A year ago this week I completed a chapter for a compilation leadership book. Sadly, due to forces outside my control, the book was never printed. Here is a copy of that chapter:
The Seatbelt Sign is Off
by Patrick Maurer
Even with my frequent travel schedule, I still find myself looking out the airplane window with awe at the cotton candy clouds beneath me, the patchwork of farmland, and the dizzying maze of streets stretching out like lighted pathways below. Every trip I end up reflecting on something. On a recent early morning flight, I thought about the seatbelt sign.
I napped as soon as I found my seat on the plane, staying asleep through the safety announcements and takeoff. I woke up just in time for the common phrase, “The captain has turned off the seatbelt sign; you are now free to move about the cabin.”
I’ve paid close attention to this moment since high school, when I first saw the film Say Anything. There, the announcement serves as a signal that everything is okay with the plane. While I have been on many flights where the announcement is incredibly delayed and two where it never took place at all, that wasn’t what I noticed.
I was struck by how no one stood up.
We were free to move about the cabin. We could stand up. We could stretch our legs. We could walk.
No one moved.
Sadly, I’m seeing this more in student organizations. Leaders have a chance to lead. They can stand up for their beliefs. They can stretch their leadership abilities. They can move in a positive direction.
And yet, most seem to simply be along for the ride. Of course, this isn’t everyone, but more and more, I see young leaders choosing to be passengers on a plane, waiting for someone to take them to their destination. They aren’t hurting anyone, but they aren’t truly helping anyone either.
Our society really doesn’t need more passengers; it needs leaders willing to be the pilots of their organizations. It needs leaders willing to take the controls, to bring people with them to a new destination, to fly in the difficult situations, to overcome the turbulence, and to work with others to make all of this happen safely and effectively. It needs you.
After talking with a recreational pilot, a former commercial pilot, and a military pilot, and learning how they prepare for a flight, how they interact with their crew, and how they deal with difficulties and failures, I realized many of these insights provide valuable lessons into how we too can be better leaders today
Preparing the Flight Plan
We fly on planes in order to arrive at a new destination. It could be the site of a vacation, a business meeting, or a gathering with family or friends. We want the pilots flying those aircraft to take us to that specific destination safely. The fact that they are a captain or co-pilot doesn’t mean much to us, unless they are the pilots who bring us from point A to point B.
Sadly, there are leaders in this world who think that gaining the position is the end result. Similar to the final scene in the Robert Redford film, The Candidate, they succeed in obtaining that title, but have no idea what exactly they should in that role. As a result, our organizations and communities suffer, recycling tired ideas, struggling to find solutions to obvious challenges, and avoiding the innovation we so desperately need. In other words, our organizations have captains wearing uniforms on planes that barely leave the runway.
In high school, I had the chance to be a passenger as my grandpa piloted his small RV6A plane. I saw the amount of preparation my grandpa put into that flight as a recreational pilot. He’d check weather reports, airspace restrictions, and other bulletins to inform his flight plan for that day. While there was freedom within his flight, he still had a plan, knowing how to safely land on our destination runway.
Military and commercial pilots take this same approach in their flights. They know their specific destination. They research weather systems, taking special note of wind speeds, weather patterns, and potential turbulence. Military pilots also take intelligence reports into account, varying their route based on potential enemy fire. This information affects the final flight path they program into complex computer systems. Ever notice how most commercial flights announce an approximate gate-to-gate flight time before you ever leave the runway? A plan is in place.
Sadly, many today approach their leadership roles as if they are helium balloons, merely floating in the shifting winds, arriving at a random destination when they simply can fly no more. We need to be more purposeful and organized in our approach. We need to design our flight plan by first focusing on our objective. This goal should be detailed. Pilots don’t just fly to Hawaii; they fly to a specific runway, at a designated airport, landing at an arranged time. Once we have selected our desired outcome, we need to consider the obstacles, and the resources available. We need to figure out how we can get other people on board, how to make people safe and secure, and how we will communicate adjustments to the flight plan in response to changing conditions. This will allow us to not only more effectively achieve our goals, but it will transform the climate in which we work. This step does take time and effort, but without it, everything else falters.
