Forward planning

Forward planning stands as a cornerstone of both aviation and leadership. Pilots must meticulously prepare for each flight, studying the weather forecast, calculating fuel requirements, identifying alternative landing sites, and obtaining the latest information about airspace restrictions and airfield conditions. 

This mindset cultivates a strategic approach that leaders need when steering organisations through complex business environments.

Multitasking

The cockpit environment demands multitasking abilities. Pilots continuously scan their instruments, looking out for other aircraft, maintaining radio communications and navigating - all while flying the aircraft.

This experience develops a leader's capacity to process multiple streams of information in a high pressure environment.

Decision making

Unexpected events, from sudden changes in the weather to potential avionics and engine issues, require quick thinking and decisive action. Pilots learn to remain calm while rapidly assessing situations and implementing solutions.

These skills prove essential to deal with business crises or market disruptions.

Acknowledging mistakes

Perhaps most importantly of all, the aviation culture emphasises the critical importance of acknowledging and learning from your mistakes.  It requires pilots to report incidents so they and other pilots can learn from them in a no-blame culture. 

This commitment to continuous improvement and honest self-assessment represents a fundamental quality of effective leadership.

A short story

These skills were illustrated many years ago on a flight with my son from Ingolstadt-Manching in Germany to Wellesbourne in the UK. 

The extremely hot summer weather affected the engine (misfiring at times) and the aircraft flight controls (loser than usual cable-controlled ailerons in a very dry wood and fabric structure). 

Unfamiliar airspace in foreign countries combined with unusual weather conditions led me to prepare each leg of the flight with extra care. 

Thanks to this, all went according to plan until we reached Chavenay near Paris for an overnight stop. 

From there on the weather deteriorated, making the second half of the trip more challenging. 

Despite the pressure from my young son to keep going despite the poor weather, I decided to divert to alternate airfields on several occasions. 

Each time we waited for the weather to improve before taking off again. 

However, the weather closed in again close to our final destination, and we had to turn back and land at Oxford. 

The next day we flew the final leg to Wellesbourne in glorious weather. 

Being familiar with Oxford I didn’t do much preparation for this final short flight. 

On my first radio call to Oxford, I realised that the frequencies had changed. 

The air traffic controller told me off.  He asked me to stop the engine and walk back to the office to check the latest airfield information. 

My immediate reaction was to blame him for being pedantic and unhelpful.  Why couldn’t he just give me the new frequency over the radio? 

In fact, the extent of the recent changes to the airfield frequencies was such that they could not be communicated over the radio. 

It is only later that I appreciated it was my mistake for not checking the latest airfield information and for failing to prepare the short flight diligently. 

I must confess I had found it difficult to acknowledge my own mistake and learn from it instead of blaming someone else. 

In business, the ability to own up and learn from your own mistakes is also crucial both for yourself and for the people in your team. 

I help overstretched leaders of engineering SMEs to prepare their business so they can achieve profitable growth. 

If you would like to explore how I could help you, please use the link below to arrange a free 30-minute conversation.

http://tinyurl.com/HerveJardonCalendar