When Pilots Can’t Get Along

This really creates more than just a scheduling issue. The interaction between two pilots on the flight deck of a modern airliner requires harmony to achieve its primary purpose—backing each other up to maximize performance while minimizing chance for error. It literally has life-threatening consequences. For years the airlines relied upon standardized training to create maximum interchangeability without concern for compromising safety. That all changed following a major aircraft accident in 1978 when subsequent investigation revealed that the accident was due to “human error.”

You Mean It’s Really About Me?

I began working within the area of human factors, designing and developing courses for pilots and flight attendants to reduce the likelihood of human factor-caused incidents and accidents. As an offshoot of this focus on crew performance, I began to work one-on-one with the top “no fly” candidates—those pilots who been identified multiple times as someone with whom many had expressed a desire to avoid having as a flying partner. I quickly learned that it was personality and personal style that formed the foundation of traits that others found problematic. Paradoxically, some of the various traits that are inherent (and paradoxically, contributed to technical competence) in the most skilled pilots were troubling when manifested in the extreme. The technical competencies that made for excellent pilots seemingly caused deficiencies in the social competencies that pilots need to be effective team leaders.

DiSC® to the Rescue

I decided that my first line of defense was to find a way for the pilots to recognize how others saw them. Using DiSC® and other self-assessment instruments first and foremost had a validating impact upon each individual. It seems that although the problem pilots had a sense of “not fitting in,” they had no other tools or insights from which to draw to develop alternative ways of behaving. Within a short period of time following our work together, they reported improvement in the way others responded to them and an improvement in their self-perception.

Team-Work Begins with the Individual

Mother Nature, in her infinite wisdom, created us all with different gifts. That’s the good news and the bad. It is the diversity of personality and style that results in both higher levels of team performance and the friction that can lead to non-productive conflict. Can we change our behavior? Absolutely! But first we have to pay heed to a process first alluded to by Socrates: Know thyself. DiSC® and other self-assessment profiles can shorten that journey to the self.

DiSC® is the registered trademark of the Inscape Publishing Company.

For tips to effectively train your people and streamline your organization, and for other solutions to your employee development challenges, visit www.traininginabox.com. Sign up for your free newsletter at www.quicktrainingsolutions.com to make your HR training and development life easier. Ron Nielsen designs and delivers innovative and effective training solutions for businesses through NTG, his business development and training company.