Ep 42 - Tenille Cromwell, Chief Pilot and Former US Navy Mission Commander: A Chief Pilot's Insight: 4 Leadership Lessons To Help Your Career Take Off

Learn more about Michael Wenderoth, Executive Coach: www.changwenderoth.com

SHOW NOTES:

What can leaders learn from pilots? Tenille Cromwell, chief pilot, shares four lessons from the cockpit that will make you a more effective leader. We look at how pilots communicate, work with their teams and navigate storms to complete their missions safely. Tenille, who flew her first solo flight at 17, draws from deep experience leading airborne customer support and her time in the US Navy as mission commander and instructor. She holds a BS from the University of Southern California (USC), an MBA from Georgia Southern University, and completed executive education at Harvard’s Kennedy School and Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.

• Her grandpa, the lightbulb moment and “Mom and Dad, college is on me.. I joined the Navy”
• The job of a Chief Pilot, the job of a pilot
• Lesson #1: Communication
• “CRM” and depersonalizing, conciseness and tailoring to the audience
• Two giant jets, 100 feet apart – Tone and how you say it
• Lesson #2: Co-pilots and Diversity of Thought
• Her military background vs that of her co-pilot: “a rich fabric of decision making”
• Trust
• Flying into Bozeman, “I can’t see the runway”
• Huddles to discuss the Brief (“Exec Summary”)
• “No, it’s not all Kumbaya”: A time for collaboration vs a time to make a decision
• Scenario planning, pre-mortems and debriefs to avoid error
• 45,000 feet and losing pressure is “not a time for conversation, we need to descend now”
• Lesson #3: Navigating Thunderstorms and the 4 routes
• Lesson #4: Surrounding yourself with a good team
• “I really couldn't do this without these people”
• The role of recognition and her Christmas tradition
• When bringing stragglers along is gross mis-prioritization
• “It’s not all glory being a chief pilot”
• The importance of overcommunication – “Just because you think it doesn’t mean other people know it” - why it helps in the cockpit to include your copilot in your internal thought process
• Women in aviation, with India as an outlier?
• The physical demand is not the challenge, but managing the time away is
• “Start them early” – experience and exposure
• You can’t have it all but you can sure try
• “You don’t always need to find a mentor that looks like you” and other advice for young women
• Guys have the same challenges that women do - "No need to belittle yourself to fit in"
• Her favorite plane to fly (quite the savvy response…)

BIO AND LINKS:

Tenille Cromwell is Chief Pilot for an elite private aircraft manufacturer. She flies the G150, G350, G450, and G550, manages 17 pilots and seven aircraft that are continuously operating around the world to meet customer needs. She started her aviation career in the US Navy, where she served as Instructor Pilot and Mission Commander in the E-6B (TACAMO), and as Instructor Pilot in the T-1 (Hawker 400) for future military aviators. Tenille holds a BS in Business from the University of Southern California, an MBA from Georgia Southern University, and earned executive education certificates in Public Leadership from Harvard’s Kennedy School, and in Corporate Innovation from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business (LEAD). When not completing missions that add to her 7000+ flight hours, she lives in Savannah, Georgia with her husband, and three children.

• Tenille on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tenille-cromwell-0b079718b/
• JFK’s 1962 Clip: “We choose to go to the Moon” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQV9CAJWlVY
• Flights, by by the numbers: https://www.spikeaerospace.com/air-traffic-around-the-globe-over-24-hours/
• How safe is it to fly? https://simpleflying.com/how-safe-is-flying/
• Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers: https://www.amazon.com/Outliers-Story-Success-Malcolm-Gladwell/dp/0316017930
• Scenario planning to avoid error (and the strong case for pre-mortems): https://hbr.org/2007/09/performing-a-project-premortem
• Stats on women in aviation: https://www.livemint.com/news/india/at-15-india-ha