Leadership Lessons from the Cockpit
Make a decision
Published Guide updated 1 min 47 sec
Another aircraft entered the circuit at Jandakot and Sharon’s first response was to freeze. The instruction she uses is simpler: decide, back the decision, and change it if the tower or the conditions say so. Waiting between two options is what turns a small uncertainty into a larger problem.
Executive Summary
Key Takeaways
- Decide, then stay observant.
- Backing yourself includes being willing to revise.
- Procrastinating between two options is still a decision not to act.
- A fast decision you can correct beats a freeze.
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Edited Transcript
Sharon was flying circuits at Jandakot when another aircraft came into the flight path. Her first reaction was to panic. What her instructors had taught her was to make a decision, back it, and fix it if it was wrong.
She talked herself through the facts. It is an airport, so there are other aircraft. She needed to know it was at a different height, and she needed to listen in case the tower told her to do something else. She decided to keep flying the circuit, watch the other aircraft, and stay observant. She made that decision immediately. If the tower had given her different information, she would have changed it. In this case it was fine, and the panic had not been required.
She asks how often the same freeze shows up away from the airfield: should I do A or B, so I do neither, and the problem grows. The lesson she wants is to decide quickly, back yourself, and if it is wrong, change it and make the next decision work.
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