If you're not flying the plane, then who is?

Does your team have the focus and discipline of the flight deck?

As a pilot, you learn to focus on three critical things on every flight to get from A to B safely and on time, the goal if you like; these are the three most important jobs on the flight deck and are the things that only the pilots can do, their priority. 

What I see in many leadership teams is the opposite, an attempt to focus on and do everything at once, with dashboards of data overwhelming and confusing decision making and slowing down progress or hiding where time is being wasted or lost on the unimportant or seemingly urgent activity. 

As a leadership team, do you know the job that only you can do, what you should be focused on above and before everything else? Do you know where to look to see if you are making progress or heading off course?

When I work with leadership teams to develop more effective strategic plans, I tell the story of the pilots who leave the flight deck and go to fix a blocked toilet, an urgent and pressing issue. But when the plane crashes into the mountain, it becomes clear that the focus was on the wrong thing, a dramatic ending but an important lesson. 

You might say that the risks in business are not so significant. I would argue that they are. As a leadership team, you are responsible for leading teams to the promised destination, your goals, and receiving the benefits of getting there. What is not so dramatic is that failure to do this can take a lot longer to become apparent, but failing to lead with focus and clarity impacts both profit and people. 

There are many jobs that the pilots could attend to and hundreds of instruments and dials in the cockpit that give them information on the flights' progress and performance.

The three things that they have to manage above all else:

level, speed and direction. And at any given moment, there will be three instruments in the sea of dials, lights and switches that provide them with everything they need to manage the next stage of the flight, the next milestone on the route. 

The job that only the pilots can do is manage these three things before everything else. Of course, other things happen however these are always the priority to get right and be addressed first, and then and only then do they move on to other less critical tasks. 

Do you have this level of discipline in the team?

What are the three things that only your team can do? 

What should they be focusing on above all else?

What is the leading indicator that determines the following action?

Does everyone in the group know this? 

If you can't answer yes to these questions, then is it probably time to get refocused and develop a strategic plan with the discipline of a flight crew.