Thoughts before the week-end: You already have wings – all you need is the confidence to fly

My pilot license adventure continues. I am learning so much on my leadership journey about my strength of character through flying. And it also provides me an outlet for self-reflection. Spring has extended the light of day, and with longer days come more opportunities to self-reflect and self-develop. This week, I ventured into my first night flight with my favorite plane: the 4-seater Piper Warrior II. This plane is a beauty in the air. After-work flight lessons were convenient opportunities to satisfy the night-flying requirements for my private pilot certificate.

Dealing with anxiety: Sometimes, in the corporate world we find this anxiety that comes with the unknown or important deadlines. The first step is to clear the decks of unnecessary stress and to not create unnecessary stress for others. Do not structure your life and work to inflame anxiety every time of the day. Managers often confound bad stress with healthy challenge. Learning does not take place with unhealthy stress which may have consequences for personal health and employee morale, but constructive, healthy challenges and empowerment that lead to engagement, freedom, and exploration. Bad stress creates anxiety, oppression, and may lead to disengagement and self-destructive behaviors. It is also a leader’s duty to manage their own stress. To me, night flying brings up special challenges as I am more familiar with daytime operations. To put my anxiety at ease, I planned, paused, and went through the process mentally to avoid procrastination and connect with my inner peace. I always apply the same framework in my work environment, especially in the face of the unknown.

The magnificent Piper PA28 -161 Warrior II

The mystery of aerodynamic lift: As an avid reader and learner I have enjoyed the re-fresher of learning about the laws of motion and the Bernoulli principle, which are a fond memory of my college physics class. I furiously read through pilot materials that satisfies my desire to learn.

A Piper PA28 -161 Warrior II cockpit

• Bernoulli principles in the production of Lift: Daniel Bernoulli (1700-1782) was a Dutch scientist who studied in Italy and eventually settled in Switzerland. The Bernoulli principle states that faster moving air has low air pressure and slower moving air has high air pressure. Air pressure is the amount of pressure, or "push," that air particles exert. It is this principle that helps us understand how airplanes produce lift (or the ability to get into the air).

• Newton’s first law of motion regarding airplanes: An aircraft in flight is a particularly good example of the first law of motion. There are four major forces acting on an aircraft: lift, weight, thrust, and drag. If we consider the motion of an aircraft at a constant altitude, we can neglect the lift and weight. A cruising aircraft flies at a constant airspeed and the thrust exactly balances the drag of the aircraft. This is the first part of Newton's first law; there is no net force on the airplane, and it travels at a constant velocity in a straight line.
• Newton’s second law of motion states that Force equals Mass times Acceleration: Force = Mass x Acceleration. This means that the force needed to accelerate an airplane in any direction is equal to the mass of the airplane times the desired acceleration. It also means that the amount an airplane accelerates is equal to the mass of the airplane divided by the applied force.
•  Newton’s third law of motion says that, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. For example, plane wings are forced upwards because they are tilted, pushing air downwards so the wings get pushed upwards. This is the angle of attack or the angle at which the wing meets the airflow. The action of the wing on the air is to force the air downwards, while the reaction is the air pushing the wing upwards.

Connecting your activities to the bigger picture helps the learning process: I find joy in reading up on history and connecting the bigger picture. As I was flying at night, I remember the fond story of Antoine the St. Exupery book “Vol de nuit.” This novel was dedicated to the glory of the first airline pilots and their mystical exaltation in the rigorous performance of their duty. Saint-Exupéry talks about the brave men who piloted night mail planes from Patagonia, Chile, and Paraguay to Argentina in the early days of commercial aviation. I highly recommend this novel.

Shifting gears, the lesson of the week after all this aviation talk: A lesson to start your week on a positive note:

The power of giving back: A question one of my mentees asked me on an early morning weekend is also the question I continue to keep asking myself: How do you manage to be involved in so many things? My answer is always the same. I find my inner peace when doing things I love. I am not rushing things, I find a way to enjoy the instant gratification of things I am engaged in. I find it joyful to give back, and one of my favorite times of the week is to spend early mornings on the weekend to mentor younger professionals across the globe: French, African, and American mentees. I am learning so much from this exercise. One of my mentees repeated to me the African proverb that "It takes a village to raise a child" and “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” It is fascinating how giving time to others puts you in such a powerful state of mind before the beginning of the week. This one ingredient of my secret sauce to deal with stress is to look back and appreciate some of the good and the difference I made in other peoples’ lives.

You are surrounded by so many beautiful things that could help alleviate your anxiety and the way you handle your after work life may have some influence on your state of mind as you start your Monday. That weekend break and accomplishment put you in a powerful state of mind that you could bear any challenge that comes your way during the week. As Toni Morrison said, “If you want to fly, you have to give up the things that weigh you down.”