{"id":151,"date":"2009-02-27T13:15:00","date_gmt":"2009-02-27T13:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bcjobs.ca\/career-advice\/landing-safely-in-a-crisis\/"},"modified":"2024-07-25T02:50:13","modified_gmt":"2024-07-25T09:50:13","slug":"landing-safely-in-a-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bcjobs.ca\/blog\/landing-safely-in-a-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Landing safely in a crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Gayle Hallgren-Rezac co-author of Work The Pond!<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Landing_safely_in_a_crisis\" One dark night in 1972, the pilots of Eastern Airlines flight 401 inbound to Miami noticed an undercarriage warning light. All three pilots became distracted, focusing only on the warning light. Was it really a problem with the nose wheel or was it a faulty light bulb? All three became task-fixated<\/em> on the problem and no one was flying the airplane. Flight 401 slowly descended into the Everglades swamp, killing 101 people. Darcy Rezac<\/a>, co-author of WORK THE POND! <\/em>and managing director of the Vancouver Board of Trade, tells this story to illustrate how a crisis can distract us from our flight path. We are in one of those situations right now, and unfortunately, there\u2019s more than one warning light flashing in the cockpit!<\/p>\n

Good pilots, including \u201clife pilots\u201d, recognize that tunnel vision, focusing on that one light bulb flashing, can be lethal. Pilots are taught that there are two other elements to making it safely on to the runway. One is situational awareness, which is asking the following questions:<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Where am I?
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Where am I going?
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 How\u2019s the weather ahead?
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 How much fuel to do I have?
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Do I have an alternative, somewhere else to go if the mission becomes too dangerous?<\/p>\n

With your career<\/a>, it\u2019s the same:
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Where I am in my career right now, with bad weather ahead, should I stay put?
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If I am out in the job market right now, what skills do I have to offer?
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What industries are still hiring (and yes, there are some that still have too much work)?
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Is this the time I should be going back to school<\/a>?
\nChallenging times calls for heightened vigilance of threats and opportunities, but it\u2019s also a time to stay calm and keep our wits about us.<\/p>\n

This is the second task, which is to continue to fly the airplane<\/em>. This means those day-to-day experiences are not overwhelmed by a crisis. This is the time we have to be \u201cright on our game.\u201d We need to exude confidence. Our very best skills<\/a>, our highest competencies must be in play. And we must not \u201chunker down\u201d or go underground. (www.srmfre.com<\/a>) We must stay connected by maintaining our networks<\/a> and we ought not be shy about asking for help. Leadership guru Ram Charan, in an article entitled \u201cManaging your business in a downturn\u201d <\/a>(February 2008, Fortune) underscores this point. He says, \u201cWhen you’re down, don’t just sit there, talk to people, inside and outside\u201d.<\/p>\n

Budget Tip: Work The Pond!, which has been described as the \u201cconnector\u2019s handbook\u201d is available at a 27 percent discount on www.amazon.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Related to landing in a crisis<\/strong><\/p>\n