Sital Ruparelia

My first ever real job was a 12-month placement with the airline British Airways in the early 1990s (..although I’m sure my dad would convince you that working in his shop at weekends and holidays was a ‘real job’!).

I worked as a buyer within BA’s procurement team working on maintenance contracts for avionics and mechanical equipment (i.e. flight management computers, pneumatic systems, air conditioning systems etc). My desk overlooked a 747 hangar, which for a 21 year old, was pretty cool.

In addition to being new to the world of work, I was also new to the world of airlines and airline equipment.

I would frequently meet with Avionics suppliers from the likes of Honeywell, GEC Electronics and Smiths Industries without much technical knowledge and so would, at times, have to ‘wing it’ (pardon the pun).

But in order to make the right commercial decisions for the airline, I would rely heavily on the BA engineering team (my internal clients) to advise me on technical matters so that I wouldn’t look a complete fool in front of the suppliers.

One such engineer was Charlie who took me under his wing (OK, that one was intended). He would frequently talk to me about the nuances of the industry and how that impacted on my role.

One of the key aspects of making any kind of buying decision regarding aircraft equipment was the weight of the aircraft and the impact on fuel consumption, which is critical – particularly at take off and landing

Why?

As Charlie explained to me:

“It takes more fuel, more energy, more people and more stress to get a plane into the sky than anything else we do.”

A 747 would typically use 70% of its fuel on take off. It would need a whole team of people to get the plane off the ground – ground staff, a whole cabin crew, traffic control, 2 pilots.

But once the plane was in the sky, the level of fuel consumption drops radically – to fly the plane only needs one pilot to fly it – and in fact most of the time it doesn’t need a pilot at all – it’s on autopilot and the flight management computer takes care of everything.

This is just the same as making any kind of job change, career change or adjustments to the way you structure your work life (e.g. trying to improving your work-life balance).

The early stages of making any change – or ‘taking off’ – requires more energy, more people, more stress.

September is usually one of the biggest ‘change’ periods in the year. Having returned from the summer break, people have often thought about their jobs and careers and decided that now is the time to move on or do something different in the way they approach their current job.

But many of these people end up making no change whatsoever as they don’t take into account what is required to get them off the ground.

As Charlie said, it takes more energy, more people and more stress. But few people take that into account. They try to make major changes without asking for help from others, without reducing their workload and commitments and without a real focus on where they actually want to get to.

Which means they never really get off the ground or make significant progress with their change and come October 1st, they are back to where they were before. Similar to a new years resolution that went wrong.

Sound familiar?

Ok, Here’s What You Need To Do:

1. Be crystal clear about your destination
What is your objective – where are you trying to get to by 31st December this year? Where do you want to be by December 31st 2010?

2. Mobilise a team around you
To make any change, you need an informal board of advisors, and inner circle of people to lean on when things get tough. People to ask advice from, people to stay accountable to. These can be friends, colleagues, recruiters a mentor or coach.

But one thing is clear – you cannot do it on your own.

3. Reduce your commitments
Take yourself off projects you don’t need to be on. Stop attending meetings or conference calls that you don’t really need to attend. Stop attending every party, drinks evening and dinner you get invited to. You can’t be all things to all people and still make a change without something giving. That ‘something’ is usually your objectives and your health.

4. Manage your stress
Making any type of change is stressful. You may not think you’re stressed – but you are. And once you’re stressed, it reduces your creativity and effectiveness in pushing through with the changes. So have a strategy in place to manage your stress and you have a strategy for enabling your objectives.

This may seem like a lot to do – but in fact it’s only a short-term thing.

Just like an aircraft – once you have taken off and started the journey in the direction you are heading, your very own flight management computer (your subconscious mind and your habits) kicks in so that you can be on autopilot once again.

So tell me, where are you heading this autumn / fall..?