You are here: Home » Careers » I-LEAD

Commercial aviation is a global business and IATA is a reflection of this world-wide activity. IATA does business in over 115 countries. We work with airlines and other stakeholder organizations whose staff includes a wide mix of cultures. Our team consists of people representing over 80 different nationalities working in offices located in over 70 countries. We are a truly unique organization without a single dominant national culture.  

To provide dynamic leadership for IATA and foster a global mindset in all our employees, the Intercultural Leadership Engagement and Development (I-LEAD) program is used to build cultural awareness between the Western world of Europe and the Americas and the high-growth, high-potential regions of growth in Africa, Middle East and Asia Pacific, particularly China and India. 

I-LEAD features cross-culturally paired change agents leading local teams in IATA’s offices around the globe.

The program has three main goals:

• Drive the Business - implementation of initiatives with near term benefits.
• Develop Leaders - at all levels, involving people from Director level through Assistants and Customer Service Representatives. 
• Build the culture - developing intercultural awareness between East and West while fostering effective cross-cultural work.

IATA is at the forefront of exploring how individuals can work more effectively with customers, suppliers, stakeholders and other colleagues who come from different cultural backgrounds. We have partnered with the Center for Leadership and Cultural Intelligence of the Nanyang Technical University of Singapore for a study on competency in working across cultures or cultural intelligence (CQ). We are applying the findings from this research to further develop the skills and knowledge of our team.