“Fly first — communicate second”: a short but important lesson from pilots to leaders everywhere(CEOs, founders, VCs and parents alike)... especially in troubled times
It’s odd how life throws you little reminders of things that you had totally forgotten about from your old life… especially when the application of elements of this can be of critical importance to your current life. I wanted to share one of these lessons in this post hoping it can:
- help those in our wider network navigate the uncharted territory we currently find ourselves in, and
- think laterally about experiences from other aspects of your life which have broader applications.
The event that triggered the memory
Late one evening a few weeks ago after a long work dinner (remember those?!) I was walking back into my apartment in London and my mobile rang. It was my eldest daughter who is currently completing her first year at a University outside London. She sounded stressed. “Dad”, she said, “is it ok if I use the family Uber account to book a car back from Bristol? Only it’s late and I only have 6% battery left on my phone…”.
As you would expect I told her to immediately stop talking to me and to use her remaining battery to get herself into a safe situation!! Only after that should she call me back to tell me she was ok. Happily it wasn’t long until I got that return call.
Immediately afterwards however, as I sat my apartment with the heart rate returning back to normal, I started to mentally unbundle the family dynamics that led to her phoning me asking for permission in first place.
Finding the parallels
When my first daughter went to University I put both her and her younger sister on the family Uber account. Now whether it was because I am a “Victorian Dad”, because I am cheap, or perhaps just because I was trying to teach them the value of money — this perk came with one strict instruction: “Uber is for getting out of trouble, not for getting into it”.
Translating this into their uni speak: Want to go down into town drinking with your mates? Get a bus. Trying to come home alone from that same night out drinking? Use the Uber account.
The fact that my daughter had called me in this particular situation to gain clearance (something I had never expected) to use the account when, clearly, I would have preferred her to just use her remaining battery life to call a car naturally concerned me… This is when I had my flashback — to 2009 when I did my private pilot’s licence qualification whilst on 7 months gardening leave.
I recalled my old instructor telling me very clearly “IN AN EMERGENCY FLY FIRST AND COMMUNICATE SECOND” (more technically “aviate, navigate, communicate”).
Time is of the essence — what should you do?
In flying, this is a critically important thing to know and to remember. Pilots are specifically trained on how to communicate that an emergency is occurring in one of a number of ways depending on the severity. But of course at the top of the list of severity is the situation where you simply can’t use mental bandwidth, time, or your limited altitude from the ground to communicate. In these cases flying (or controlling the failing aircraft to the best extent possible!) must take precedence.
In an extreme example… an engine failure on takeoff after you have only gained a few hundred feet of height is going to require you to put the aircraft down in an emergency landing in just a few short seconds. A mayday call may therefore not be the best use of a couple of those vital seconds.
Why or how this old piece of knowledge surfaced I have no idea but the application of it to my daughter’s situation was obvious and very important. I reflected on the fact that we spend so long over the years telling our children “let me know where you are”, “let me know you are home”, “let me know you are safe”. Yet we never tell them “don’t communicate with me first if you can make yourself safe first” and yet that might be the most important lesson of all since it is the status of safety that is actually the goal, not the knowledge of the status itself.
Applying this lesson into the business world as a VC, founder and parent
As I reflected on that parallel, an obvious one that I had never drawn before, the penny dropped. If that is true of our relationship with our children then how true is it of our relationships with our founders and management teams of the companies we invest in?
Our mutual goal for these businesses is supporting their successful growth, and aiding their safe navigation of the many pitfalls and potholes along the company building journey.
Yes — we clearly want to know the company’s status — but only so we might best aid in that navigation. Once again it becomes obvious that sometimes the moment in front of the leadership is more important than the status update.
As a case in point only a week later I got an email from one of our CEO’s: “Sorry Mark, we have a funding pitch session with the Illuminate team this Friday and I’m going to have to cancel as I am now on my way to Boston to meet with the executive management of a large bank who we are in an advanced request-for-proprosal with.” This one made me smile. Our CEO had chosen to fly first and communicate second, and that is all I would have wanted them to do.
POST SCRIPT: I first wrote this post on February 18th almost a month ago to the date that I type this update. In that month the entire world has changed as we all know and in another month it is likely to be as different again. Concepts such as “business dinner” and “drinking with mates” have passed into recent history for the time being. Yet at no time in our existence as a VC has the sentiment of the piece been more true for our founders and also for our families. My very best to you and your families at this difficult time, may you navigate this storm well, be blessed with a gentle landing, and perhaps pass on this lesson to the important ones around you, business or personal.
