Asleep at the Wheel and Going off Course
"Effective communication is the cornerstone of successful leadership." ~ Tony Robbins
When Both Pilots Fall Asleep at the Wheel
Last week, while scrolling through my news app, a headline grabbed my attention: "Indonesia's Batik Air faces probe after pilots fall asleep mid-flight." Reminiscent of advice from my time living in Indonesia, many colleagues had warned me against using Batik for inter-country travels. This headline served as a stark reminder of the wisdom behind that advice.
The article detailed how shortly after takeoff, the captain requested the co-pilot to take over temporarily for a brief rest. However, the co-pilot, a father of newborn twins, also dozed off, causing the flight to veer off course with unanswered calls from the control tower for nearly 30 minutes. It's chilling to ponder how swiftly things can spiral out of control when we expect individuals to execute the basics of their roles.
But what occurs when leaders fail to meet expectations and nod off at the helm, steering their teams astray?
We end up delegating to individuals without ensuring they're capable or suitable for leadership roles.
We have team members who don't openly communicate their readiness or ability to handle tasks or assignments.
We render ourselves unreachable or dismiss feedback from those who detect signs of misalignment within our teams.
Or worse, we might be fixating on the wrong metrics, failing to recognize the indicators that we're losing our bearing.
Piloting Our Teams to Success
To ensure we remain vigilant as leaders, we should adhere to several crucial steps:
Assessment: Regularly assess the capabilities of our team members. Acknowledge their strengths and weaknesses. Clearly identify who's poised to step up, and take proactive steps toward succession planning, ensuring we have deputies ready for the challenge.
Accountability: Cultivate a culture of transparent communication and accountability, emphasizing integrity in both words and deeds. When you commit to something, your word gains credibility, and fellow leaders can trust that you'll manage what falls under your purview effectively.
Accessibility: One of the gravest mistakes leaders make is fostering a culture of one-way communication. Our teams are closest to customers or project details, akin to canaries in a coal mine—they serve as our best early warning system when things go awry. Leaders should deliberately establish direct lines of communication with their teams to gauge the pulse and identify future talent.
Actionable Metrics: Despite the medical team at Batik Airlines assessing the crew's fitness for flying using standard measures, overlooking their sleep quality led to both pilots dozing off at the controls. When organizations become entrenched in the status quo with their metrics, they risk overlooking business evolution. For example, we can't gauge team productivity in today's remote-centric work environment the same way we did pre-pandemic. Leaders must monitor the business's pulse and adapt metrics as the business landscape changes to stay on course.
Closing Thoughts:
"The quality of a leader is reflected in the standards they set for themselves." ~ Ray Kroc
Fortunately, there were no serious repercussions for that Batik Airlines flight. Once the captain regained consciousness and realized the situation, he swiftly corrected the course, and the plane landed safely in Jakarta. Nonetheless, the incident tarnished both the crew's and the airline's reputation. The essence of any airline lies in safely ferrying passengers from point A to point B, and this lapse in accountability dealt a blow to Batik's credibility—a story that continues to spiral out of control.
It's precisely for these reasons that we, as leaders, must remain vigilant. Our teams rely on us, and our reputations, along with those of our organizations, hang in the balance.
