For leaders, developing self-awareness is crucial. Here are 5 simple steps.
1. Admitting your strengths and weakness
It’s crucial to be 100% honest about what your company excels at and what needs to be improved. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link, therefore, no matter how outstanding your main service offering is, this will not reap the rewards you seek if you are failing in another area. This could mean developing your customer service, expanding your reach, or tackling an inherent strategic or structural issue that is impeding performance. Remember, ignoring a problem only amplifies it in the long-term.
2. Understanding your industry
It’s often tempting to see things as we wish to, rather than as they actually are. As business leaders, we must respond to the here and now, not the best case scenario. This is where a clear and honest understanding of the realities of your business environment is crucial. Become aware of the pitfalls that you face in the medium to long-term, taking economic and market trends into consideration. This may sound obvious, but it’s surprising how often companies fool themselves when taking particular courses of action, despite hard evidence to suggest that the action will not work.
3. Learning from mistakes
Making mistakes is a necessary part of succeeding. It’s vital to adopt an optimistic mindset. So, rather than berating yourself for poor judgment when you fail, remind yourself that you now know one way that doesn’t work and quickly move on. Every successful leader and entrepreneur in history made mistakes, but what they also have in common is that they learnt from these mistakes. Developing wisdom and exercising it daily is a fundamental task of any leader.
4. Exercising patience
The old adage, ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’ is particularly relevant for any business, whether it is in its earliest stages or amidst an expansion process. Rewards do not show themselves overnight, therefore being patient is another important part of your self-awareness as a leader. Have confidence in your decisions and give the time necessary to judge whether or not they were right for your company.
5. Being true to your values
Not losing sight of your mission and values – no matter how difficult times get – is extremely important for any business leader. Commanding the respect of your staff, stakeholders and industry peers is a natural evolution of clearly defining and sticking to your goals. Inspirational leaders do not compromise their values or beliefs for any purpose. You must be able to stand over every decision you make and course of action you take, and be congruent with your beliefs in every business activity you engage in. This breeds resilience and resilience breeds success.
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Mitch Launius
Instructor Pilot for 30 West IP
Mitch is the CEO of 30 West IP where he is also an instructor providing pilot training on international procedures. With an illustrious career of over 34 years in the cockpit, Mitch has acquired over 13,000 hours of flight time flying worldwide, with over 9,000 hours of this in Challenger and Gulfstream aircraft. He is an experienced safety officer and was also an IS-BAO project manager for a fortune 500 flight department. He has presented on Safety and Operations topics at the NBAA International Operators Conference and the Canadian Business Aviation Association Convention and is currently on the NBAA International Operators Committee and serves as the North Atlantic Regional Lead. Mitch is also a member of an FAA working group on General Aviation International Authorizations and Tabletop Exercises (GIATE). He was recently selected to represent IBAC as a member of the ICAO Personal Training and Licensing Panel (PTLP) and was also recently named as a 2020 recipient of the NBAA Tony Kern Professionalism in Aviation Award for his contribution to the business aviation community.
Henry ‘Duke’ LeDuc
Director Of Operations, Americas, UAS International Trip Support
Duke has been a dearly respected member of UAS Americas team and the UAS global family for more than five years. A safety-oriented, FAA-licensed aircraft dispatcher, he oversees all of the operations of the elite UAS Operations Team. With twenty-five years of experience in aviation overall with more than fifteen years of experience in international flight planning and VVIP trip coordination, he is responsible for the development of the dispatch training program and involved in the strategic development of UAS Americas. With a myriad of rich aviation experience behind him, he has extensive experience in worldwide operations with both corporate and charter environments, including seven years as Operations/Dispatch Manager in an industry-leading, Fortune 500, IS-BAO Stage III Certified corporate flight department. Duke is frequently asked shares his knowledge at major industry events and is currently serving on the NBAA’s International Operators Conference (IOC) Planning Committee.
Dudley King
President and Founder, FlightBridge
Dudley is the Founder and President of FlightBridge, which he established in 2011 and has been focused on technology solutions for the private aviation industry since 2006. Since he graduated from Dartmouth in 1988, he has worked with an array of companies listed anywhere from VentureWire to the Fortune 100. A rare blend of executive, entrepreneur, and consultant, Dudley’s executive roles have included acting CIO positions for several companies and tech advisory services to CEOs trying to rebuild their technology organizations or looking for an external, professional point of view. Highly skilled at deeply understanding his customer’s business challenges and drawing from a long and varied experience in information technology services, Dudley excels at designing technology solutions to solve their problems.
Dr. Paulo Alves
Global Medical Director, Aviation Health, Medaire
Paulo has extensive experience in medical advisory in the aviation industry. As a cardiologist, he provides technical guidance and analysis for MedAire’s MedLink medical advisory service and is MedAire’s liaison with civil aviation regulators and industry associations. Paulo worked with Varig Brazilian Airlines for 23 years, 10 of which were spent as General Medical Manager. A member of the MedAire Medical Advisory Board, Paulo is also President of the Ibero-American Aerospace Medical Association, a member of the International Academy of Aerospace Medicine, a member of the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) Safety Committee, a Fellow of the Aerospace Medical Association (AsMA), and a Fellow of the Civil Aviation Medical Association. Throughout his illustrious career, Paulo has held industry leadership roles including Chairperson of the AsMA’s Air Transport Medicine Committee, President of the Airlines Medical Directors Association, President of the Brazilian Society of Aerospace Medicine and was a member of the IATA Medical Advisory Group from 2002 to 2006.
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