It’s that season where the clocks change, the skies are dark, and the wind grows cold. With the change of clocks and the change of season I examined what needed changed in my own life.
I went to a time management talk this week. It was a very good reminder of what to do when things get off track.
While I knew the steps to take to manage my own time, I let things slip. I fell into old habits. I wasn’t planning my time. I was working on auto-pilot, thinking I had done this for so long I could do it without a plan. Slowly distractions crept into my day without me taking notice of them. I wasn’t being efficient, and my free time was slipping into my work time without me recognizing the problem until I stepped back and examined my day, hour by hour.
I recommend that everyone take a time reset and examine their own activities in an objective manner. The talk was a reminder, a refresher course on planning and commitment. It was a reminder to take back control and be proactive on distractions, decisions, and activities. With a simple reset of my own time clock I am back to prioritizing, finishing my projects and actually having more free time to boot.
Are you planning your day, setting aside distractions? Are you procrastinating on anything? What things do you need to set time aside for and what things do you need to set a time limit to? Focus your time and it will focus your goals. A simple reset of one’s own clock can reset one’s life goals.
Command training for airline captains is possibly, the least regulated aspect of pilot training. At a time when airlines are reassessing their progams, there are also signs that a more formal mandate to train might be on the horizon. As part of a doctorat program I completed interviews with a sample of airline captains, all recommended by management as being exemplary leaders. As a result of my interviews, I was able to construct a list of 5 core leadership areas necessary for all aircraft commanders. Specific skills were further identified in the 5 core leadership areas of: (a) communication, (b) teamwork, (c) application of knowledge, (d) self-awareness, and (e) mentorship.
Before the research project I expected communication and teamwork to be strong areas of leadership as these skills are taught in most advanced flight courses throughout the industry. One normally considers that all pilots have superior knowledge of the flight rules and of their specific aircraft, however, it was not simply knowledge that makes a captain a leader but the ability to apply that knowledge to specific situations. The most surprising findings from the research were the very large mention of self-awareness and teaching as leadership qualities. While self-awareness is mentioned in many business leadership publications, I was surprised it surfaced in the interviews with pilots. Nearly all mentioned that one must be cognizant not only of the environment but one’s own interaction with others throughout the flight. Teaching was a surprise as it first seemed to be an added burden on the captain, yet the leaders saw it their duty to train the up and comers. The commanders considered mentorship a natural part of the duty; imparting knowledge was not an afterthought.
An In-Depth Look at the Skills
Communication
Specific communication skills included ensuring clear and precise information is given and active listening is practiced. Verbal communication included asking for and receiving feedback. Communication features including tone, standard wording and style were all mentioned as important for the leader to practice. Communication gaps can exist between flight attendants and mechanics, or gate agents and pilots. While the captain is not directly involved in each discussion, the leader must assure that the groups are communicating and must set priorities if necessary. The effective leader incorporates all aspects of communication including altering tone and style, and initiating conversations between appropriate parties when necessary.
Teamwork
Repeatedly mentioned were “people skills” including willingness to accept information, having a non-judgmental outlook and openness to both information and critique. While these social skills facilitate a sense of ease and belonging to a team, heavy emphasis was placed on creating a team early in the flight process. The effective leader ensures the entire flight crew shared a common goal and had the ability and tools to complete that goal. The captains stated it is the commander’s duty to set goals and communicate during the pre-flight briefing so all have a shared vision rather than allowing each crew to carry on their duties independently.
Knowledge
Captains were in agreement that flight skills and systems were adequately covered in training and felt that all pilots were knowledge in the technical aspects of flight operations. Application of the knowledge seemed to be needed in some new pilots. When does one apply the knowledge to differing situations? The pilots generally agreed that company goals and visions were not adequately trained. Because company goals were not clearly defined the captains’ felt burdened by making decisions for the company that may counter the overarching company vision. For example, one captain used the situation of a disabled aircraft being ferried without proper paperwork. While the incident did not involve safety of passengers or crew it directly challenged the pilot’s duty and responsibility. Without clear company goals there was undue burden put on his decision to hold for proper paperwork or take off with inaccurate paperwork. The knowledge and application of regulations guided the pilot’s decision over-ruling advice from company supervisors. The incident still causes the pilot to question the company’s true vision and commitment to its claim to a safety policy
Self-Awareness
The most surprising finding in my research was that each captain mentioned the need for self-awareness, or emotional intelligence. Emotional Intelligence (EI) is ones’ awareness of his or her own behaviour and the effect it has on others. Interestingly, self-awareness in the airline captain is probably one of the most misunderstood or least acknowledged, yet was something all the captains interviewed mentioned. In addition to being aware of one’s demeanor, other EI attributes mentioned include confidence, having a “presence”, enthusiasm, energetic, visionary and continuously focused on improvement. The ability to know how one’s own attitude is affecting the crew and to be able to change leadership tactics to improve if needed was described as an important skill on the flight deck. Even now, five years after the study, training both in EI and a variety of leadership styles is still absent from command development programs throughout the industry.
