Dr. Robert Materna (2011) writes clearly about a national issue “With the U.S. government shutting down the shuttle program without a new vision for space – very little has been done to excite and educate the next generation about the opportunities in the industry and, as a result, there is little enthusiasm for entering the field. The good news is that there are some very good reasons to enter the field. The challenge is to help students shift [...]

In the last blog on clusters, we talked about the evolution of clusters and the benefits clusters can provide to a community and its many stakeholders. In this blog, the focus is on the leadership role of stakeholders in creating or growing sustainable aerospace clusters. For the purpose of this discussion, stakeholders include federal, state, and local government agencies; primes, OEMs, suppliers, and service providers; high schools, universities and other organizations as necessary. To be [...]

Hello All, In my last post I mentioned the five leadership actions of Ken Jennings’ Serving Leader. In this post I’d like to cover one called “Upend the Pyramid.” Most of us have joined or been part of organizations where the first thing we did was to look at the organizational diagram to figure out where we fit and how that related to our job, and who we reported to or perhaps who reported to [...]

Just about every study that has been conducted on aerospace employment over the next twenty years indicates the U.S. will have a shortage of qualified aerospace workers.

Leadership is sometimes viewed as a one-size-fits-all solution to organizational issues. That view is further clouded by the multitude of theories that propose specific leadership traits, competencies, behaviors, or shortcuts as a cure-all answer to every organizational challenge. Since many people view leadership as the same across the organization and at every level, the focus remains on getting work done more effectively and more efficiently and not on developing new skills, behaviors, and values as [...]

He needs to flip his mental mode to thinking in terms of becoming a trim tab instead of the rudder. What small sources of influence might he be able to develop and control that could change his level of effectiveness? For instance, maybe he could contribute to the company newsletter, become a union rep, or help with the boss’ pet project. The point is that small changes can have big impacts.

My wife, Liz, is a pilot for Southwest Airlines, and I jokingly tell my friends that although I do not fly actively today, I live vicariously through her, and her career at SWA. However, my own relationship with her employer dates back to 1995 when I was also hired by Southwest. Fresh out of the Air Force, I followed my friends to the place where ex-fighter pilots went to fly commercial airliners and tell stories [...]

At Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Center for Aviation and Aerospace Leadership (CAAL), we have a team of experts whose focus is on keeping our industry and the companies and institutions within it abreast of the best ways to compete in the global marketplace.

Leadership discussions often focus on the subject of motivation. In traditional terms, leaders are somehow understood to be the “motivators.” They must create within the employees the driving force, the need, the rationale, the raison d’etre. It’s as if leadership must have some power to inject, to force feed, to create a sense of urgency in the employee. Years ago, as an Air Force Academy cadet, I spent multiple hours in the office of the [...]