Aviation Stories

Early in my career, I thought leadership meant having the answers. If someone asked a question, I felt pressure to respond quickly and confidently, even if I wasn’t fully sure. In aviation, that mindset doesn’t last long. The reality is simple: no single person knows everything, and pretending you do is one of the fastest ways to make a bad situation worse.

Over time, I learned that strong leadership isn’t about being the smartest person in the room. It’s about knowing who is.

In aviation operations, you’re surrounded by specialists. Maintenance knows their aircraft inside and out. Dispatch understands routing, weather, and regulations. Vendors have real-world experience with edge cases you may only see once every few years. A good leader doesn’t compete with that expertise. They rely on it.

The shift happens when you stop asking, “What should I do?” and start asking, “Who should I be listening to right now?”

There’s a lot of pressure, especially in leadership roles, to project certainty. Teams look to you for direction. Clients expect confidence. But confidence doesn’t come from having all the answers. It comes from making sound decisions based on the best available information. That information often comes from people who don’t share your title.

Some of the best outcomes I’ve seen came from stepping back and letting the expert lead the conversation. That might mean letting maintenance walk you through a limitation instead of rushing to a conclusion. It might mean asking dispatch to sanity-check a plan before you lock it in. It might mean calling a vendor who has seen the problem before, even if it feels like you should already know the solution.

This approach does a few important things.

First, it reduces risk. Aviation is unforgiving when ego gets involved. Decisions made to protect pride instead of safety tend to show their flaws quickly. When you involve the right people, blind spots get exposed early, before they turn into real problems.

Second, it builds trust with your team. People notice when their input is valued. When a leader listens instead of posturing, it signals respect. Over time, that creates an environment where people speak up sooner, share concerns more openly, and feel ownership over outcomes. That’s invaluable in high-stakes operations.

Third, it actually strengthens your authority. This might sound counterintuitive, but leaders who delegate thinking don’t lose control. They gain credibility. Teams trust leaders who make informed decisions more than leaders who insist on being right. When people see that you’re willing to ask questions and weigh expertise, they know your decisions aren’t driven by ego.

There’s also a personal benefit. Carrying the belief that you must be the smartest person in the room is exhausting. It creates unnecessary pressure and leads to decision fatigue. Letting go of that belief frees you up to focus on what leaders actually do best: prioritizing, coordinating, communicating, and setting direction.

One of the most important skills I’ve developed is learning how to ask better questions. Not leading questions designed to confirm my opinion, but open ones. Questions like:

What am I missing here? Have you seen this before? If this were your call, what would concern you most? What’s the worst-case outcome if we proceed this way?

Those questions don’t weaken leadership. They sharpen it.

Good leaders also know when to step back in. Listening doesn’t mean deferring every decision. It means gathering input, weighing it, and then making the call with clarity. Ownership still matters. The difference is that the decision is informed, not isolated.

If you want to practice this kind of leadership, start small.

Pay attention to moments when you feel the urge to immediately answer. Pause. Ask one clarifying question instead.

Notice who on your team consistently brings insight. Involve them earlier next time.

After a decision, reflect. Did you lean too heavily on your own judgment? Did you underutilize someone else’s expertise?

Leadership isn’t about being the loudest voice or the most knowledgeable person in the room. It’s about orchestrating the right voices at the right time. In aviation, where precision and judgment matter, that distinction can make all the difference.

The strongest leaders I’ve worked with weren’t the ones who knew everything. They were the ones who knew who to trust.