I learned a great deal about the type of person, manager, and leader I am through my sessions with Eric.
Fly by the Instruments
When pilots first learn to fly an airplane, they are required to maintain visual contact with the ground. This prevents them from getting disoriented. As they gain hours and experience, however, they learn how to fly using only their instruments, allowing them to navigate even when visibility is zero.
The first time pilots fly through an extensive cloudbank, it is not unusual for them to get vertigo and lose all sense of direction, including up and down. With their windows made opaque by the surrounding clouds, their minds scream out “we are upside down!” But the instrument panel in front of them indicates that the plane is flying perfectly straight and right. Even so, the sense of being upside down becomes so overpowering that pilots succumb and turn the plane over. When they fly out of the cloudbank, and find themselves staring down toward the earth, they realize that the instruments were right all along.
Performance Principle: “Fly by the instruments” is an important piece of advice for every entrepreneurial leader. Often, when business gets tough, we feel internal pressure to change course. Things go wrong for a little while, and the voice inside our head starts telling us that our business approach is upside down. But, when we look rationally at the leading indicators – prospects in the funnel, the discipline of our marketing & sales efforts, incremental revenue and profit – we can see that things are o.k. We need, in those situations, to trust the data and fly by the instruments.
Questions to Consider:
- Are you tempted to change course in your business or your life because of an internal sense that things are “upside down?”
- Objectively, are things as bad as they feel? What do the data say?
- Is there any downside to staying on course for the next 90 days? Can you wait and see how events unfold before you make any sudden changes?
- Do you have an objective, seasoned outside advisor who can review the situation with you? If not, can you find an objective outsider to give you some perspective?
