What the cockpit teaches leaders: 5 leadership lessons
Since the late 1970s, aviation has turned crew teamwork into a discipline of its own, Crew Resource Management. Its lessons, drawn from documented accidents and successes, apply remarkably well to management.
In brief
- A leader who listens and then decides is safer than one who decides alone or does not decide at all.
- In a crisis, someone must keep the big picture while others handle the problem.
- A doubt expressed timidly is not enough: it must be said again, clearly.
- Success in a crisis rests on a trained team, rarely on a lone hero.
1. Listen, then decide
On 27 March 1977, in Tenerife, a Boeing 747 took off without clearance in fog and collided with another 747 still on the runway: 583 people died. Just before, the flight engineer had asked whether the other aircraft had cleared the runway. The very experienced captain answered yes and carried on. The doubt was there; it carried no weight.
Lesson for leaders: too steep an authority gradient stifles warnings. A good leader is neither authoritarian nor absent: they ask for views, listen, then decide.
2. Keep the big picture
In December 1978, United flight 173 circled near Portland while the crew dealt with a doubt about the landing gear. Focused on that problem, the pilots did not see the fuel running out: the aircraft crashed out of fuel, killing 10 people. This accident gave rise to Crew Resource Management.
Lesson: in a crisis, assign roles explicitly. One person handles the problem, another keeps flying the whole.
3. Make every voice a resource
In July 1989, the DC-10 of United flight 232 lost all three hydraulic systems. The captain brought into the cockpit an instructor travelling in the cabin, who flew the aircraft using only the engine throttles. 184 of the 296 people on board survived the emergency landing at Sioux City.
Lesson: use every resource available, including those not on the organisation chart.
4. Share the work when everything speeds up
In November 2010, an engine on the Qantas flight 32 A380 exploded shortly after take-off from Singapore. More than 80 alerts appeared. The five pilots on board shared the work: one flew, another ran the checklists, the others monitored and cross-checked. The aircraft landed 1 hour 44 minutes later; all 469 people on board were unharmed.
5. Train the team before the crisis
On 15 January 2009, an A320 lost both engines after bird strikes and ditched in the Hudson: all 155 people on board survived. The outcome owed nothing to chance: clear roles, short callouts, a fast decision, all reflexes practised for years in the simulator.
Key takeaway
None of these lessons is reserved for aviation. They can be trained, in the simulator for pilots, in serious games for leadership teams.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
What is Crew Resource Management?
A method born after the United 173 accident, which consists of using every available resource (people, information, tools) to decide and act safely. It is now used in healthcare, the nuclear industry and business.
Do these lessons apply outside high-risk professions?
Yes. Sharing roles, the right to raise an alert, shared decision-making: these mechanisms are found in an executive committee as in a project team.
Sources
- PBS Nova, the final eight minutes of Tenerife
- NTSB, report on United flight 173 (AAR-79-07)
- Flight Safety Australia, United 232
- Qantas Flight 32 (Wikipedia)
- NTSB, report AAR-10/03 on the Hudson ditching (Skybrary)
