The Blue Angels are the world-renown fighter jet team that draws thousands of fans to their incredible air show. Flips and maneuvers are demonstrated thousands of feet in the air at speeds measures in Mach and g-forces by beautifully painted blue and yellow jets.
There is only one thing that keeps The Blue Angels from flying; their air traffic controller. The Blue Angel shows are hosted at airfields around the country and nothing can begin until the Blue Angels personal air traffic control team has taken control of the air traffic control tower. Once they have taken control of the tower, meticulous and pain-staking details are reviewed, and reviewed, and reviewed. The communication between the tower and pilots is relentless. Only after this extensive detail-oriented back-and-forth has taken place, do the engines of the jets roar to life, the wheels begin to roll, and finally the sky is alive with these incredible machines, and skilled pilots.
This, my friends, is the picture of modern leadership in the information age. Leaders are no longer the sole source of information, the lone voice in the wilderness, and the absorbers of the spotlight. In the information age, everyone has the information, everyone has a voice, and everyone has a platform. Leaders that do not adapt to this reality will struggle to set teams up to fulfill their potential. This has drastically changed leadership. Leadership is much like the Blue Angels air traffic controller. It all begins with the air traffic controller, but it is not about air traffic control. The performance of a team of people begins with the leader, but is always about making the team fly as high as it possibly can go.
Here are a few ways that today's leaders need to act like air traffic controllers and help their teams fly high.
1 Tell your pilots where, when, and why they are flying - Air traffic controllers determine course and timing. They take the time to chart out the destination and the best way to get there. Leaders ought to be taking the time necessary to clearly explain the mission, the vision, and the expectations. These are things that can only be explained by the leader. If a leader is not communicating these things clearly, it is unlikely that your team will fly high collectively. You may have some lone superstars that excel, but the team will be fragmented. It was once said that if you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together. A leader that clearly communicates the charted path, will help their team go far.
2 Do not tell your pilots how to fly - Air traffic controllers do not tell pilots what to do inside of the cockpit. Why? Because the pilots have been intensely trained to know what to do inside of that jet. The pilot knows every combination of every dial, every button, every lever, and every switch. The air traffic controller does not. This analogy holds true in the information age. The ease of access to all of the information in the world has led to highly informed, highly skilled, highly specialized people. Once they have been identified and placed on your team to fill a specific role, the modern day leader treats them like the expert that they are. To do anything other than that, is to frustrate your highly skilled 'pilots'.
3 Communicate with your pilots about all the little things - Air traffic control sets pilots up for success by making sure that the pilots have all of the information that they could possibly need. This knowledge is power and it empowers the pilots to perform at optimal levels. What does your team need to know? Everything that you can ethically tell them. How often do you need to communicate with your team? All the time. You are either overcommunicating or under-communicating. A leader that is filling this role of communicator well will often get two reactions from their people. 1) The team may often think, 'why are the telling me this? Do I really need to know all of this?' 2) The team will often say, 'I'm glad they told me that. I had no idea how helpful it would be.' Both of these responses are an indicator of frequent communication. Air traffic control never under-communicates and neither should modern day leaders.
4 Help your pilots avoid the big crash - If air traffic controllers see a collision coming they speak up immediately and with urgency! Too many leaders see trouble brewing for their team, cross their fingers, and hope for the best. We have all done it. Sometimes we are too busy, sometimes we don't want the confrontation, and other times we trust our team to handle it. As I've grown as a leader, I have found myself trusting my gut that something bad is brewing, and getting to my people fast. Sometimes it is to confront, sometimes it is to console, but I do not want a big crash to happen to my team so I act quickly. I would rather apologize to my team for appearing to micromanage than to wish I had spoken up after a crash has happened. In fact, I am ecstatic when my team tells me, 'We are already aware.' It means I acted and I can I also back off because I trust my pilots to do what they are good at. Trust your gut and speak up when you see a crash developing on your team.
5 Do not take credit for your pilots successfully completing their flights. I did not even realize that the Blue Angels had their own air traffic control team. I did not know that the Blue Angels can't even ignite their engines until they get the clearance from their air traffic controller. And that is leadership in the modern age. Leaders that play air traffic control simply want their fighter jet pilots to dazzle the crowds with their expertise and maneuvers.
The Blue Angels lives and performances depend on elite air traffic control, but no one buys a ticket to watch the air traffic controller. If you are a leader of a group of people make sure you set your team up to fly high, and you stay in the tower.
Keep on, keepin on, friends!
‘Bite Down and Don’t Let Go’ is a collection of writings on being intentional about life in a way that produces great persistence. Read about it more here.
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