Our Career Runway

How can we take the ecosystem of a major transport hub, such as an airport and apply those fundamentals of structure, process and people to our own professional journey? Whilst we may not be able to fly across borders like we did pre 2020, now is the time to take advantage of opening virtual pathways. Being ready for opportunities means we might need a review of our own operating systems and that means our professional careers….

I call this our career runway and liken it to the real airport runway , all we need to ensure is that we have created a safe, yet challenging, functional space with robust systems and visionary expertise so that we can allow our careers to take off safely and allow us to elevate to new heights.

At any airport there are fundamental attributes, many aspects of the ecosystem can relate to our careers. We have aspects of our professional journey that are ‘front of house’ and then many more structures that are back office, support functions vital for the continuous movement.

A major transport hub, just like our career management should never really go to sleep….

The Eight Fundamentals

In this article I am going to take you through the important aspects of an airport and show you how you can relate these to your career runway too.

Airport Attribute Career Planning

Height Positioning

Vision Strategy

Timing Development & growth

Front of House Brand

Support Functions Networks & Connections

Communication Value Add/Expertise

Weather Impact

Cargo Precious goods/assets/You

1. Airport: Height  - when I think of an airport I automatically think of the viewing tower. We need to have eyeballs across the big picture, be able to have that ‘helicopter view’.  Now this tower may seem a little redundant in today’s world given most scheduling is actioned by central radar and satellite stations. However, seeing these tall watch towers still gives me an element of comfort knowing that we have a combination of human sight alongside powerful technology ensuring maximum eyeballs across the whole complex ecosystem.  

Career: Positioning – take a moment to get 1,000 feet above your own ground level and assess the entire eco system of you and your career. Where are you positioning yourself, do you have your own sales messages clear, where can others can find you both in pyhsical and digital profiles. Are you getting outside of your current role, being involved in voluntary work in order to get exposure to different commercial challenges, demonstrate your desire to get involved, to make a difference.

2. Airport: Vision – being able to see the entire route before take-off, planning for optimised pathways, avoiding bad weather, calculating weight to effort ratios are all vital stats to reach the destination safely and with the smoothest pathway. This is all done before any engines are started and has many double checks and risk mitigation strategies in place way before any cabin door is finally closed.

Career: Strategy –  can you see the runway ahead, is the pathway flat or are there undulations which may block your initial line of sight. Sometimes the path seems up and down with highs and lows, perhaps chunks of time where you seem to be stagnating or perhaps moving away from your career goal. Think about the effort in which a plane needs to engage all engines and forward thrust in order to achieve take-off and then once in the air, the engines are turned down in order to reach a cruising speed. Sometimes our careers need periods of energy to achieve a certain climb, perhaps a promotion or a move – never forget that a plane does not stay still in flight, always moving forward ensuring a course is plotted out, always ready to make minor adjustments.

Image - with thanks to Unsplash & Jon Flobrant

3. Airport: Communication – whether its voice, radar, eyeballs, having clear and concise communication is vital for the safety of everyone at and around the airport hub. To ensure everyone understands what is being communicated there is even a separate international language that is spoken and uses the same English letters – such as  Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel etc…To ensure messages are understood across countries and boundaries it is essential that messages are communicated without bias, error or uncertainty.

Career: Expertise – being an expert in communication is vital. The relationships that we build with our teams, within our organisations, across industries and further afield, will support our spheres of influence. The rapport and connections that we can make will ultimately drive the success and growth of being sought out in our career trajectory. Being able to communicate with others, becoming a trusted and a respected member of the team means getting involved with others, investing energy into finding out what others pain points are in the organisation.  

4: Airport: Timing – at any one point in time there are many moving parts. Even in a small, regional airport there are always aircraft in different phases of their journey, whether its refuelling at the gate, taxi-ing to or from the runway, waiting for take-off, descending and/or ascending aircraft there are at least 6 different stages of flight all happening simultaneously.

Career: Our development and growth needs timing & scheduling of its own. Treat your career with the respect that it deserves, to be in service to ourselves is important to be aware of before we can be in service to others. Given that we are likely to spend half of our lives working, surely we would look for fulfilment, joy, challenge and inspiration. Being able to consistently review where we are, what achievements we have accomplished, recognising our own moments of growth across intervals such as time based or specific project achievements. Perhaps creating our own log book of greatness, adding to this every six months so that its bursting with moments that matter in our journey. At the end of a long distance trip, consider a consolidation of lessons learnt, sharing of personal insights and perhaps gain feedback from others, peers and those who may be able to see areas in which we have become master.  

