Skip Johnson, AOA Aviation and Leadership Consulting
“We don’t rise to the level of our expectation; we fall to the level of our training.” Archilochus, Greek Philosopher and Soldier, 650 BC. The Greeks survived as the underdog for centuries because they trained that way, startled and frightened. They became self-aware of their personal strengths and weaknesses. They incorporated resilience training to overcome the extreme stress in chaotic situations. In aviation you never know when YOU will be the underdog. How far will you fall before your training catches you?
In no other industry is safety as paramount as it is in aviation. We can’t afford even one mental failure or unforced error. I ask you this; how self -aware are you of your strengths and weaknesses, or better yet where are your blind spots? What if I told you I have a powerful tool to help define your behavioral strengths, reveal your weaknesses and blind spots, and better yet give you an understanding of those traits of your teammates? I have one, it’s called the DiSC Behavioral assessment.
The DiSC assessment was developed in the early 1900s and has evolved over time to become an incredible tool. Based on a battery of questions it VERY accurately determines your behavior style. Not your personality, which is unique to all humans. Behaviors can be categorized into Dominate, Influential, Steadiness and Conscientious styles. Each with its unique characteristics such as your priorities, and what motivates and stresses you out.
This diagnostic powerhouse gives you a deeper dive and understand about you, AND just as important those characteristics of your teammates.
We have incorporated DiSC training at my Airline over 12 years ago, It is ingrained in our culture. All 17,000 pilots know what their style is AND the most important aspects of the other styles. It’s contribution to our safety culture cannot be understated. Aside from giving aviators a deep understand and self-awareness of how they respond in stressful situation it gives you a deep Emotional Intelligence (EQ) of your teammates.
Just one example is our ability to safely and effectively communicate and function at the highest level of professionalism across 4 decades of age differences in the cockpit and in operations. DiSC is part of our bedrock safety culture, a safety line to catch should we have our worst day and fall. Should it be part of yours???
About the author
Greetings, my name is Skip Johnson and I’ve been a pilot for over 50 years with 9,000 hours of flight time and even today, every time I fly, I remind myself that I could be the underdog. No matter how much I prepare, the Universe gets to decide how good I must be that day. And will I be good enough when things go wrong. I am a Captain, Instructor, Evaluator and Human Factors Pilot Development facilitator for a Major US Carrier as well as Founder of my own Leadership Development company and teach Upset (UPRT) and Cockpit Resource Management (CRM). My past is steeped in safety and developing a safety culture.
