Lessons Learned: Defying Gravity And The Odds
How learning to fly helped a senior director at Reddit achieve her goals.
I was 8 years old when I discovered one of my father's secrets---he had taken a few glider lessons after he landed his first job. My father grew up as a farmer in India. He was 14 when he lost his father; as the eldest of four kids, he had to support his family. Years of drought made life difficult in his village. So he turned toward the nearest city to study and get a job. He dreamed of becoming a pilot, but he could not complete his training because money was tight.
Ever since I discovered his unfulfilled dream, the idea of flying a metal bird through the air amazed me. There was a mystery and thrill surrounding the experience of piloting an aircraft.
I fulfilled my dream as well as, in some ways, my father's dream when one day I was able to pilot a plane with my father and mother along for the ride. Through the ups and downs of learning to operate this revolutionary mechanical wonder, I also learned to make good decisions, display confidence in command, and hold myself responsible for my actions and outcomes.
As a woman from a world where the expectation was to serve, I carved a different path for myself and believed you can combine unconventionality with curiosity and focus to achieve almost anything. Women constitute a mere six percent of all pilots in the world. I am one of them.
When I became a pilot a decade ago, professionally I was a senior software engineer. Today I am a senior director of engineering in the heart of Silicon Valley. I found that skills like perseverance, focus, curiosity and self-confidence were cornerstones to my success in aviation and as a technology leader.
I hope that I can share some insights about the overlap between commanding an airplane and leading an organization.
Be Committed â¨To Your Goals
Being an immigrant and wanting to fly in the post-9/11 era meant undergoing additional security checks. I mustered all the patience in the world waiting for administrative clearances before I could even begin flight training. Throughout the training process, I was exposed to a whole lot of other interesting challenges. I would get to the airport to find out that the plane was still in maintenance or the engine wouldn't start. Sometimes the weather conditions were below flying minimums, and other times life got in the way.
I learned to be flexible, to be patient, and to make alternate plans "on the fly." I carried through on my commitment, and by overcoming every obstacle, I had a pilot's license (FAA Certificate) in my hands.
The corporate world is not immune to unavoidable delays and technical difficulties. Every unexpected challenge can feel like an insurmountable obstacle. As a leader, you have to remember to remain patient and clear with why you are doing what you are doing. When you start a project, you may be full of enthusiasm, but when the priorities change or problems knock the wind out from under your wings, you just need to keep flying. Successful leaders are those who have the strongest commitment to their goals.
Your employees will see your perseverance as your strength to manage any circumstance.
Keep Things Simple
Aviation is a technological wonder, but the fundamentals of flight are driven by very simple physics laws. Air flows across the wings, the difference in air pressure around the wings generates lift, airplanes fly. During the early days of my training, I was surprised to see that my flight deck instruments were rudimentary. Most important ones were powered by nothing more than the wind. It was amazing to realize that such simple systems were enough to achieve flight.
Today we are inundated with technology in every corner of our lives. Cars, phones and houses are becoming smarter, sophisticated and interconnected. It's easy for systems to accumulate complexity, but it's incredibly hard to shed it. Complexity increases gaps between incompletely understood facts and assumptions. As a leader, when you are faced with a crisis, can you cut to the chase and get to the root of the issue quickly?
You have the power of choice to keep things simple, but this is a demanding skill to master. You can start small by taking an inventory of your day---emails you send and receive, reports you view, meetings you attend, your personal agenda, etc.---to see if you can simplify those to be more effective at work.
Another thing I spent a lot of my time doing was analyzing how my team functions. Where do they spend most of their time? Why? Are there ways to rearrange processes to simplify those deep inner workings that eventually result in building a culture of simplicity?
Be Ahead Of The Plane
Millions of things compete for your attention as a pilot. After decades of research into the human factors that affect aviation, scientists have learned that standardizing procedures and following checklists reduces the chance of errors. These types of procedural advances in aviation have resulted in making flying the safest way to travel today.
By following checklists, pilots relieve themselves of cognitive load required by routine tasks, keeping their mind and attention available for the unforeseen things that may surface. This is especially important in times of emergency---but even in normal operations, this helps keep the pilot "ahead of the airplane." The pilot can remain alert and recognize anomalies early, before the problem ends up compounding into an emergency.
As a leader, you are required to deconstruct complex problems into easy, predictable workflows. The routine of the checklist will ensure you don't forget something critical when you end up distracted by other events. For critical workings, my team has built run books, the concept derived from the aviation checklist. These are important when deploying services in production or handling on-call requests. Sometimes there are dependencies that have to be honored to ensure graceful shutdown and restart processes to guarantee zero data loss.
I encourage my teams to have two sorts of lists. A "do-then-verify" list---here they perform the tasks and then go back to the checklist to verify---and a "read-then-do" list, where they stick to the chronological order of the list and perform them one by one. Standardizing your business procedures also allows you to analyze patterns of inefficiencies, making product life-cycle easy to adopt and automate in the near future.
Build A Curious Mind
When I drive a car, I use the "steering wheel" to steer the car around. But when I jump into an airplane, I can't use the obvious "steering wheel" in front of me. I have to use rudder pedals located down by the feet. Yes, you steer a plane with your feet.
When faced with unique situations, you can't grasp for the most obvious option. You must be ready for the unexpected. You have to be open to nuances and treat every situation with a sense of exploration.
Especially when under pressure, we narrow in on what immediately seems the best course of action. But those who are passionate about continuous learning contemplate a wide range of options and perspectives. Then you figure out what skills are going to be needed to get the job done and go gather those skills. Focusing on learning and rewarding your team for cultivating a curious mindset will reap long-term benefits.
It's all you in the end. If you are flying and an emergency pops up, you can't pull over to the shoulder and wait for help. The pilot needs to manage the problem.
As a leader, you will be faced with constantly changing situations. Sometimes you have to throw conventional wisdom out the window and follow your intuition.
You can always read books on leadership or learn from watching other leaders, but there is no substitute for doing it yourself. Flying solo as a leader allows you the opportunity to discover yourself, your skills and your personal limits.
Final thoughts: Flying an aircraft or leading an organization is a huge responsibility and a demanding task. Be certain of why you are doing what you are doing, simplify complex things when you encounter them, maintain focus and lead by example. You are bound to make mistakes, but pick yourself up and keep flying.
Have you had a close call or a cool aviation experience that left a lasting impression? We'd love to share your story in the magazine! We're looking for stories that are between 1,100 and 1,500 words long that tell a great story. If you're interested, you can always write us a note outlining your experience and we'll get back to you right away. The pay is small potatoes, $101, but if your story is chosen, you'll get to work with our great illustrator Gabriel Campanario and have him bring your memory to life.
Email us (sorry, no phone calls or snail mail) at editor@planeandpilotmag.com and put Lessons Learned Submission in the subject line.
Subscribe to Our Newsletter
Get the latest Plane & Pilot Magazine stories delivered directly to your inbox