Manager or Pilot: Who Does a Better Job?

Hand on heart, based on your experience, whom would you be more likely to attest that s/he has all the skills for his/her job as a pilot or manager and applies them conscientiously and well, to the extent that you can say s/he is doing a good job?

If you find it difficult to decide, which is the case for most of the people I have asked this question so far, then ask yourself how often have you been disappointed by a pilot and how often by a manager? Disappointed in terms of competence, how these people fulfill their job or not. Pilots in flying the airplane safely, even when it gets shaky and uncomfortable, which you hopefully experience extremely rarely. Managers in leading (parts of) the business and the employees with all the associated tasks such as delegating tasks, providing feedback, developing employees, etc. Critics may object that everything stands or falls with expectations. Do you have unrealistic or realistic expectations? That's true. Most organizations do a lot in this area and support managers and employees in being clear and having an exchange and agreement on what is expected of each other.

The question regarding the competence of a pilot may not be easy to answer, as probably hardly any people know how many errors and thus also accidents are caused by human error by pilots. According to various statistics, this is up to 88%. Specifically, in the commercial civil aviation business, an accident occurred every 1.26 million flights in 2023. It should be noted that flying is becoming increasingly safe. In other words, a person would have to travel by plane every day for an average of 103.239 years to suffer a fatal accident.

According to investigations into the causes of airplane accidents, loss of situational awareness regarding the weather, distances or technical information in the cockpit, as well as faulty communication, are among the main reasons.

What is the connection with managers, or how can pilots and managers be compared?

Managers rarely have to make decisions that can lead to tragic deaths. If there were statistics that recorded the error rate of managers, they would probably be far away from the values listed above.

Both pilots and managers have a great responsibility!

A responsibility towards other people, such as physical and/or psychological safety, a duty of care, e.g., towards customers and/or investors, to ensure that they act ethically and morally correctly, or the development of employees, including communication, e.g., with stakeholders, etc.

In the event of a flight accident, a thorough analysis of the cause of the error is carried out, e.g., evaluation of the black box, in order to incorporate this knowledge into future training, among other things. The crucial difference between managers and pilots begins with the education and training.

Pilots have to complete their education and training with different tests. They have to prove theoretical knowledge, demonstrate in simulators how they master very different challenges, learn from mistakes and train again in simulators until they have mastered everything and finally demonstrate their acquired competences once more in an empty aircraft.

Managers usually complete education and training courses without a final assessment. Of course, there are training courses in which case studies (mainly of an organizational and economical nature) are worked on and presented, or in which a knowledge test is carried out in order to obtain a diploma/certificate, such as project management IPMA, Six Sigma belt XYZ, etc.

ChatGPT describes it like this; “These credentials provide recognition of managerial competencies and may enhance career prospects and professional credibility”.

Would you board an airplane based on this and trust the crew?

The definition of ChatGPT can be viewed in different ways. It is a fact that managers still have to prove themselves in practice after their education or training, be it in their daily tasks or in projects. This is the part that pilots already have behind them. Without this qualification, they would not be allowed to take the controls of an airplane with passengers.

What is usually missing from training courses for managers, or is insufficiently supervised and monitored, is the practical application of knowledge in a safe environment, as pilots do in simulators. A final apprenticeship examination consists of a theoretical and a practical part; students or graduates complete internships so that they learn to apply their theoretical knowledge in a situationally adapted way.

Albert Einstein said it like this: "Learning is experience. Everything else is simply information."

The practical application of knowledge is the real learning, which is unfortunately often neglected in the development of leaders.

After the training, there is often no further feedback for the manager. What has changed for him/her as a result of the education or training, and what effect has this had?

This is the age of artificial intelligence and virtual reality. Simulations for managers exist and deliver impressive learning results. Learning from other industries, such as Kaizen from the automotive industry, SPRINTS from software development, drugstore products in discount sales, etc., has proven to be a successful model in recent decades. All beginnings require courage, and even calculated risks remain an avoidably "unsafe" venture. Simulations are established learning solutions with immense added value, including for leadership development.