Page 12 - World Airnews Magazine November 2020

PILOTS IN
CRISIS
TAKE
OWNERSHIP
OF YOUR
PASSION
By David Doull
hange can be painful. Uncer-
Ctainty creates fear and then
there’s grieving for what was. When
you lose something that gives you a
feeling of purpose it hits deep.
A pilot doesn’t become a pilot be-
cause they didn’t know what to do, it’s a
passion and a purpose in life.
Yesterday I renewed my instructor’s
rating. It was my first flight in seven
months, which is the longest gap in my
logbook since I started flying. I don’t
know who was more excited to fly
yesterday, the DFE or me.
Today I flew with some friends and
they insisted that my 11-year-old
son, Michael, came along. He was so
excited that night before he strug-
gled to sleep and was awake from
05h00, so eager to go. The whole day
he’s been talking non-stop, pointing
at everything and has had the most
excited, joyful face to look at. One of
those real smiles that happen in the
eyes. Everything was filmed or pho-
tographed and questioned. He’s had
a day of pure passion and it’s really
special to see. It’s part of the magic
that’s behind what we do.
Grieving your passion is not weak-
ness, it’s a feeling. Song writers have
written that grief (over a lost loved
one) is proof that love lasts forever. I’m
not equating the loss of a loved one to
the loss of a career or job, I’m merely
saying that grieving is because of the
presence of something strong and
that it is natural. However, dwelling on
your career misfortune is a thinking
weakness, and is not the presence of
something.
People who dwell often own a
‘blame thrower’ and they torch the
world with it. The politicians, a virus,
their colleagues, family, friends…
nothing escapes. A message to the
blame throwers: So, you lost your job
and it seems like your industry got
cut in half? Good. (see Jocko Willink
Photo by Blake Guidry on Unsplash
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World Airnews | November / December 2020
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PILOTS IN
CRISIS
“Good” on YouTube). It’s time and fulfils you. If you pivot on the
outer circle (‘what you do’), as
for you to start owning your own
you turn, you’ll lose sight of the
passion and courage.
Passion and courage are like
muscles, they need exercise to inner ‘why’ and you may not be as
successful as you think.
Once you understand what
grow. I listened to an inspiring
talk by Lewis Pugh (endurance motivates you, don’t listen to the
swimmer and ocean advocate); naysayers.
It doesn’t mean you can ‘plug and
he’s someone who has faced real
fear and is inspiringly hum- play’ into another industry over-
ble about managing it. Using a night but it does mean that once
you’ve learned the ropes in a new
metaphor learned from a tribe in
role that an effective pilot has the
Greenland, Lewis explained that
in every person’s mind exists a potential to apply a wide range of
highly developed, high performance
good wolf and a bad wolf. The bad
wolf believes you will fail, you are skills into a business.
not good enough and that there Every person on this planet needs
is little hope of success. The good to read Carol Dweck’s book ‘Growth
wolf believes in your ability to Mindset.’
learn new things and find a way The fixed mindset belief is that
to achieve your goals. The wolf your skills and talent are inherent
you feed the most is the one that and given to you by your genes,
will survive. Every day, condition your education and upbringing.
yourself to feed the good wolf and
achieve your goals. You won’t get Don’t listen to the politicians
rid of the bad wolf, just make sure offering an easy way out, the old
you feed the good one more. school examiner waving a stick, the
When you have to pivot in your parent that said you’re limited or a
career it’s important to under- colleague that said you just haven’t Who is David Doull?
stand what it is that motivates and got what it takes. They’re all just
fulfils you. projecting their own fixed mindset David spent 9 years in the emergency
on you, and they’re influencing you medical services as a paramedic and the
That’s something only you know to stop trying. Take a growth mind- last 17 years in the aviation industry as a
and you have to go through a set into your career and into your pilot with the last 10 of them at SAA. He
process of asking yourself “why?”
until you can’t go any further. relationships with people, it may holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Emergency
just change your life.
Simon Sinek’s ‘Start with Why’ is a Medical Care from the Durban University
practical way to do this. There will I watched a great discussion of Technology, a Master Degree in
be core passions that you need recently between Tom Bilyeu and Human Factors in Aviation from
to understand about yourself in Vusi Thembekwayo. They were Coventry University (UK), an ATPL and
order to pivot successfully. Sinek’s discussing creating momentum around 9000 flying hours. He worked
golden circle concept is that your and Vusi gave an analogy of a car in various leadership and management
career operates on the three lev- breaking down, yet you need to positions within both industries, more
els; what we do, how we do it and keep moving. The hardest part recently as the CRM Training Manager
why we do it. ‘Why’ is in the inner is pushing the car those first and as a Safety Incident Investigator
circle of the three. To pivot means few metres, once it is moving it at SAA. David is now a Human Factors
to turn on a point, like putting a has its own momentum and the Specialist and managing partner at
stick in the ground and turning on pushing becomes easier. Why is the Human Factor Hub. He is currently
it. If you pivot on the inner circle this important? Because there’s undergoing certification to apply
of ‘why,’ then your ‘how’ and more power in your uniqueness systems theory to accident investigation
‘what’ may change but you will and what you have to offer to the and risk management through
never lose sight of what motivates world that you haven’t discovered Stamp Engineering Services (USA).
yet. Get moving. Q
The Human Factor Hub:
The Human Factor Hub team is passionate about unlocking the potential for
high performance within people. Our vision is for people and organisations
to adapt and grow so that they may advance into the future with resilience
and flexibility. We achieve this by focusing on people, using cutting-edge
sciences of systems engineering and human factors to understand, design
and improve how things are done as well as integrate new technologies
that distribute awareness. We believe one of our greatest strengths lies in
delivering on what we say; to this end trust, learning, bespoke design and an
openness to change are among our highest values. To get in contact go to www.
humanfactorhub.com or send an email to daviddoull@humanfactorhub.com
World Airnews | November / December 2020
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