Mentorship
Finally, every captain interviewed mentioned the importance to teach others while on the job. The art of piloting the aircraft is passed along through the captain. According to one captain “take what you like about me and discard the rest; build yourself on the best of those around you”. Mentorship was something the captains took seriously and recognized as missing from the airline training. Several captains cautioned that leadership behaviors were not taught in the classroom but only on the flight line. This statement highlights the need for mentorship programs in the airlines. One must be careful to design these programs as a true mentorship not additional workload lopped onto an already busy and stressful position.
New Directions and Applications of Leadership on the Flight Deck
All leadership publications mention vision as a must have trait among leaders. What does this mean for the airline captain? Is it simply a safe and efficient flight? Is it comfort and service to the passengers? Adhering to the company goals without flexibility? The company must clearly state what it expects just as the airline captain must state just what he or she expects during the pre-brief. The vision must be shared and the tools to accomplish must be discussed. If the flight attendant has the vision to provide safe comfort and efficient service to passengers and crew then all seats should be properly functioning. However, priority must be made for safety and judgment must be used in determining priorities. A broken seat should not take precedence over a mechanical engine problem especially on a short haul flight; however, try to sit upright on an 18-hour flight and one realizes how important the seat becomes. Leaders recognize the priorities of all team-members and provide the tools necessary or open the pathways for each member to reach their personal best.
Leaders need to set the boundaries both within the team and for themselves. This characteristic is important for allowing others to take the lead when appropriate yet reclaiming the lead when necessary. Traditional CRM deals with boundary setting in an appropriate way but may have let the pendulum swing too far. The captain is the legal authority. It is appropriate to allow others to take the lead when they have more information, ability, and knowledge, but ultimately the responsibility to delegate these roles is the captains.
While the leader must clearly state the vision and goal for each flight, he or she must also bridge the communication between the various working groups.
Training the Captain as Leader
Each of the skills mentioned above is teachable. Leaders are not born, they are taught. While every leadership development course should contain lessons the five core leadership traits: a) communication, b) teamwork, c) application of knowledge, d) self-awareness, e) mentorship. Each course should also focus on perceptions of oneself and one’s won leadership style. The course must also clearly spell out the company’s take on leadership. Does the company value service more than efficiency? If so decisions to delay to passenger comfort can be effected. Leadership development requires practice and each upcoming leader should have a mentor to assist and discuss situations as they occur; upcoming captains may have a sort of personal debriefer.
In the highly competitive field of commercial aviation it is paramount there is strong leadership within the airline and within each cockpit and every flight. Identifying what is needed on the line and training those skills is the most efficient way to develop the leadership your airline requires. Train the skills necessary; communicate across the various working groups, build an empowered team, practice knowledge application in real situations, recognize oneself and alter the styles used in different situations, mentor the future captains. Each airline has already hired their leaders, they need to groom them into the position.
My last post states that a digital leader needs to be fluent in technology, use the data from the technology to steer the company in ways he or she envisions for the organization. These are large goals for any leader so it may help to break technology down into smaller steps. In this post I will break digital leadership into two distinct categories, or smaller bits and describe what a leader must do within those categories.
The digital leader has the additional challenge of having both physical and virtual spaces in which to work. And both require attention, manpower and financial resources. (Miller & Marsh, 2015). I suggest breaking the virtual into two categories – internal and external.
The internal category includes the company or class intranet, e-mails, electronic documents, the cloud space, wiki’s, databases, and audio and visual content specific to the internal workings of the organization. These are essential digital tools that keep the business running. But this also includes employee communication and one way to reach all employees is through a blog. It doesn’t matter if your organization is a classroom of 8 students or a multi-national conglomerate of thousands. A blog can reach everyone, and unlike a news memo, blogs get feedback and replies.
Blogs get the leader’s message out and measure the culture simultaneously through comments. Dow Chemical CEO Andrew Liveris delivers a weekly blog to over 54,000 employees and reports that the comments and 15,000 visits per post keep him in touch with his employees. A weekly post that keeps him in touch with over 54,000 – that’s awesome.
The external category includes everything else – the internet, audio and visual content representing the company, data collection, and all social media outlets. Although these tools may have been designed to get the word out about the organization, they also bring in information. The audience is wide and diverse so the message must be general enough to reach out to everyone, but rich enough to keep people interested or following.
Despite the powerful reach of social media, a new study shows that less than a third of CEOs at America’s 500 highest-grossing companies are taking advantage.
According to one study, only 32% of top CEOs have at least one account on a social network. Some 68% have no social presence at all (. The majority of young people reaching working age have social media accounts and will even use these to search for work. People expect a presence from the leader and want to know about the company. Richard Branson is another top digital leader whose Twitter followers are in the thousands. He regularly posts and each one shows the commitment to entrepreneurialism and gratitude that permeate the Virgin brand. What better way to reach the world about your company’s mission and vision than through global communication?
