Category: Leadership

I spend a lot of time with the teams I get to be a part of talking about the various ways to both approach, and solve, complex and wicked problems. Remaining focused on the issue at hand versus the emotions that can surround an issue is a lot of our focus.

As a teenager I remember first reading a book about Apollo 13. Apollo 13, Commanded by legendary Astronaut Jim Lovell, was the supposed to be the second moon landing. Not long after beginning the long journey to the Moon, Apollo 13 had a major in-flight emergency which immediately put the crews lives at risk. At that time, this was the most significant challenge NASA had ever faced during a flight.

Mission Control in Houston was instantly thrown into a confusing and chaotic situation which required immediate, and precise decisions, in order to save the crew. In what became a seminal learning point for me, legendary Flight Director Gene Kranz, while leading his team through the chaos of the initial reactions, paused, thought, and told his team… “work the problem people… work the problem.” And they did… and over the next few days managed to make thousands of correct decisions which resulted in Apollo 13 safely looping around the back side of the Moon and returning safely to Earth with all three crew members aboard.

I’ve adapted the concept that Flight Director Kranz took, as well as many other famous leaders in our history, and boiled it down to two simple words.. “Stay Frosty”. When it gets crazy… keep your calm about you… and “stay frosty.”

I hope this approach helps you as much as it has helped me and others in our business.

Also check out Mr. Kranz’s book “Failure is not an option”. It is a great read.

The Author is currently serving as an active duty military officer. Any comments or recommendations on this post or on this site are solely my personal views and do not represent the position of any branch of the United States Government.

Earlier in my career I had the opportunity to attend the USAF Fighter Weapons School.  If you envision TOPGUN… but without the volleyball, the bar scenes, the motorcycles, and you make it longer… you’d get the idea.

The air combat phase is one of the toughest. It starts with 1v1 air combat and ultimately progress to 4 or 8 good guys (Blue) versus a lot of adversary aircraft (Red). One of our rides ended up with 8 Blue versus 24+ Red. The enemy can regenerate after flying back over their territory and coming back alive to give the blue side a very complex and dynamic problem testing both our tactics, weapons employment plans and discipline.. and our perhaps most importantly our communications skills.

As you can imagine the radios are very busy during a complex dynamic fight.  Pilots and weapons controllers must listen closely, process what they are hearing, and understand it… all while flying the jet, running the sensors, making decisions on whether to shoot or not… at night on night vision googles.  Everyone must make deliberate and thoughtful decisions to be clear, concise, and correct when we do key the microphone and say something on the radio. There is no room for error here… None. Oh by the way… be calm when you do key the microphone.

As complex as everything sounds in the scenario above, one could make the case that with the advent of advanced technologies and communications systems, today’s leaders are challenged with much of the same things we are.  Everyone, especially todays leaders must be able to communicate effectively, and efficiently in the fast-moving worlds of life and business.

Great communicators take the time to listen, process, and understand what it is they are hearing. They are intent on putting things aside when their team comes to them… and listening (and most importantly hearing) what is being said… processing the information by being present in the conversation and seeking to understand the perspectives of the team member who is communicating with them. They are also thoughtful and deliberate in what method they communicate with their team and what and how they say it.

I think about communications a lot.  I can always be a better communicator. 

As a technique I’d spend some time thinking about your approach to communication. Do you listen (hear), process, and understand what is being shared or said to you? Do you take the time to be thoughtful and deliberate in being clear, concise, and correct in your communication with those important stakeholders in your life?  Are you present?

BTW, to my Navy and TOPGUN buddies… you know I love you.

The Author is currently serving as an active duty military officer. Any comments or recommendations on this post or on this site are solely my personal views and do not represent the position of any branch of the United States Government.