Being an IFR Leader
On July 16, 1999, a Piper Saratoga aircraft crash into the Atlantic Ocean just off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard. All three people on board were killed. News organizations covered the crash in depth, mainly due to the pilot, John F. Kennedy, Jr., son of the beloved President. Eventually the NTSB concluded the crash was caused by pilot error. Sadly, JFK Jr., like most recreational pilots, could only fly in Visual Flight Rules (VFR). He checked the weather forecast before the flight, which did not yet describe the approaching thick haze and poor visibility. Kennedy had over 300 hours flying time and was considered experienced, but only as a VFR pilot.
VFR is an entry level into flying which still requires a great deal of study, skill, and training. For most pilots, it’s a great place to remain, reserving flight as a pleasant afternoon hobby similar to playing a golf game or going on a hike, piloting small planes on their own or with a few passengers limited to family members or friends. They have the skill necessary to fly as long as there are no major sudden shifts in weather or conditions.
Unfortunately, many still prepare for leadership in today’s complex world as if it was a VFR setting. They can lead, but only in the ideal situations. They view leadership as something casual and fun. While this is often true, there are definitely circumstances where the weather shifts, and a deeper skill set is required.
Commercial and military pilots fly under Instrument Flight Rules (IFR). Although they often fly with visibility of their surroundings, they must be able to fly using only their instruments, safely guiding them when weather or night limit visibility.
We need to lead by relying on our best instrument: our values. Sadly, most rarely spend time honestly evaluating what should be the guiding force of our lives. We glance at the things that we value. At first it appears easy, but getting to an accurate understanding takes time. Just as a pilot really doesn’t need a TV or DVD player in the cockpit, a real list from a leader would not include material items (car, mp3 player, laptop), but rather deeper concepts (freedom, health, love, honesty, family, friendship, faith, education, etc.). The more specific, the better your instrument will assist you.
Many pilots could describe an isolated instance in their careers, often during training, of spatial disorientation. It’s one of the scariest moments for a pilot; where their own bearings are thrown off and they briefly lose the ability to accurately distinguish which way is up, their altitude, or their position in the sky. For IFR pilots, they are able to recover by relying on their instruments even though their instincts tell them otherwise, eventually allowing them to recapture their bearings.
Today it is very easy for us to lose focus, giving our attention to unimportant activities. We multitask; texting, using social networking sites, watching television, listening to music, or remaining in relationships that bring us down. While these activities do bring us some happiness, they eventually become distracting, and we reach a point where we begin feel off balance, where we do not feel whole or satisfied as a person, let alone as a leader. We lose our sense of direction in our lives, struggling in our decisions and personal drive. In these times it’s important that we bring our decisions and actions in alignment with our values, relying on them in times of chaos and struggle. We can try to postpone this difficult task, but doing so will keep us grounded, and prevent us from ever truly soaring.
Learning In The Simulator
On July 19, 1989, United Airlines Flight 232, made an emergency landing in Sioux City, Iowa. While the media repeated the death toll of 110 of the 285 passengers and focused on the shocking footage of the plane tumbling in the runway and catching on fire, pilots looked at it differently. Our sound-bite 24-hours-news networks tend to simply ask, “Who is responsible?” in order to assign blame. Pilots take a different approach, instead asking:
Why did it happen?
What did they do?
What can I learn from it?
These questions lead to discovery, not blame. Further investigation revealed the United crew actually saved lives through their quick thinking, a fact hardly reported by most news organizations. Pilots throughout the industry were placed in flight simulators, confronting the same challenging circumstance of the flight. Initially, many were unable to land the plane. After additional simulator time, pilots developed skills and techniques to fly under those trying circumstances. In training, they learn from their mistakes, allowing them improved future performance. Crews regularly learn to adjust to differences in aircrafts, engine failure, faulty equipment, poor weather conditions, or, in the case of military pilots, even enemy fire. By not letting their emotions get the better of them, they can more effectively serve their mission.