The time has come for all leaders to become digital leaders, to reach out to their employees through blogs and gather information thorugh now-casting and real-time data. The time has come where the world should be able to follow the leader even if they don’t work for the organization. “… it is not that the need for leadership is disappearing but that best practices for effective leadership require new digital communication skills. “Far more personal openness and a mentality that absorbs each digital workplace innovation with gratitude are essential, rather than a philosophy based on fear and avoidance of the unfamiliar” state best-selling authors Miller and Marsh. Today’s digital leaders should recognize that the new economic conditions require new “communication styles and patterns for leadership” (Miller & Marsh, 2015).
Begin your digital leadership experience with small steps. Start within your organization and post blogs. Then move outside and speak to the global community. You’ll be surprised at the response and realize that you are now entering the digital leadership world.
References:
Auricchio, G. 2015. How digitalization changes the way executives learn:The road to omni-learning. IESE Insight, 26,31-35.
In my last post I defined digital leadership as a leader’s approach to ensure the quality and functionality of engagement and interaction, of collaboration and communication, of accountability and data collection. In general, the leader must communicate the purpose and direction of the group and guide how to get to that point. The digital leader communicates this through the use of digital tools. But before leading digitally, the leader must become proficient in certain areas.
The leader must become fluent in digital tools. No, this does not mean leaders must constantly be updating social sites. It means understanding their place and how to “integrate digital thinking into everyday management” (IESE, 2013). In addition to keeping oneself fluent, the leader must develop new capabilities and ensure that all employees are developing their own digital skills. If the employees know how to use the tools the company is on track to become digital and will begin to reap the benefits.
The leader must understand how technology is transforming society, and translate this into business impact. This is essentially what leaders do- they foresee how things can impact the organization and they steer it forward. The social media tools make collaborative projects easy today. More collaborative environments should be promoted, especially across job functions. Use technology to break down the silos that exist. It is amazing what new ideas come through.
It is important for the leader to understand and use the information, not just the tools. The tools will bring more data than ever to the company or classroom; how this data is used is determined by the leader. And how it is used will determine where the organization is headed so a clear direction is essential.
Professor Zamora points out, “Digital permeates the whole organization and impacts all phases… therefore “IT departments can no longer be treated in isolation, nor can technology be regarded as a discrete business area” (IESE, 2013). Everyone in the organization becomes tied to the IT department. This may mean a shift in logistics for the department or other movements within to highlight IT. But technology is the heart of digital and the IT department will keep it pumping.
All this technology is overwhelming. And technology changes fast. How can one person keep on top of all of it and successfully navigate a business or institution? They can’t. Good leaders know this and realize that a team must be brought together. Mel Ross names those with three key skill sets to form this “coalition of power, skill and vision” of technology. He says you need “someone who knows technology, someone who knows communication, and someone who knows about people and culture” (2014). The first two are obvious, but an expert on people and culture? Yes, because transformation into digital means diving into the cultural experiences and capitalizing on what people want. Choosing the wrong data can turn the organization in the wrong direction. Someone who understands the culture and the technology can steer and transform messaging.
This post focused on the leader and what he or she must know about technology to transform the organization into a leader in the digital world. The leader must be proficient in technology, enough to use the tools and understand the power of where they can take the company. The leader must use the information to steer the company in the right direction towards his or her vision. These are big and difficult tasks and often it helps to break down these into smaller bits. In my next post I’ll continue on the role of the digital leader and describe how to conquer the huge role of digital leader in slightly smaller steps.
businessman pressing support button on virtual screen
I wanted to write about the latest jargon- digital leadership and began to research. The first surprise was the key words I thought of pulled up completely different concepts than I thought. It was a typical problem – lack of definition. Before we can even talk about digital leadership a proper definition has to be established.
However, can one ever come up with a proper or correct definition with a socially constructed term? Probably not, but it is important to establish some agreed upon components. This is especially true if one is to banter about digital leadership and expects others to have similar thoughts.
Steve Hearsum, a development consultant, also acknowledges the definition problem and tackles the problem in his recent article “How to develop digital leadership capability” (2015). In short he first instructs defining “the terms and underlying assumptions around digital in your specific context” (p1). That is what do you mean by digital. In my search of digital leadership I assumed digital meant the types of apps and software a leader would use to communicate. Not so fast- it can also mean a bunch of code, visual screens, and a host of other concepts. Then I assumed leadership would pull up examples of leaders. And another search of digital leaders simply pulled up companies who produced apps and software.
Therefore, this post simply tries to define digital leadership constructed for my field, education and training. What does digital leadership look like for the future of training? And first, I’ll build up on the meaning in that context.
“Digital leadership is a strategic management approach focused on the quality and functional value of a company’s digital assets…. Digital leadership is concerned with digital engagement, collaboration and accountability” (Rouse, http://searchcio.techtarget.com/definition/digital-leadership). Although this definition is used for business, it forms the basis of digital leadership for my purposes.
In this post and the following, digital leadership is a leader’s approach to ensure the quality and functionality of engagement and interaction, collaboration and communication, accountability and data collection. Next I’ll focus on the leader of a digital enterprise and what qualities are must-haves.
References:
Hearsum, S. 2015. How to develop digital leadership capability. Strategic HR Review, 14, 5. Electronically retrieved December 12, 2015 from EmeraldInsight database.
Katherine Senko 