Expidite the expidited

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I am headed to the passport office this AM to get a new passport. I didn't have time to do the expidited renewal after getting back from Japan. So I made an special expiditing appointment with the passport folks in Atlanta. I am glad I only have to drive into Atlanta, not fly up to NY or Washington DC. It seems I have had to do some expiditing everytime I have renewed my passport. Passports are good for 10 years. When you get a new passport it is a time to ponder where you will be and what the passport will look like in 10 years. The pic belows shows the wear on my now cancelled passport. it was a 50 page book (the extra pages version) and 46 pages are fully used. Many countries require 3 empty pages to enter their country. So, I got full use of the larger size passport. If you need more pages, you send the passport in and they will "sew-in" more pages. The thickest passport I ever saw was at the Uzbekistan-Turkmenistan border. A truck driver I saw had a Uzbekistan passpo...

This study has come up through the wires (many different wires). It makes perfect sense to me.

http://newsinfo.nd.edu/news/25416-flying-bosses-new-study-highlights-why-ceo-pilots-make-good-leaders/

Study

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1785413

Comments

David said…
Hmm, interesting. So, what would you say -according to your own experience being both a pilot AND in a leading position at a global company - are the 1-2 key benefits that you have gained for your job from flying?
Charles said…
In the same way Toastmasters helps folks confront fear, aviation takes it to another level. When you pre-flight and run-up a plane you are removing risks of the bad things that can happen. If you want to be totally safe, stay at home? "Life without risk is not worth living". "Takeoffs are optional, landings are not".

Flying and management are similar in that there is trust and there is leverage. The more you can intelligently trust (others and yourself) the more you can leverage. Smart leverage is the key ingredient to success, both personally and organizationally.

The other thing that I have gained for my job from flying is understanding that the human brain shrinks when under stress. You get stupid when you have conflicting inputs and things look dire. Being able to think through the chaos and be able to force yourself to think freely and creatively when your body is being tossed around are highly applicable to skills needed in executive management.

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Expidite the expidited

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