October 12th. 2023 by Mike Manazir – (4-5 minutes)
Strike 1: As I shut down my aircraft and climbed down the ladder, the flight instructor approached the airplane.
He said, “Hey, Manazir, the LSOs [Landing Signal Officers] called from the ship and said you were a disqual.”
I thought he was joking of course. I laughed at him and told him, “The LSOs already told me I was a qual on the radio.”
He said, “Yeah and they called me to tell you it was a mistake. You’re a disqual.”
“For what?” I asked, with a horrible sinking feeling in my stomach as the thought that he wasn’t kidding sunk in. I almost dropped to the ground.
He replied, “Every approach you did was fast and out of limits. You didn’t make it.”
I failed carrier qualification. I was stunned and went numb. Fortunately, I had one chance to do the training again. I qualified and this failure made me a better pilot.
Strike 2: It happened on an obsidian dark night. No moon. No stars. It was a deep impenetrable blackness where lights appear to be two-dimensional dancers on a black velvet curtain.
We’re a thousand miles from anywhere. I have no choice. I have to land us on that little tiny postage stamp of an aircraft carrier. If you touch down past the wires with the hook down, it’s called a bolter. It’s spectacular to watch at night as the dragging hook creates a shower of sparks on the deck behind the airplane as you screech off the angle deck at full power. It adds to the pain of not stopping when you intend to. Totally embarrassing.
It was a special night. I missed my first four landings, flying over the top of the wires each time. We were now low on fuel and they sent me up to the tanker holding at 7,000 feet. I did okay with that, got topped off, and descended to start our approach for the fifth time—and missed again. And again! I have now boltered six times in a row. After the last bolter, they sent me back to the tanker for the second time that night. All the other planes were aboard except us and the tanker.
As we lifted off after the seventh bolter, I asked AWOL (my back seater), “What are you thinking?” His reply came back over the intercom in a deeply frustrated voice, “EJECTION.”
I don’t know why, but that was what I needed. The shot to my arm from AWOL to block out the fear and focus on what I needed to do. We caught a wire on the next approach and stopped.
Strike 3: Twenty years later in 2004 after I had completed Nuke School plus all of the tough requirements to command a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the aircraft carrier command selection board met. My boss, Vice Admiral Jim Zortman, was the president of this board. I waited to hear the result, confident I would be selected. The board adjourned on a Friday. Admiral Zortman called that afternoon. I had not been selected. I was devastated. I thought my career was over.
Well, it wasn’t over. I was selected by the board on the next round, which turned out to be fortuitous. It placed me in operational command of the USS Nimitz and then later, selection to flag rank and ultimately commanding Carrier Strike Group 8. They were the most rewarding commands of my naval career.
Imagine being a baseball player stepping up to the plate to bat. Life’s challenges and adversities are the pitches thrown by the opposing team. These pitches can be curveballs, fastballs, or sliders. They are the obstacles we encounter in life knocking us back from our dreams. We may at times feel as though we’ve “struck out!”
And yet, a baseball player that gets struck out or thrown out more than 2 out of 3 at bats with a 300 batting average can make the hall of fame!
In the game of baseball as in life, resilience is about staying in the game, learning from failures, seizing opportunities, and never giving up, no matter what pitches life throws your way. It’s the determination to keep swinging, rounding the bases, and ultimately scoring runs, no matter how tough the game gets.
How do you build resilience in yourself and your team? First and most importantly, delegate key tasks to your team. Empower your key players. Stress their capabilities. Encourage regular problem-solving exercises and training. Promote teamwork and open communication. Foster a positive mindset. Help team members assess assumptions and adjust strategies when faced with challenges. Build the mindset that every issue they face is seeking a solution. Offer stress management techniques.
By applying these principles, each member of your team can develop resilience, enabling them to confront obstacles, learn from failures, and achieve success with greater determination and composure. Finally, much like a truss structure built from individual beams, you’ll find that the team will be stronger because the collective supports each member when the singular stress increases.
Do not judge me by my success,
judge me by how many times I fell down
and got back up again.
-Nelson Mandela
Lead from your heart. Lead to Win.
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