5. Airport: Front of House – the obvious activities of any airport can be seen with vehicles, logistics, check-in services, on board support crew, food, safety and maintenance teams. The airport is a huge ecosystem with the obvious services and the not so obvious services. Together all of the parts make the whole, a failure in one area may not derail the entire system, but importantly each area is considered a vital part of the whole, no matter how big or small, Nothing can get overlooked without potentially fatal consequences.

Career: Brand – this is such an important aspect and one we always need to pay attention to. How others interact with us both tangibly and intangibly are going to keep us front of mind rather than left out. Think about your preferred air travel brand, think about what aspects are appealing to you and those behaviours which are not. This is your brand, how you build rapport with others, how you show up in your role, the language that you use are all factors in which your audience, like it or not, will form views of you. Your brand will certainly drive your career. A strong brand will get an acceleration, people will connect you, others seek you out and the journey becomes a smoother one where your effort to impact ration is optimised

Image - with thanks to Unsplash and Bing Hui Yau

6. Airport: Support Structures – many of the activities at the airport that support all aspects of travel are under the radar and perhaps silent to the untrained human eye, yet we rely on these structures to ensure our journey is a safe one. Scheduling, maintenance, ground teams, passenger services, fire services.

Career: Networks and Connections – we cannot achieve greatness alone. Consider who is in your team, what role they play, whether it’s a co-pilot, cabin crew or the ground staff who enable your take-off. Think about your own circle of key players (suggest 5-10) key close professional connections who can help mentor you, support you, sing your praises to others, I call these my tool-box of experts. Just like an airline all roles are needed to ensure the airplane makes a safe return journey.

7. Airport: Uncontrollable Factors – the most obvious uncontrollable factor at the airport is the weather. Most risks are measured with mitigation strategies put into place in order to remove (if possible) or certainly to reduce the risk of such factors. The most obvious one with regards to weather is to have runways that take advantage of the N/S, E/W directions in order to either avoid the weather or take advantage of the wind directions.  

Career: Impact – having a mindset of living a legacy rather than leaving a legacy is an important distinction to make. Impact in our professional career is having something that you want to be known for. Whether that means you want to be a technical expert in your field, perhaps a team player who can organise complex projects and achieve successful outcomes in a structured fashion it’s important to understand what are your key messages and strengths. How do you want others to talk about you when you are not in the room, how do you want others to feel after they have worked with you. What about a wider audience outside of your organisation, do you want to have an impact on your social circle, industry groups, perhaps being known for your energy and care in supporting marginalised groups within your profession? Whatever you decide, the control is within your hands to make that impact, be seen, be a ripple of change, make the 1% effort every day in order to reach your goal.

8. Airport: Logistics, cargo and baggage -  when we travel we always have something important that we want to take with us. Whether it’s our favourite pair of designer shoes in our luggage, our important laptop in the carry on, perhaps something bigger such as a surf board or golf clubs, maybe even a pet if we are moving home, there are many different items of baggage that we entrust into someone else’s care.

Career: Precious Goods (You) – finally, the most important aspect of all, is to ensure you take care of your precious cargo. This means different things to everyone, you will know what it means to you, to take care of yourself. Be intentional with your precious resources, such as energy and time, invest into them wisely and make good choices for you. Without a strong, well and whole you, nothing else is going to be achievable. We cannot fill another person’s cup if ours is close or empty. There are many ways in which to treat ourselves with care, these can be physical ways, cognitive ways and emotional protection. Simple and consistent acts of self- kindness, speaking to ourselves with a language of love and care, stopping and finding 15min every day to concentrate on deep breathing perhaps taking a slow walk amongst a forest, bushland or coastal trek. The possibilities are indeed endless and should always be front of mind…

Image - with thanks to Unsplash and Han Min T

Finally, I would encourage everyone to review your own career ecosystem, consider where you have strengths, identify areas that may need development and further support. Reach out and find a mentor (at least one) and get prepared to be your career pilot, set up your strong navigational structures. If you are keen to explore my mentoring sessions, I would love to chat and have an obligation free discovery call.