AINsight: The Blind Spot Called ‘Experience’

Years ago, I suggested to a longtime aviation director that he should be developing more than one person to succeed him. That certainly did not go over well.

We were sitting with a group of directors, and he made it very clear that he disagreed. Before I could respond, several of the other leaders around the table jumped in. Their reaction was immediate.

If we’re not developing future leaders, they argued, we’re not doing our jobs. Building a strong flight department isn’t about grooming one successor. It’s about developing people throughout the organization and preparing the next generation of professionals. It strengthens the industry.

I’ve since thought about that conversation many times because it illustrates a pattern that I’ve seen repeatedly when years of success convince us that our way is the right way—or the only way.

The irony of this is that experience is one of the greatest assets we have in business aviation. It helps us make better decisions, avoid costly mistakes, and build credibility with owners, executives, and teams.

The challenge is making sure experience remains a foundation for learning rather than a substitute for it.

What Recruiters See

After 25 years of placing professionals in Part 91 roles, the candidates who concern me are rarely the ones who admit they don’t know something. Those people tend to learn quickly.

The ones who give me pause are the people who seem convinced they already have all the answers. That attitude doesn’t always show up in obvious ways.

It’s the candidate who dismisses a new idea before fully understanding it. The manager who spends an entire interview talking about what he has accomplished but never asks a question about the organization. The leader who assumes new technology, changing workforce expectations, or evolving safety standards don’t really apply—because they’ve been successful doing things another way.

Over time, that mindset catches up with people.

Clients rarely call us looking for a know-it-all. If anything, they’re trying to avoid one.

By the final stages of a search, everyone under consideration is usually capable of doing the job.

What clients spend time discussing is something else entirely: Will people follow this person? Can they build trust? Are they adaptable? Can they develop talent? Are they willing to listen?

A client may come out of an interview saying a candidate was solid, but rigid. Experienced, but not very open. Those observations matter.

People Leave Managers and Join Leaders

What candidates tell us, consistently, is that they aren't leaving companies. They're leaving managers. We've heard some version of this story for years.

These are preventable exits, and they happen when leaders stop investing in their own growth as much as they expect others to invest in theirs.

When a new role gets them excited, the conversation almost always comes back to leadership. They want to work for someone who develops people, shares information, and creates conditions for others to succeed—not someone who needs to be the smartest person in every room.

The leaders who attract and retain good people understand this. They hire talented people, provide resources, and get out of the way.

Teams feel the difference.

The Professionals Who Never Stop Evolving

Fortunately, I’ve had the opportunity to know industry professionals who’ve never stopped growing. They continue to stay curious and invest in themselves to build new skills. Their actions inspire others to grow as well.

My team and I have also seen what happens when organizations build a culture around continuous development.

Some flight departments have nearly their entire team working toward CAM credentials. Some bring everyone into safety standdowns so learning isn’t reserved for a handful of people at the top. Others invest in outside coaching not because something is broken, but because strong teams need sharpening.

Those organizations have a different energy because their people are more engaged. They also speak more openly and are expected to keep growing.

But not every organization chooses that path.

Resistance Has a Cost

The business aviation industry has changed significantly since I started recruiting 25 years ago. We’ve seen the evolution of avionics, safety programs, leadership expectations, and workforce demographics.

Yet every so often, I still hear some version of, “We’ve always done it this way.”

To be fair, that’s sometimes the right answer. Aviation is not an industry where change should happen simply because something is new. Yes, proven processes matter. But there’s a difference between respecting experience and hiding behind it.

When organizations resist programs like IS-BAO, BASC, or flight data monitoring; fail to use tools they already have; or neglect to update their flight operations manuals, it raises a question.

Is the resistance about genuine analysis, or is it about avoiding the discomfort that real change would require?

I always think about what it would look like if a reporter put a microphone in front of a leader after an incident and asked why the organization hadn’t been participating in accepted industry best practices. That’s when resistance to change stops being an internal preference and starts looking like poor stewardship of the department, the people, and the aircraft.

Organizational change usually starts for a reason. If someone refuses to accept that—or actively works against it—they can quickly become the person others view as a detractor.

In a difficult year, that attitude gets noticed. It can also make someone very vulnerable when downsizing enters the conversation.

The Blind Spots We Don’t Want To See

I don’t exempt myself from having blind spots. Several years ago, I hired a coach to gather honest feedback about me as a leader. Some of what came back was difficult to hear.

At first, I was surprised. Then I realized something uncomfortable: the issues weren’t hidden from me at all. There were situations I had allowed to fester because dealing with them would have been hard. There were behaviors that didn’t align with our values that I should have addressed sooner.

Deep down, I knew those things existed. What the feedback revealed wasn’t information I couldn’t see. It was information I didn’t want to see.

This has stayed with me because it reminded me that experience doesn’t eliminate blind spots. In some cases, it creates them.

The Ones Who Keep Growing

Looking back, the professionals I’ve seen build the strongest and most enduring careers weren’t necessarily the smartest people in the room. They weren’t always the most experienced, either.

The common thread was that success never convinced them they were finished learning.

And when I think back to that director of aviation all those years ago, that’s the part of the conversation I remember most. It wasn’t about the disagreement itself, but the conviction of everyone around the table who understood that our responsibility as leaders isn’t simply to rely on what we already know.

It’s to continue learning, keep developing others, and avoid the trap of believing that we’ve already got it all figured out.