency of one unit affects operations as a whole,” Erik Portus says of that module.
This is why, if you want to be an effective flight attendant, you must be a team player.
First love never dies. I fell in love with airplanes and aviation when I was a kid. My dream was to become a pilot, but destiny led me to another path: to be an aviation digital media content creator and a small business owner. My passion for aviation inspires me to bring you quality content through my website and social accounts. Aviation is indeed in my blood and blog!
