6 Lessons On Decision-Making From Captain Sully
“Wrong choice…would have been catastrophic” Capt. Chesley Sullenberger
on Larry King Live
The heroic split second decision-making of Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger spared the lives of 155 people when he successfully landed his airliner in New York’s Hudson River. Business leaders navigating their organizations through the current financial crisis can learn a lot from Captain Sully.
Got 9.5 minutes to spare right now? Grab your mouse, click on the picture below and watch this amazing story of calm decision-making under fire.
Captain Sully had one minute to decide how to solve his problem. Was this to his advantage or disadvantage? Does having more time to make a tactical decision reduce the quality of the outcome? It certainly can if we hem and haw, second guess and fear making the wrong choice. The advantage Captain Sully had was being forced to tap into his years of experience without time to think about it. He acted in an unconsciously competent way and described it well when he said, “I was sure I could do it.”
Lesson #1: Know when to take control. I love that moment when, following protocol, Sully said, “my aircraft”. How many times have we watched our leaders hestitate to take control of a situation or make a decision? Those are merely people with titles; they’re not leaders. Stepping up and taking charge is the task and responsibility of leaders. And, those who do it best do it without regard for self and with deep commitment to do what’s best for others.
Lesson #2: Decide direction expeditiously. Captain Sully considered three options for landing in less than a minute. He then decided, “We’re going into the Hudson.” Once he made that decision all other options were cut off. Decision means to cut or take away. Once the other two options for landing the plane were taken away he and the crew could focus completely on making a successful water landing.
Lesson #3: Do not multi-task. Concentration and focus is the discipline of champions and heros. When asked if he prayed, the captain said he was concentrating on landing his plane and he “thought of nothing else.” Focus is seeing all the options clearly, but concentration is executing those options intently. You will not lead your company through this economic crisis if you are distracted by trying to be and do too many things.
Lesson #4: Be a calming force. Forcing calm during a crisis situation requires tremendous mastery over your own emotions. Captain Sully explained this as forcing himself to use his training and a lifetime of preparation for this unplanned event that he felt should not be happening to him. Thoughts of “why me” and “what if this doesn’t work” were subordinated to acting on the skills and capabilities learned and honed over a lifetime of piloting airliners. This is really about trusting yourself to test your limits.
Lesson #5: Give clear instructions. Ninety seconds before flight 1549 hit the water, the captain announced, “brace for impact”. He said he was comforted when he heard the flight attendants in unison yelling the repeated instruction to the passengers because he knew the team was on the same page. How many injuries were averted and deaths prevented by this amazing team effort? We will never know because everyone lived. Are you giving timely and clear directives to your team? Are you on the same page?
Lesson #6: Preparation is the mother of competence. I am moved by Captain Sully’s quite confidence when he said, “I was sure I could do it.” There were no second attempts, no “do-overs”. Just one shot. Pull it off and everyone lives. Fail and everyone dies. He believed his life was preparation for that single event. Captain Sully was prepared for the task and he executed on what he knew without thinking about it. That is all about being competent. Are you prepared to lead in the moment of crisis, without having to think about it?
Please post your comment and let me know what you think!
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March 4th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
It is amazing what you can do if you just keep a cool head! When I think of the great leaders that I have been around, they all have these common traits. Thank you Lamar!
February 23rd, 2009 at 11:21 pm
Lamar:
Great story with leadership lessons from Captain Sullenberger. He is a terrific role model to follow when there is a crisis.
His situation reminds me a bit of Apollo 13, although with much less time to react. You will recall that Flight Director Gene Kranz demonstrated many of the same leadership behaviors in that crisis — and achieved an equally good outcome.
Kim Lopdrup
February 21st, 2009 at 8:01 am
Captain Sully exemplifies what all should leaders aspire to be; cool under intense pressure, relied upon by our stakeholders and admired for our courage to make the right decisions. This example of heroism reminds me of some of the 911 firefighters and police who focused on their lifelong training to save hundreds of lives. Very impressive!
February 20th, 2009 at 10:57 am
Thanks Lamar. This was an event that reinforced my belief that the world is full of good people that can do heroic things if needed. Captain Sully and his crew are examples of what is positive in our country at a time when we are surrounded by so many negative forces. I admire Sully’s calm but “Rock Solid” way of taking charge of a life and death situation. We can all learn from his leadership skills. Best of luck!
February 19th, 2009 at 9:23 pm
Using recent and relevant examples really drives home the message of what true leaders are made of. It is compelling that the lesson comes from one of us..and everyday Joe. From the first interview I saw of “Sully” I knew he had extraordinary leadership skills…beyond those we could extract from a short interview. True leaders are not just in the right place at the right time. They are prepared, confident, competent, and are wired to do what is right. Sully’s demeanor, both during and after the event, is nothing less than heroic in itself. How can one handle that type of pressure, both during a crisis and then afterwords recounting the events in front of the nation, with such matter-of-fact confidence? Truely, preparation and selflessness are key components. The lessons you extract, linking this example to people’s everyday life are important, and exemplify that decisiveness can be both inspiring AND well calculated. Whereas, languishing over ramifications of a critical decision can be debilitating, and to often counterproductive. Good luck with your website & blog…I truely enjoyed your insight on this siginificant current event!
February 19th, 2009 at 8:22 pm
Thanks for sharing your insights and views of these leadership lessons. As co-author of THE LEADER WITHIN and our research on leader effectiveness many of your points highlight our findings. This is a great example of how self-management capabilities can enable a person to effectively deal with extremely unfavorable situations by enacting their problem-solving capabilities for the betterment of all. And, yet I was particularly struck by two other attributes in the interview of this heroic leader. Both derive from his inner character that have been the bedrock for the 42 years of developing and demonstrating his capabilities during his career–specifically taking leadership responsiblity in such a crisis and his humble self-confidence.
February 19th, 2009 at 5:06 pm
As a private pilot, I know that the pros train over and over for emergencies their entire career, yet there is no way to completely prepare for this kind of event. Repeatedly practicing and preparing for what may happen gave this man the experience to be able to handle the toughest test. None of us know when our test will come, but are we preparing or simply observing?
February 19th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
Lamar this was very interesting as you said. When reading it I was trying to think about how I handle situations in the office that are stressfull like putting bids together for a deadline. It’s clearly not the same thing that the pilot went through but it was interesting to read the six lessons above and find out which ones I might not meet. If your interested two of the lessons I need alot of work on. Thanks for the blog it was interesting and made me think of my everday life as a manager.
February 19th, 2009 at 4:20 pm
I think this is a great example of leadership in action and will almost certainly be a case study well into the future. It was critical that the direction and possible confusion by inputs from air traffic control did not cause Captain Sully to make the mistake of trying to navigate to one of the two airports suggested. He had the courage as well as the training to be confident, decisive and ultimately successful in landing the plane safely.
Also important is the realization he had that he was not only responsible for the safety of his passengers, but also of the people who would have been injured or killed on the ground as the plane would have almost certainly have come down in a heavily populated area. Even if the water landing had not been as successful as it was, Capt. Sully would still be a hero and a great leader.
In an instant his mission changed from get the people and the plane safely to the destination to that of safeguarding the safety of those on his plane and those on the ground. Fortunately for all involved, Capt. Sully had the ability to accept and execute his new mission when it was clear his original mission was no longer viable.
This was a bright spot to a nation desparately needing some good news as well as great lesson in leadership!!