Unfortunately, many of us do the exact opposite as leaders. We search for a person to place at fault and perpetuate negative discussions behind the person’s back, not only diminishing them in the group, but creating an environment where those around us fear failure, expressing struggle, or taking any form of risk. In the process, we restrict limit our growth, stifle creativity, and pollute the climate of the organization.
By shifting our focus from blame to discovery, and uncovering the decisions and actions that lead to our successes as well as our failures, we can grow. We need to take time to challenge ourselves as a team before heading out into the real life situations. We need to make leadership a daily habit, not an occasional occurrence.
CRM for a Better Team
During the early years of military and commercial flight, it became apparent that many accidents were the result of poor communication within a crew. The old model had the captain as the authority on the flight. A co-pilot might recognize a mistake of the captain, but fail to mention it due to the difference in rank. In the late 1970’s, airline and military pilots began to adopt Crew Resource Management (CRM), a basic protocol and training system that provides captains guidelines to best utilize the resources, talents, and insights of their crew, and at the same time, empower crew members through a method to address any concern with their captain. Crewmembers don’t simply state problems, but actively propose solutions to any issue that arises. Again, the crew does not waste its time on blame; instead it focuses on the discovery of the solution. Pilots today blend confidence with humility. They rely on facts, not fear, as they fly. They will not disengage a landing out of anxiety, but rather through a thorough and succinct examination of the situation, utilizing all members of their crew. They make decisions, but recognize their limitations, employing CRM to its full capacity, growing not just as individual pilots, but also as a fully functioning team. It is this training and this system that allows easy substitution between flight crewmembers on commercial and military aircraft. Since its implementation, CRM has not only improved the working environment of a cockpit, but also vastly reduced the number of airline accidents.
We need to implement our own version of CRM, actively engaging the various members of our organizations to their fullest extent, utilizing their skills, talents, insights, and even their dissent. Leaders today need to also have confidence with humility. We cannot be meek leaders; hesitate to take on the difficult tasks. At a certain point, we will have to leave the simulator and take flight, navigating our own route, dealing with every obstacle that comes our way. We cannot afford as leaders to step away from the controls in these situations, leaving our organizations directionless. We need to be confident. We need to be bold in our actions, decisions, and innovations. At the same time, we can’t afford for that confidence to transform into arrogance. No pilot flies completely alone. At a minimum, there is always another voice on the radio, providing updated information. Our world and our organizations are interconnected. We are not intended to lead isolated and alone, but we are intended to take action.
We need to chart a new course, dig deeper into our values, recognize our weaknesses, work with others to enhance our approach, and seek out diverse perspectives to truly be an effective leader today. The time for simply being a passenger is over. The captain turned off the seatbelt sign…
What are you going to do?
ACTION STEPS
Preparing the Flight Plan
- Why do you want to lead?
- What is your desired outcome?
- List the first ten steps you need to do in order to achieve that outcome. Which of these actions can/will you do today?
- List five to ten obstacles you may face in achieving this goal.
- List the specific resources available to you to accomplish this task.
- How can you replenish these resources and prevent their exhaustion?
Being an IFR Leader
- Rank your ten most important personal values.
- Rank the ten most important values for your organization.
- Evaluate how you spend your time over one week. Look at each action and activity and compare its alignment with your core values. How much of your time is spent wasting time on activities that do not serve your core values?
- Which actions and decisions currently do not align with your personal and/or organizational values? Why not?
- How could you better align with your personal and/or organizational values in the next week?
Learning In The Simulator
Seek out a series of teambuilding activities you can do with your group. Make sure the activities address a variety of different topics (communication, problem-solving, creativity, etc.), and that you challenge your organization multiple times throughout the year.
CRM for a Better Team
- Describe five gifts you bring to an organization.
- Describe five of your weaknesses.
- How do you seek out information?
- Describe the current process for disagreement within your organization.
- How could this be improved?