Helicopter Leadership: When You Should Hover

Helicopters are known for their unique ability to hover, take off and land vertically, and move in ways that traditional fixed-wing aircraft cannot operate. They are the air vehicle of choice for emergencies and crises. They transport people and things to locations where airplanes can’t land. They aid up-close sightseeing, aerial videography and photography, and agricultural work. They can maneuver into hard-to-reach locations, hover close to, or land on the ground. This makes it easier to off-and-on-load resources, observe the terrain, or support land operations.

If you want to travel a long distance to get from point A to point B quickly, you’ll likely use an airplane. If you want to closely examine the topography between where you are now and your destination, you’ll likely use a helicopter.

This is a good analogy for leadership. Whether you’re searching for a new leader to fill a role or developing a current leader to head up a major project, you must first understand the type of leadership you need to be successful; is it helicopter or airplane leadership?

Airplane or Helicopter Leadership?

Airplane leadership requires flying high and fast. Leaders with this skill set and interests gravitate to roles where they’re able to focus on more extensive issues. They’re able to see the big picture better and address broader questions. These roles don’t require close inspection of the process to get to the outputs of their team, because generally…

• They have capable direct reports to manage it.
• The work is regulatory, compliance, or standard process driven, or doesn’t require significant change from the past.
• Their focus is building external relationships to support the business.
• They need to concentrate on the expanse of the work, and high-level strategies to accomplish goals.

Helicopter leadership is typically needed when an organization is in trouble or in significant problem-solving mode. These leaders can look broadly over the situation, determine the problem spots, and zoom in to inspect the issue. They can be positioned much closer to daily activities and outcomes, able to see details that impact performance and results. They can then identify and deploy the resources needed to address the issue.

Every organization obviously needs a balance of airplane and helicopter leadership, depending on the situation and the team. Helicopter leaders must demonstrate styles that leadership expert Daniel Goleman describes as being1

• Authoritative where you move people quickly toward a vision,
• Pacesetting where you quickly develop a plan of action and expect the team to follow it now, or
• Coercive where you demand immediate compliance to ensure safety and mitigate risk.

When to Hover

As a leader, you fly the helicopter so that you can hover when the organization is experiencing one of the following issues.

• Crisis - This may start with a supply chain, quality, competitiveness, talent, loss of sales, reputation, or brand promise issue. Each one ultimately impacts the financials. Leaders must be in tune to any hint of a crisis to quickly make critical decisions to avert a more serious situation.
• Change - Leaders must help their teams acknowledge the benefits of operating differently, become self-aware of their own behaviors that must shift, let go of their ego and attachment to those behaviors and practice new pathways to success. They must observe and hold their teams accountable for behaviors that don’t support the change, and personally model (close up!) the change they want to see.
• Capabilities – With rapid changes in technology and demands for new products and services, leaders need to understand the new skillsets required to meet shifting demands. And they need to understand the implications for training or shifting the current workforce.
• Capacity - Leaders need to be clear about the tradeoffs of balancing priorities that compete for the organization’s resources. Ensure the team clearly understands which goals will have the greatest impact then determine how to best deploy the available resources.
• Challenge?– This could be an activist investor, loss of a significant customer, environmental or existential threat. It’s an all-hands-on-deck situation where the leader must become involved in every aspect of the work to mitigate the potential for damage.

Each of these scenarios are time bound, lasting anywhere from months to several years. Some leaders are naturally wired to fly an aircraft or a helicopter. Others may pivot easily between the two depending on the situation. The key is correctly reading the circumstances and ensuring that the right leader is in place to support a favorable outcome.

1Goleman, Daniel. "Leadership That Gets." Harvard Business Review, Mar-Apr, 2000.

Copyright 2025 Priscilla Archangel.

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